Art in the News - 2020
Read the latest arts news
The global airline industry has been hit hard by COVID-19. What is the state of airport art programs during our global pandemic? Are airport art programs staying on course? Are they grounded? Or, are they heading on new trajectories?
In February 2021, the Wallace Foundation is exploring issuing a Request for Proposals (RFP) to a select group of researchers for one or more studies related to an initiative to invest in BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) arts organizations. Researchers and scholars who meet the criteria should submit materials by January 4, 2021.
The statement aims to address AIC’s mission to support conservators by clarifying “the role of conservators as they are tasked with the preservation of monuments deemed to be racist or otherwise offensive or oppressive, especially those located in community spaces.”
In July 2020, President Trump signed an executive order on Building and Rebuilding Monuments to American Heroes which, in part, assembled a task force “to establish a statuary park named the National Garden of American Heroes (National Garden).”
While COVID-19 has shut down many theatres across the country, the arts continue to thrive in new and innovative ways.
Soft skills such as creativity and collaboration—skills that benefit from participation in the arts and arts education—were found to be top priorities among managers and HR professionals surveyed for the 4th Annual Workplace Learning Report, conducted by LinkedIn Learning.
The Smithsonian, National Archives, and Library of Congress have launched a social media campaign for the month of August, #19SuffrageStories, to bring stories of suffragists and their fight for voting rights to social media. The campaign marks the centennial of the 19th Amendment and features stories of suffragettes who often have been overlooked.
Dr. Elizabeth Alexander is the President of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the country’s largest funder of arts and culture. This year, they’re working with a grantmaking budget of $500 million, every dollar of which will go towards social justice projects. On the NBC news podcast “Into America,” host Trymaine Lee spoke with Alexander about pain, philanthropy, and poetry.
The process behind the NYC Black Lives Matter (BLM) street mural was just as important as the paint job. While some examples of public art in support of the BLM this summer have been powerful because of their timely reaction to current events, some communities are emphasizing the importance of taking the time to have community input before creating anything and to ensure that those involved with the public art projects are committed to the issue for which the art is seeking to promote.
Matthew Cooper is one of the artists commissioned by the Arts Council of Indianapolis to create murals in response to the Black Lives Matter protests. Previously, Cooper worked with and studied under the artist ISH during the creation of his 2019 mural “Three Kings,” which was commissioned by Jiffy Lube of Indiana (a 2019 Arts and Business Partnership Awardee) as part of their mural project.