US politics
Biden picks rising star at the Smithsonian to head presidential arts committee dissolved by the Trump administration
Tsione Wolde-Michael, director of the Center for Restorative History at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, is the first Black leader of the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities
After sudden dismissal of all its members, Pittsburgh mayor moves to overhaul the city's public art commission
The city's mayor, Ed Gainey, has proposed a series of sweeping changes to the way public art is funded and commissioned there
Russian arms dealer and artist Viktor Bout returns to Moscow via prisoner swap with US basketball player Brittney Griner
The man known as The Merchant of Death was exchanged for the American athlete, who was arrested for possessing cannabis oil at a Moscow airport in February
Son of revered realist painter Gregory Gillespie facing prison time over role in 6 January 2021 attack at US Capitol
Vincent Gillespie has been charged with nine federal crimes, including assaulting, resisting or impeding police
Artist takes abortion fight to the beach in Miami
Conceptual artist Michele Pred will draw two giant abortion pills for reproductive health justice
Miami Beach’s Bass museum receives $20.1m municipal bond to build new wing
The funds are part of a $159m bond local voters approved in the 8 November US midterm election to benefit local cultural organisations
Collector and museum founder Ronald Lauder spent $11m boosting Republican gubernatorial candidate in New York
Lauder is one of several major collectors who have used their wealth to support right-wing candidates this midterm election cycle
US government withholds art made by detainees at Guantánamo Bay
Five years ago, a landmark exhibition of art created by detainees began touring the US. But a government U-turn has blocked works from leaving the prison, raising the question: whose art is it?
Contemporary and historic photographs capture moments of political urgency in Houston’s FotoFest biennial
The 19th edition of the photography exhibition is on view across various venues in the Texan metropolis
The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum’s head of security is running for statewide office in Massachusetts
Anthony Amore, who has overseen security at the Gardner for 17 years, is running as a Republican to be the Bay State’s auditor
Biden re-establishes presidential arts committee whose members resigned en masse over Trump’s response to Charlottesville riots
Trump had dissolved the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities following members’ mass resignation in 2017
Jenny Holzer projection takes over Rockefeller Center in support of freedom of expression
The renowned conceptual artist’s latest public art piece, a collaboration with PEN America, comes after after shocking attacks on authors and journalists in the US
Artists and gallery gather donations for asylum-seekers bussed to New York by Texas governor
In the face of a humanitarian crisis caused by governor Abbott busing migrants to sanctuary cities, artists Guadalupe Maravilla and Mariana Parisca and PPOW gallery are gathering supplies and donations
Congressional commission calls for removal of pro-Confederacy painting and markers at US Military Academy
But the Naming Commission's latest report, focused on the American military and naval academies, could not recommend the removal of a Ku Klux Klan panel at the former institution
Obamas’ White House portraits unveiled
Commissioned while Obama was still in office, the portraits would traditionally have been unveiled during the Trump administration, but no such ceremony was ever organised
Republicans in Utah sue Biden administration over protection of national monuments
The state has issued a lawsuit against Biden’s overturning of a Trump-era decision to open protected lands in the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments to resource extraction
Donald Trump’s political action committee gives Smithsonian $650,000 to pay for presidential portrait commission
The funds will cover nearly the entire cost of commissioning official portraits of the former president and former first lady Melania Trump for the National Portrait Gallery
Biden appoints archaeologists, museum leaders and Acquavella Galleries director to US committee advising on imports of cultural property
The Cultural Property Advisory Committee guides the US Department of State on import restrictions for artefacts and emergency actions related to cultural property
US President Biden names influential museum leaders to Institute of Museum and Library Services advisory board
The directors of the Parrish Art Museum, Honolulu Museum of Art and Cincinnati Art Museum are among those Biden has named to the National Museum and Library Services Board
Nancy Pelosi's controversial trip to Taiwan puts museum in the spotlight
US Speaker of the House visits National Human Rights Museum amidst tense relations between Taiwan and China
Uproar as Philadelphia excludes Black artists from commission process for statue of abolitionist Harriet Tubman
The $500,000 commission was awarded to a white artist whose work had previously been installed near the same site earlier this year
Reversing course after shakeup, San Francisco school board votes to keep controversial George Washington murals on view
Previously destined to be painted over, then simply covered up, the WPA frescoes have been at the centre of debates about US history, education and representation for four years
‘I'm now living in a world where young women have fewer rights than I did’: art world reacts to US Supreme Court decision ending abortion rights
The decision, though expected, still sparked shock and outrage for many artists and gallerists
Former Trump lawyer's contemporary art collection makes star turn in 6 January committee hearings
Eric Herschmann, a former senior advisor to Donald Trump who represented him in his first impeachment trial, displays works by Rob Pruitt and others during committee testimony
Indigenous tribes will co-manage Utah’s long-contested Bears Ears National Monument
The governance and size of the monument have been disputed for years, and Utah Republicans are still trying to block president Biden's 2021 expansion of its boundaries
‘It’s not surprising, but it’s totally shocking’: artists respond to leaked US Supreme Court document threatening abortion access
Artists in the US and beyond expressed outrage, frustration and anger after a leaked draft of a decision that would overturn Roe v. Wade
Amid overwhelming silence from US museums on Roe v. Wade news, ICA San Francisco offers its space to abortion rights activists
Few museums have spoken out since a leaked draft of a US Supreme Court decision indicated that the country's highest court will overturn the landmark abortion rights case
Judge rules removal of artwork depicting man killed by police did not violate free speech
The artwork, commissioned a citywide arts event in Miami Beach, commemorated Haitian-American Raymond Herisse, who was killed by police in 2011
Massachusetts museum accused of hoarding Indigenous artefacts and human remains for decades
The Barre Museum is said to hold the largest collection of Lakota objects and human remains from the 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre
Joe Biden taps major supporters of the Guggenheim, Menil Collection and Dia Art Foundation for advisory committee on the arts
The committee, established in 1958, advises the president on pressing issues in the arts and how federal policies can help shape them