The Philadelphia Art Commission has approved a plan to relocate a statue of real-life boxer Joe Frazier to the base of the Philadelphia Museum of Art's steps. This move is intended to replace the iconic statue of fictional boxer Rocky Balboa, which is being moved to the top of the same steps.
The Mattatuck Museum in Waterbury, Connecticut, balances art and local history, serving as a community hub. Director Bob Burns has integrated school programs reaching 7,000 local students annually, community art shows, contemporary works by artists like Yayoi Kusama and Simone Leigh, and a major exhibition "About Face: 250 Years of American Portraits" curated by Rebecca McNamara. The museum also features hyper-realistic paintings by Wende Caporale-Greene and a gallery of Waterbury's industrial past, with a focus on inclusivity after removing a physical barrier to Main Street in 2019.
Hangar Art Co. in downtown Bloomington has opened "Women Taking Up Space," a group exhibition organized by local artist Lori Laughlin featuring works by nine women artists including Jenni Bateman, Deana Moore Schoolcraft, Cindy Lawson Flynn, Jane Reed Wilson, Cathie Haab, Kristine Stayton, Basha Ontiveros, and Laughlin herself. The show, inspired by Mexican artist Cesar Cruz's quote about comforting the disturbed and disturbing the comfortable, emerged from conversations among the Plein Air of McLean County painting group following the presidential election. Works include Jane Reed Wilson's "Flowers are Lovely But I'd Prefer a Revolution" and Laughlin's portrait of Gisèle Pelicot, with a QR code linking to a Time article about Pelicot's public trial for sexual assault.