Art News. Vasari Codex

article news schedule Dec 2, 2025 visibility 11

reddit rart drama prints hayden williams

A controversy erupted on the Reddit forum r/Art after Brooklyn-based digital artist Hayden Clay Williams posted his work *Clear Boundaries* (2025) and mentioned in a comment that prints were available. This violated the subreddit's strict anti-self-promotion rules, leading a moderator to permanently ban Williams and delete all his past posts. Williams shared the exchange on X, where it gained 11 million views, sparking widespread backlash. Users spammed the forum with the word "print" and pressured the moderators, who eventually resigned en masse, leaving the subreddit frozen and without new posts for a week.

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article news schedule Dec 1, 2025 visibility 9

easter island 3d map carved statues

Researchers from Binghamton University, at the request of an indigenous community group on Easter Island, have created a high-resolution 3D model of the Rono Raraku quarry, where 95 percent of the island's moai statues were carved. Using drone flights and over 11,000 overlapping photographs stitched together via photogrammetry, the model documents the quarry in unprecedented detail, including 133 quarried voids, 400-plus unfinished moai, and evidence of 30 distinct clan-based carving areas. The model is freely available online and was motivated by a 2022 wildfire that threatened the site.

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article local schedule Nov 26, 2025 visibility 9

miami beach free water taxi program

Miami Beach is launching a free water taxi program for the second year, starting December 1, to shuttle passengers between the island and mainland every ten to fifteen minutes, with connecting shuttles to the Convention Center and Collins Avenue. The initiative comes as severe traffic congestion during Miami Art Week has driven some exhibitors away from NADA’s inland fairgrounds, with dealers reporting that collectors often abandon trips midway due to gridlock.

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article policy schedule Nov 14, 2025 visibility 12

university of leicester trans inclusive museum guideline updates

The University of Leicester has updated its guidance on trans-inclusivity for museums and galleries, despite facing litigation threats from the campaign group Freedom in the Arts (FITA). The 44-page document, originally published two years ago by the university’s Research Center for Museums and Galleries (RCMG), offers a framework for creating inclusive public spaces and workplaces, addressing legal and ethical questions about trans inclusion. FITA sent two letters threatening legal action, arguing the guidance is “misleading” and “unlawful,” particularly objecting to bathroom etiquette that states trans visitors should use the bathroom they feel most comfortable using. The university is reviewing the latest correspondence and declined further comment.

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article policy schedule Oct 29, 2025 visibility 14

world monuments fund suzanne deal booth institute launch

World Monuments Fund (WMF) has announced the launch of the Suzanne Deal Booth Institute for Heritage Preservation, backed by $19 million in funding as part of its $60 million endowment campaign marking the organization's 60th anniversary. The institute is established through a $10 million endowment gift from philanthropist and ARTnews Top 200 collector Suzanne Deal Booth, with additional support from the Gerard B. Lambert Foundation, Denise Littlefield Sobel, and Virginia James. The institute will serve as a global hub for research, training, and innovation in heritage preservation, focusing on greenspace stewardship, digital preservation, and workforce development, including programs like the Greenspace Heritage Training initiative and Bridge to Crafts Careers.

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article policy schedule Oct 14, 2025 visibility 6

ireland basic income artists program permanent

Ireland is set to make its basic income for artists program permanent starting in 2026, following a successful pilot launched in 2022. The program provides selected artists with approximately $375 per week (about $1,500 monthly), with 2,000 spots available and applications opening in September 2026. The pilot, which involved 2,000 randomly selected recipients from over 9,000 applicants, cost €72 million but generated nearly €80 million in economic benefits, according to an external report by Alma Economics. Recipients saw arts-related income increase by over €500 per month, while reliance on other social programs declined.

