“On a walk through the Met’s galleries with Artnet News, he pointed out various works that inspired his own. But while the works in the Met’s collection tend to present an image of Native people as shrinking and doomed, while picturing North America itself as a vast wilderness ripe for the taking, Monkman offers an alternative story.” – artnet

Lawrence Ware: “I’d argue that the 2010s were the most important decade for black film in America. We see dramas (12 Years a Slave), comedies (Girls Trip), horror (Get Out, Us) and documentaries (13TH and O.J.: Made in America) all being taken seriously critically, and most were successful financially. So, the question I’d like to consider is a rather simple one: What were the best black films of the past decade? Here are my answers, in alphabetical order.” – The New York Times

“Founded by Joseph in 1994, the Foundry, which produced artistic offerings, community programs and activist conferences on issues ranging from genocide to economic inequality, created a model that proved a theater company could examine its relationship to the world while upholding the most rigorous aesthetic standards. Playwrights Horizons has been quite simply the most important crucible for contemporary playwriting in America. … But does the theater have a sensibility today? Certainly, the old taunt (Gay Whites Horizons) no longer resounds now that the programming has become more widely inclusive.” – Los Angeles Times

As artist, activist, and writer Coco Fusco said, “Without his efforts and his vision, we would all still be operating in a racist and Eurocentric art world.” – artnet

“Artists-in-residence programs have become popular at institutions ranging from Google to CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research. Now, they are coming to government agencies, too. Next month, the Philadelphia District Attorney’s office will become the first agency associated with law enforcement to launch an artist-in-residence program. James ‘Yaya’ Hough, the artist chosen for the job, will be tasked with introducing a fresh dose of creative thinking to the 600-member staff — with a side of empathy.” – artnet

“In the United States the use of dark makeup evokes the painful legacy of racism and minstrel shows, in which performers darkened their skin with burnt cork to play characters that perpetuated racist stereotypes about African-Americans. But while the practice is increasingly rare in North America … it persists in parts of Europe and Russia.” And a recent Instagram post by Misty Copeland, showing Bolshoi Ballet dancers in dark makeup for a performance of La Bayadère, “[has] led to weeks of debate among ballet fans, highlighting a growing geographic divide on questions of race and representation.” – The New York Times

“Through multi-sensorial installations, Alan Michelson holds genocidal colonizers accountable and affirms the continued survival of Indigenous people.” – Hyperallergic

“While studying automotive science, Rose B. Simpson built a moving piece of art: Maria, a black, refurbished 1985 Chevrolet El Camino named for famed Pueblo potter Maria Martinez. … Simpson, who comes from a long line of Pueblo potters, is putting a contemporary spin on the traditional art of her ancestors.” – PBS NewsHour

“I felt moved and buoyed by the idea that I could write something that didn’t exist, and that there’s a little girl right now still living on the short end of the street in New Orleans East where I grew up. And I wrote it for her, so that there could be some history already in existence. And, you know, one of the striking things about New Orleans East is the way in which it doesn’t always appear on a map of New Orleans. So I wanted to quite literally put New Orleans East on the map.” – PBS NewsHour

Monkman’s two large paintings, the first in a series of commissions for the Met’s Great Hall, “highlight the Museum as both a byproduct and beneficiary of colonizing forces, and illuminate how encyclopedic art museums perpetuate settler perspectives of history,” writes curator Randall Griffey. “In this regard, his commission is part of a larger institutional reconsideration of the Museum’s responsibility to attend more vigorously to new and broader perspectives on history and culture, as they relate to our wide-ranging collection.” – The Metropolitan Museum of Art

“A new exhibition at the Museum of History and Industry in Seattle offers a window into how the tech giant hopes to fuse art and AR for the public good.” – artnet

In Los Angeles, Portland, Shanghai,. and especially San Francisco, Pamela Conrad has worked on solutions to the problems of invasive plant species, sea level rise, and earthquake readiness. And now she’s working to get the rest of her profession to pay attention to those issues. – Curbed