Protecting culture
Over 1,200 museum directors, curators, archaeologists, anthropologists, and academics have signed a petition urging the Obama administration to permanently halt the Dakota Access Pipeline from encroaching on Native American ancestral grounds in North Dakota. [Artforum]
During his speech at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Tuesday night, French president François Hollande announced that his government would be contributing $100 million to a fund protecting cultural heritage in the Middle East, in light of the destruction wrought by ISIS. [The Art Newspaper]
Philip Kennicott asks whether a museum dealing with the history of race and racism can exist within the current climate of “new bigotry” spread across America? [Washington Post]
Good news for collectors
“New IRS Rule Opens Tax Saving Strategy To Art Collectors.” [Forbes]
Q&A’s
David Adjaye on the vision behind his design of the National Museum of African American History and Culture: “It’s a building that I was clear from the start was not going to be white marble. It needed to speak a different language.” [New York Times]
Artist Zeng Fenzhi, who just had a major retrospective of his work open at the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing, discusses Chinese culture, China’s art market and mixing politics and art. [New York Times]
Criticism as art
Hua Hsu recalls the first time he read reviews by Greg Tate, the critic who made him realize that criticism could be art. [The New Yorker]
Extras
“Art imitates life: Madame Tussauds separates wax figures of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie” [Los Angeles Times]
A look at the “unusually large number of high-profile surveys” of women artists on in New York this fall. [Observer]
Russian President Vladimir Putin on the infamous Kalashnikov rifle during a recent visit to a factory that makes them: “When I came and saw the new production floors, I had the impression that I am in a museum of modern art.” [Newsweek]
The Hard Rock Stadium in Florida, home to the Miami Dolphins, has been decked out with a dozen street-art murals in anticipation for the start of the season this Sunday. [New York Times]