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article news schedule Oct 10, 2025 visibility 10

the rubin names 2025 art prize research and art projects grants

The Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art, which closed its New York physical space in 2024 to become a "global museum," has announced the winner of its 2025 Himalayan Art Prize: Khadhok – Tibetan Artists’ Collective, a Dharamshala-based group founded in 2023. The prize includes a $30,000 purse, the largest of its kind for Himalayan artists. Additionally, the museum named 15 recipients of its 2025 Research and Art Projects grants, distributing $200,000 total among projects ranging from $3,000 to $25,000, selected from 132 applications.

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article news schedule Sep 18, 2025 visibility 10

rope atlanta black history apex museum

The APEX Museum in Atlanta, a Black history institution founded in 1978, reported discovering a "noose-like rope" in a tree on its premises. The museum's president and CEO, Dan Moore Jr., shared the news in an Instagram post, noting that Homeland Security determined the object was not a noose but that it was removed for evidence. Atlanta police are investigating the incident, which occurred on Wednesday.

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article policy schedule Sep 8, 2025 visibility 13

woodmere art museum drops lawsuit against trump administration

Woodmere Art Museum in Philadelphia dropped its lawsuit against the Trump administration after the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) reinstated a $750,000 grant that had been unlawfully terminated. The museum had been preparing to go to court on September 12 when it received a Letter of Reinstatement on September 4, stating the termination review process was complete. The grant, awarded in 2024 through the IMLS’s “Save America’s Treasures” program, was intended to revamp the museum’s catalog system and digitize works for an exhibition honoring the 250th anniversary of the country’s founding. Woodmere had already received about $195,000 of the grant and entered into several contracts before the termination.

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article policy schedule Aug 29, 2025 visibility 13

woodmere art museum sues trump administration canceled imls grant

Woodmere Art Museum in Philadelphia has filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over the unlawful termination of a $750,000 grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). The grant, awarded in 2024 through the IMLS's 'Save America's Treasures' program, was intended to revamp the museum's catalog system and digitize works for its 'America 250' exhibition honoring the nation's 250th anniversary. After President Trump signed an executive order calling for the IMLS to be eliminated, the agency ceased distributing funding, leaving Woodmere with only about $195,000 of the grant received and scrambling to fulfill contracts already in place. The museum is seeking an injunction to stop the IMLS and the Office of Management and Budget from following the executive order.

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article news schedule Aug 28, 2025 visibility 8

egypt alexandria artifacts lifted sea

Egypt's Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities recovered underwater ruins from a sunken city off the coast of Alexandria on August 21. Divers and cranes retrieved ancient statues, including royal figures and sphinxes from the pre-Roman era, such as a partially preserved sphinx with the cartouche of Ramses II. The site in Abu Qir bay also revealed limestone buildings, residential and commercial structures, a 125-meter dock over 2,000 years old, a merchant ship, stone anchors, and a harbor crane from the Ptolemaic and Roman eras. Tourism and Antiquities Minister Sherif Fathy noted that only specific material meeting strict criteria is brought up, with the rest remaining underwater heritage.

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article news schedule Aug 20, 2025 visibility 10

sicily roman villa flip flop mosaic

Archaeologists at the Villa Romana del Casale in Sicily have uncovered a mosaic in the frigidarium (cold bath) of the southern baths featuring a pair of flip-flops and the inscription "Treptona bibas," likely referencing a woman involved in managing the complex. The discovery was made during the University of Bologna's Summer School ArchLABS program, which trains students from 11 countries in modern excavation techniques. The flip-flop motif, known from other Late Roman bath decorations across Spain, Cyprus, Jordan, and Asia Minor, signals the aristocratic and cosmopolitan character of the baths.

