New York Times: Inside Sudan’s War, ‘There’s Another War for Art’. “Dozens of Sudanese artists and curators have fled their studios and galleries in the capital, jeopardizing thousands of artworks and imperiling an art scene central to the 2019 revolution.”
Smithsonian: Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum Launches New Virtual Exhibition. “The exhibition showcases the diversity and cultural significance of Asian, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander American communities in the United States through the medium of postage stamps. It features every U.S. Postal Service-issued stamp commemorating their unique histories, identities and contributions to American culture.”
CODART: Documents, Videos, and Aftermovie of CODART 24 Now Online. “From 12 to 14 March 2023, the CODART 24 congress took place in Antwerp. The theme of CODART 24 was Flemish Art: Local and Global. In partnership with the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp (KMSKA), CODART organized two congress days that addressed the impact of Flemish art on museums worldwide. In addition, excursions and in-depth study visits in and around Antwerp were an important part of the program. A list of participants, the complete congress folder, the network document, and the slides of the CODART slide show are now available for downloading on our website.”
Caltech: Reviving the Past with Artificial Intelligence. “While studying John Singer Sargent’s paintings of wealthy women in 19th-century society, Jessica Helfand, a former Caltech artist in residence, had an idea: to search census records to find the identities of those women’s servants. ‘I thought, “What happens if I paint these women in the style of John Singer Sargent?”‘… To recreate a style from history, she turned to technology that, increasingly, is driving the future.”
Region of Peel (Ontario Canada): PAMA launches a new online open access collections catalogue. “The Peel Art Gallery, Museum and Archives (PAMA) has launched a new online collections management system known as an open public access catalogue (OPAC). The catalogue is an automated research tool that will allow the public to search for information in the PAMA art gallery, museum and archives collections.”
Courtauld Institute of Art: One million rarely seen photographs from The Courtauld’s collection unveiled thanks to major public project. “The Courtauld Institute of Art has completed a major five-year project to open up its internationally-renowned collection of photographs to the public for free, working with 14,000 volunteers to digitise over one million images from The Conway Library as part of the biggest public inclusion project in The Courtauld’s history.”
Europol: International art trafficking sting leads to 60 arrests and over 11 000 objects recovered. “Law enforcement has arrested 60 people, and recovered 11 049 stolen artefacts as part of a major international art trafficking crackdown across 14 European countries.”
Google Blog: 20 new Chrome themes from Asian American and Pacific Islander artists. “For Asian Pacific American Heritage Month (APAHM), we commissioned five Asian American and Pacific Islander artists to design 20 new Chrome browser themes. The collection reflects each artist’s unique background and experiences, and celebrates the diversity within the Asian community.”
University of Alabama: UA-Created Digital Exhibition of Alabama Artist Publicly Available. “[Joe] Minter, a found-object artist, tells the story of his life, and a cultural movement, in a collection he calls ‘African Village in America’ built on nearly 1 acre around his home in Birmingham, Alabama. UA experts in geographic imaging, art curation, digital cataloguing and art history created a digital rendering to offer immediate access to the artist’s site-specific presentation of found-object sculptures for both scholars and the public, who previously could only experience the monumental environment by visiting in person.”
University of Wisconsin-Madison: NEH grant largest federal grant in Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research’s history . “The grant will fund digitization of 863 original videotapes recorded in 13 different formats and produced by [Wendy] Clarke for a series of 15 video projects from the 1980s and 1990s— including the Love Tapes—that explored themes of love, community, culture, and self-reflection across multiple underrepresented communities.”
ProPublica: Is the Metropolitan Museum of Art Displaying Objects That Belong to Native American Tribes?. “Only a small percentage of works donated by Charles and Valerie Diker have clear ownership histories. Experts say this could mean objects are stolen or fake. Meanwhile, the Met has been slow to ask tribes for information about the items.”
YLE News: Espoo’s modern art museum takes experiences online. “EMMA, Espoo Museum of Modern Art, is opening a digital online service it has dubbed the ‘EMMA Zone’. The museum said the EMMA Zone will feature regularly-updated videos, interviews, podcasts and articles about art, design and a ‘new online museum experience’.”
The Conversation: Live art exists only while it is being performed, and then it disappears. How do we create an archive of the ephemeral?. “Live performance exists only in the moment it is being performed. Its ephemeral nature means it is transient and impermanent, and cannot be experienced again in precisely the same way. How do artists hold on to the works that they make? What of the invisible labour that is rarely acknowledged or named?”
New York Times: As Presenters Cut Back on Streams, Some Disabled Arts Lovers Feel Left Out. “With live performance now back, and some theaters and concert halls still struggling to bring back audiences, presenters have cut back on their streamed offerings — leaving many people with disabilities and chronic illnesses, who have been calling for better virtual access for decades, excluded again.”
KSAT: 2,000-year-old stolen artifact heading back to Germany after Texas woman bought it at Goodwill for $35. “A first-century marble bust found by a Texas woman at a Goodwill in Austin a few years ago is about to head back to Germany. The bust made headlines in May 2022 after Laura Young, an antique dealer, discovered that the bust she bought in 2018 for $34.99 was actually a 2,000-year-old, 50-pound piece of history.”
