US politics

More than 100 artist donated works to fundraise for Kamala Harris

Jeff Koons, Kara Walker, Jenny Holzer, Jasper Johns, Amy Sherald and many others are offering works through the Artists for Kamala fundraising sale and auction

New York City mayor’s aides allegedly pressured Brooklyn Museum to host Chinese history exhibition

A recent investigation found that Eric Adams’s office was involved in the scheme to mount a show about Sun Yat-sen with just one month’s notice

Crime news

Former Trump adviser—and Russian state TV commentator—charged with money laundering through art and antiques

Dimitri Simes and his wife Anastasia have been charged with three counts of violating US sanctions, including money laundering through the acquisition of art

Truck-based exhibition on bodily autonomy kicks off US tour in New York

The project “Body Freedom for Every(body)” will spend the next three months touring the country in a truck emblazoned with Barbara Kruger’s famous message: “Your Body is a Battleground”

Where the US presidential candidates stand on the arts

Neither major party has a clear policy on art and culture, but the candidates' past actions offer hints at their priorities

An art-world wish list for the next US president

Leaders in the arts including Megan Beyer and Maxwell L. Anderson, as well as artists like Petah Coyne and Eric Fischl, articulate their hopes for the next administration's cultural policies

Artists and collectors rush to support Kamala Harris campaign

Since Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race, much of the US art world has embraced Harris. Meanwhile, conservative patrons remain split on the Republican candidate, former president Donald Trump

In Chicago for the Democratic National Convention, artist Autumn Breon's neon-pink vending machine proffers free self-care

Breon’s free installation is one of several activations coinciding with the convention in the city that are co-organised by For Freedoms, the artist-led civic engagement group

Michelle Obama turns to art to inspire voter turnout at forthcoming US election

The American artist Shepard Fairey, meanwhile, has released a print of Democratic candidate Kamala Harris

Florida man pleads guilty to bombing satirical statue of Lenin and Mao

A lawyer from Florida drove to San Antonio, Texas, in an apparent attempt to destroy a 21ft-tall sculpture critiquing the Chinese Communist Party

Shahzia Sikander says she will not fix statue that was beheaded in Houston

In a Washington Post op-ed, the artist wrote she wants to leave the sculpture damaged to show the “fissures in our country”

Texas city faces backlash for stripping local arts centre's funding over drag performances

The city council in Lubbock, Texas voted last week to cut $30,000 in grant money to a free monthly art walk

New public art projects to coincide with Democratic National Convention

Next Stop: Chicago will focus on infrastructure inequality after Covid

Photographyanalysis

How this photograph of Trump speaks to the power of the image

Evan Vucci’s instinctive composition recalls some famous art of the past, but its real importance may only be felt in the future

New York City’s 2025 budget includes a record $254m for culture

Mayor Eric Adams and the city council restored $53m in funding for public programming last month

Head of Frieze parent company Endeavor calls on Joe Biden to drop out of US presidential race

Ari Emanuel is the latest important Democratic donor to criticise Biden since his age and mental fitness were called into question during a debate against Donald Trump

Collector Jorge Pérez blasts Ron DeSantis for vetoing $32m in Florida arts funding

"We were long a society of fun and sun, but we’re no longer that—we don’t want that," he said.

Earliest known photograph of a US First Lady acquired by National Portrait Gallery in Washington

The museum recently purchased the 1840s daguerreotype of Dolley Madison at auction

State lawmakers pull funding for New Jersey's Centre Pompidou outpost

The mayor of Jersey City says the move to scuttle the Paris museum's first US location was politically motivated

New York City budget for 2025 restores $53m in cultural funding

The $112.4bn municipal budget for the coming fiscal year also restored $58m in critical funding for the city’s three library systems

Hottest Abe: wax statue of Lincoln loses its head amid US heat wave

The artist Sandy Williams IV’s wax replica of the Lincoln Memorial melted during the East Coast heat wave

Florida governor Ron DeSantis vetoes $32m in state arts funding

Museums and other cultural institutions will lose out on millions in promised grants that were originally in the state budget before it was sent to DeSantis to sign

Leaderscomment

How artists are uniting to defeat Donald Trump at the polls

The Artists For Democracy 2024 project is working with world-renowned artists including Shepard Fairey and Carrie Mae Weems to mobilise voters

Art world power players reportedly encouraged New York mayor to send police to pro-Palestine student protests

Chat logs from a private WhatsApp group created by billionaire Barry Sternlicht were leaked to the Washington Post last week

The US sculpture park communicating difficult truths amid a cultural backlash

In a time of increased lawsuits over diversity initiatives, a civil rights organisation aims to make the history and legacy of slavery in the US undeniable through art and first-person narratives

Donald Trump dines with NFT mega-collectors during break from New York hush-money trial

Between days of testimony by Stormy Daniels, the adult-film star who claims she had sex with Trump in 2006, the former president is meeting NFT collectors at Mar-a-Lago

Arts industries contributed a record $1.1 trillion to the US economy in 2022

New US government data report shows cultural industries accounted for 4.3% of national economic activity in 2022, though some sectors struggled to surpass pre-pandemic figures

Jewish history museum in Philadelphia would become part of Smithsonian under proposed legislation

A new bill could create a commission to assess the feasibility of adding the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History to the Smithsonian family

Non-profit art collaborative using craft to promote cross-border relations returns to Los Angeles

Ambos (Art Made Between Opposite Sides) has been working with communities on both sides of the US-Mexico border for nearly a decade

Museum’s decision to remove artist’s monograph from its bookstore sparks questions about freedom of expression

Doug Argue’s exhibition at the Weisman Art Museum last year was not accompanied by the book that inspired it due to sensitivities Argue likened to “book banning”