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gavel restitution schedule Jul 28, 2025 visibility 13

protest sparks over sijena murals

A small protest of fewer than 50 demonstrators, organized by the Catalan National Assembly and joined by former Catalan president Laura Borràs and ANC president Lluís Llach, gathered outside the National Art Museum of Catalonia (MNAC) on Monday morning as Aragonese technicians arrived to inspect a set of contested 13th-century Romanesque murals. The murals, originally from the Sijena Monastery, were ordered returned by Spain’s Supreme Court after more than a decade of litigation, concluding that the original religious order never lawfully transferred ownership after the works were removed in 1936 following a fire during the Spanish Civil War. The inspection team, led by restorer Natalia Martínez de Pisón, began with less fragile sections using photogrammetry to assess transport viability, while MNAC officials warn that moving the more delicate frescoes could cause irreversible damage and plan to formally contest the execution order on conservation grounds.

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article policy schedule Jul 14, 2025 visibility 10

murujuga rock art australia receives unesco world heritage status

UNESCO has granted World Heritage status to Murujuga, an ancient Aboriginal rock art site in Western Australia's Pilbara region, despite concerns about its vulnerability to emissions from nearby gas and fertilizer plants. The site contains over 1 million petroglyphs, including the oldest known depiction of a human face, dating back up to 50,000 years. Indigenous groups campaigned for two decades for protection, and the Australian government nominated the site in 2023. However, the Karratha Gas Plant, operated by Woodside Energy, sits on the nominated land, and ICOMOS had warned that emissions pose a risk to the rock art. The UNESCO designation was unanimous, but an amendment was added requiring Australia to continue monitoring industrial impact.

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article news schedule Jul 11, 2025 visibility 10

national museum of puerto rican arts and culture homeland security

Agents from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) arrived at the National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts & Culture in Chicago on Tuesday, with at least 15 DHS vehicles occupying the museum's parking lot for nearly two hours. Museum staff reported that an agent entered the building under the pretense of using the bathroom but instead looked around and refused to leave when asked. Museum president Billy Ocasio described the incident as intimidating, comparing it to "Gestapo-style" tactics, and staff expressed fear. DHS later denied targeting the museum, stating the vehicles were staging for a narcotics investigation, but museum officials and local Representative Delia Ramirez criticized the lack of identification and the intimidating show of force.

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article news schedule Jul 7, 2025 visibility 11

22 stone blocks alexandria ancient lighthouse seafloor

A team from the French National Center for Scientific Research has lifted 22 massive stone blocks from the Lighthouse of Alexandria from the seafloor, 30 years after the remains were first discovered in Egypt. The blocks include monumental door lintels, jambs weighing 70 to 80 tons, a threshold, large base slabs, and parts of a previously unknown pylon with an Egyptian-style door from the Hellenistic period. Each block will be scanned and studied to add to a digital collection of over 100 blocks already digitized, aiming to construct a virtual model of the lighthouse. The excavation was supervised by archaeologist Isabelle Hairy and conducted under the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, with support from La Fondation Dassault Systèmes and French documentary company GEDEON Programmes, which filmed the work for a 90-minute documentary.

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article news schedule Jun 20, 2025 visibility 6

france deepest shipwreck camarat 4

French archaeologists have discovered the wreck of a 16th-century merchant vessel, named Camarat 4, 1.6 miles below the Mediterranean Sea—the deepest shipwreck ever found in French waters. The French Navy first detected the site via sonar during a routine mission off the coast near Saint Tropez, then deployed an underwater drone that captured images of hundreds of ceramic pots. The Department of Underwater and Submarine Archaeological Research (DRASSM) confirmed the 98-foot-long ship sank nearly 500 years ago, carrying cargo including polychrome earthenware pitchers and plates traced to Liguria, Italy, along with cannons and iron bars.

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article policy schedule Jun 18, 2025 visibility 11

institute of museum and library services staff leave doge

The entire staff of the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) in Washington, D.C., was placed on administrative leave by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), effective immediately. Between 55 and 70 employees received a letter informing them of the leave with full pay and benefits for 90 days, requiring them to turn in government property and disabling their email accounts. This follows President Donald Trump’s executive order calling for the elimination of the IMLS within seven days as part of a broader reduction of federal bureaucracy. The agency, established in 1996, awarded approximately $266.7 million in grants last year to museums and libraries across all 50 states.

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article news schedule May 16, 2025 visibility 8

ancient buddhist artifacts found in thailand

Workers installing a drainage system beneath Wat Dhammachak Semaram, a Buddhist temple in northeastern Thailand, discovered a cache of ancient relics buried just over a meter deep. The find includes 33 bronze, silver, and gold items such as rings, earrings, and two repoussé plaques—one gold depicting a seated Buddha in the teaching gesture, and one tin showing a standing Buddha with attendants. Archaeologists from Thailand’s fine arts department conducted a second phase of excavation, uncovering the plaques and a soil deposit embedded with metal sheets behind the temple’s famous 40-foot reclining Buddha.

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article policy schedule May 8, 2025 visibility 13

arts directors exit the national endowment for the arts

All ten directors overseeing grants across artistic disciplines at the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) have departed this week, along with other senior leaders and employees. The mass exodus follows the Trump administration's effective shuttering of the agency, including a proposed budget cancellation for fiscal year 2026 and redistribution of funding. Among those leaving are Michael Orlove, director of state, regional and local partnerships, and Ayanna Hudson, chief strategy, programs and engagement officer. Officials overseeing Native arts and Challenge America grants—the latter canceled in February—are also departing, alongside many grant-review specialists who have retired or resigned. The American Federation of Government Employees Local 3403 reported that over 50% of open NEA awards are being terminated.

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article policy schedule May 7, 2025 visibility 11

legal injunction pauses imls funding cuts

A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction on Tuesday blocking President Trump's executive order to eliminate the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). District Court Judge John J. McConnell Jr., appointed by President Obama, ruled that the dismantling violated the Administrative Procedure Act and Congress's constitutional power over appropriations. The injunction follows a lawsuit by the American Library Association and AFSCME, and a temporary restraining order last week. Trump's March 14 executive order had declared IMLS "unnecessary," placing staff on leave, terminating grants, and dismissing board members.

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article news schedule Apr 28, 2025 visibility 9

hidden messages paris luxor obelisk

Egyptologist Jean-Guillaume Olette-Pelletier, a lecturer at Sorbonne University, discovered hidden cryptographic messages on the Luxor Obelisk in Paris's Place de la Concorde. During the pandemic, he noticed unusual hieroglyphs while walking past the 3,000-year-old monument. After scaffolding was erected for renovations ahead of the 2024 Olympics, he obtained permission to study the obelisk up close, becoming the first person in over a century to climb it. He identified seven crypto-hieroglyphs—encoded messages using puzzles and wordplay—that only a few experts can read. These inscriptions, set to be published in the journal ENiM, reveal that Pharaoh Ramses II used the obelisk as a propaganda tool to assert his divine right to rule, targeting the intellectual elite who approached the Luxor Temple by boat.

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article news schedule Apr 1, 2026 visibility 23

Calls for Artists: April 2026

Multiple open calls for artists and grants have been announced for April 2026 deadlines. The 2027 Creative Capital Open Call offers unrestricted project grants up to $50,000 for artists across all 50 states, while also selecting recipients for the new State of the Art Prize, which grants $10,000 to one artist from each state and territory. Delfina Foundation, in partnership with the Jorge M. Pérez Collection, is offering four fully funded residencies for Latin American and Caribbean artists, with two spots available in this round. The Ogden Museum of Southern Art is accepting submissions for its Louisiana Contemporary 2026 statewide juried exhibition, and the Handweaver’s Guild of America has issued calls for entries for its Convergence 2026 fiber art exhibitions.

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museum exhibitions schedule Mar 28, 2026 visibility 11

Clutch City Craft at Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, Houston

The Houston Center for Contemporary Craft (HCCC) has opened the exhibition 'Clutch City Craft,' which explores the craft traditions and material cultures that define Houston. The show features a diverse range of making practices, from mosaic street signs and cowboy boot making to fiber artists involved in aerospace design, framing the city's creative density as an extension of its industrial identity.

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museum exhibitions schedule Mar 15, 2026 visibility 11

Origins of Black Carnival Society: The Story of the Illinois Clubs at The Presbytère, New Orleans

An exhibition titled 'Origins of New Orleans Black Carnival Society: The Story of the Illinois Clubs' has opened at The Presbytère in New Orleans. It chronicles the history of The Original Illinois Club, the first Black Carnival club and the first to host a debutante cotillion, and coincides with the centennial of its offshoot, the Young Men Illinois Club. The show features regalia, gowns, photographs, and historical artifacts, including a segregated 'White Section' sign from the Municipal Auditorium.

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article news schedule Mar 16, 2026 visibility 24 link 3 galleries

Frieze Art Fair at Santa Monica

The article reports on Frieze Los Angeles, a three-day international art fair held at the Santa Monica Airport from February 26 to March 1. The event featured numerous international galleries and artists, with displays ranging from works costing thousands to millions of dollars and attracting over 32,000 visitors. A highlight was the "Frieze Projects: Body & Soul" interactive installation, which encouraged public reflection. The piece also spotlights Santa Monica College alumni Cosmas and Damian Brown, whose outdoor installation "Fountain: Sources of Light" was an interactive steel and ceramic work that allowed audience participation by manipulating the sound and flow of water.

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trending_up market schedule Mar 16, 2026 visibility 16

Student artwork sells for record $525K at RodeoHouston School Art Auction

The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo School Art Auction set new records at its 2026 event, with student artworks attracting unprecedented bids from donor groups. The grand champion piece, a painting titled 'Between Boots and Moccasins' by Pasadena Memorial High School senior Joshua Washington, sold for a record $525,000, nearly doubling the previous year's top sale. The auction, held at NRG Arena, showcases artwork selected from a statewide competition involving over 200,000 students, highlighting the program's scale and impact on young Texas artists.

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article local schedule May 22, 2026 visibility 5 link 2 artists

How Artists Shaped West London Exhibition

The Acton Open 2026, a community art exhibition in West London, brought together fifteen artists from diverse backgrounds to explore themes of life, place, and identity. Organized by ARTification and held at W3 Gallery from March 26 to May 12, the free exhibition featured works in painting, photography, drawing, printmaking, and ceramics, with artists including Ife Olowu, Obiora Nwankwo, Pippa Brill, and others.

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article local schedule May 22, 2026 visibility 4 link 2 artists

Heritage Fine Arts Guild’s “Best of Heritage” returns to Bemis Public Library

The Heritage Fine Arts Guild is bringing back its annual "Best of Heritage" art show to the Bemis Public Library in Littleton, Colorado, from June 1 to June 30. The exhibition features nearly 50 paintings by 24 guild artists, centered on the theme "Our Vision: Our Joy," chosen collectively by members to reflect finding joy in community, art, and life. A juried awards reception will be held on June 10, with juror Mary Williams, a Colorado-based artist and curator for the Healing Arts Program at several local hospitals, selecting top prizes and offering critiques to participating artists.

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museum exhibitions schedule May 22, 2026 visibility 3 link 4 artists

Sandro Miller’s Golden Tribute

Photographer Sandro Miller's exhibition "Steppenwolf 50: Through the Eye of Sandro Miller" is on view at the Art Center Highland Park through June 13. The show features a series of portraits and composites created in 2012 that celebrate 50 years of Steppenwolf Theatre Company. Works include large-scale composites like "Orgasmic Theatre" with 25 actors, a tribute to the late John Mahoney, and a collaboration with the late artist Tony Fitzpatrick. The exhibition also presents a grid of 45 black-and-white photographs capturing raw emotional moments from rehearsals and performances, along with diptychs and individual framed portraits of Steppenwolf actors.

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