Advocacy & Public Policy Committee News v. 11 n. 1, January 2025

Advocacy & Public Policy Committee News support the committee's mission to monitor governmental activities and social justice issues affecting the professional interests of ARLIS/NA and to keep the ARLIS/NA membership informed. The monthly alerts are intended to be conversation starters, help members keep up on public policy issues and alert members to new developments. The articles compiled in the News Alerts bring to the forefront recent news from a range of perspectives designed to elicit discussion; they are not compiled to represent the views of ARLIS as an organization or the members of the Advocacy and Public Policy Committee.

Previous issues can be found here: https://www.arlisna.org/news/appc-news-alert 

Art & Activism

• Diehl, Travis. “Artists Tried to Activate Voters With Billboard Art. Did It Work?” The New York Times, January 8, 2025. 

• Farfan, Isa. “Rhode Island School of Design Votes Against Israel Divestment.” Hyperallergic, January 26, 2025. 

• Pontone, Maya. “Trump Call for 'Traditional' Buildings Could Stifle Innovation, Architects Say.” Hyperallergic, January 26, 2025.

• Schrader, Adam. “Activist Destroys Netanyahu Wax Sculpture at Mexico City Museum.” Artnet News, January 8, 2025.

Copyright & Licensing; Open Access

• Schrader, Adam, and Kenneth Bachor. “Getty Images-Shutterstock Merger: Why Photogs Are Less Than Thrilled.” Artnet News, January 7, 2025.

• Schrader, Adam. “A.I. Art Generated With Text Prompts Cannot Be Copyrighted, U.S. Rules.” Artnet News. January 31, 2025.

• Solomon, Tessa. “AI Art Lacking ‘Human Expression’ Cannot Be Copyrighted, US Officials Say.” ARTnews.com, January 30, 2025.

• The Public Domain Review. “What Will Enter the Public Domain in 2025?” Accessed January 10, 2025.

• U.S. Copyright Office. “Copyright Office Releases Part 2 of Artificial Intelligence Report.” NewsNet, January 29, 2025.

Funding

• Farfan, Isa. “NEA Awards $36.8M in Grants to 1,400+ Artists and Orgs.” Hyperallergic, January 14, 2025.

• Farfan, Isa. “Art Orgs Launch $12M Fund for LA Artists Affected by Fires.” Hyperallergic, January 16, 2025.

• Farfan, Isa. “UC Berkeley Gets $2.6M for Project to Counter Arts Censorship.” Hyperallergic, January 5, 2025.

• Noce, Vincent. “Louvre seeks €1bn for restoration, unions hit back.” The Art Newspaper, January 28, 2025.

• Pontone, Maya. “The Black School Adopts a More Sustainable Funding Model.” Hyperallergic, January 13, 2025.

• Press Release. “Portland Art Museum to create Black Art and Experiences Gallery thanks to multi-year grant from 1803 Fund.” Portland Art Museum, January 22, 2025.

Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Access (IDEA)

• Cassady, Daniel. “Will the Smithsonian Have to Obey Trump’s DEI Order? Maybe Not.” ARTnews.com, January 24, 2025. 

• Chisholm, Cassidy. “How adding names to archival images has been healing for people of We'koqma'q First Nation.” CBC, January 6, 2025.

• Greenberger, Alex. “Amid Outcry, Felix Gonzalez-Torres Foundation Denies ‘Queer Erasure’ in Smithsonian Show.” ARTnews.com, January 29, 2025. 

• Pontone, Maya. “National Gallery of Art Ends Diversity Programs.” Hyperallergic, January 24, 2025.

• Pontone, Maya. “Smithsonian Institution to Shutter Diversity Offices.” Hyperallergic, January 29, 2025. 

• Pontone, Maya and Isa Farfan. “Museums Scramble to Grasp Impact of Trump’s DEI Mandate.” Hyperallergic, January 31, 2025.

Intellectual Freedom/Access to Information

• Boucher, Brian. “Art Museum Directors Fear Censorship. Few Have a Plan.” Artnet News, January 16, 2025.

• Farfan, Isa. “Sally Mann Photos Reportedly Seized From Texas Art Museum.” Hyperallergic, January 10, 2025.

• Friedman, Jonathan, et al. “The Censorship Horizon: A Survey of Art Museum Directors,” PEN America, January 14, 2025.

• Harries, Martha. “Utah Students Can No Longer Bring Personal Copies of Banned Books to School,” KUER NPR Utah, January 21, 2025.

• Mathewson, Tara García. “Online Censorship In Schools Is ‘More Pervasive’ Than Expected, New Data Shows." The Markup, January 16, 2025.

• Nayyar, Rhea. “Most Museum Directors Have Faced Pressure to Censor Art, Survey Finds.” Hyperallergic, January 14, 2025.

• Nayyar, Rhea. “Washington Post Cartoonist Quits Over Rejected Sketch of Trump and Bezos.” Hyperallergic, January 7, 2025.

• Ryan, Finn. “West Craft Fest Canceled by Organizers after Penn Requires Removal of ‘Politically Sensitive’ Art.” The Daily Pennsylvanian, January 14, 2025.

Technology and Digital Privacy

• Schrader, Adam. “Why Won’t DeepSeek Tell Us Anything About Ai Weiwei?” Artnet News, January 30, 2025.

• Shapiro, Emma. “How Will Meta’s New Content Policy Affect Artists?” Hyperallergic, January 21, 2025.

• Tanzi, Nick. “Library Tech Trends for 2025.” The Digital Librarian, January 21, 2025.

• Winn, Zach. “Making the Art World More Accessible,” MIT News, January 16, 2025.

Workplace

• Farfan, Isa. “Noguchi Museum Workers Vote Unanimously to Unionize.” Hyperallergic, January 15, 2025.

• Jacobs, Harrison. “Gallery Association Los Angeles Calls for a Return to Business Amid Fire Recovery.” ARTnews.com, January 18, 2025.

• Nayyar, Rhea. “Hawaiʻi Museum Lays Off Its Entire Staff.” Hyperallergic, January 9, 2025.

• Villa, Angelica. “LA’s Broad Museum Faces Two Lawsuits Alleging Retaliation.” ARTnews.com, January 24, 2025. 

Miscellaneous

• Aton, Francesca. “California Historical Society Shutters, Transfers Collection to Stanford University.” Artnews.com, January 30, 2025.

• Klett, Maddie. “As the Canon Expands, the Business of Artists’ Estates Booms.” ARTnews.com, January 14, 2025.

• Sutton, Benjamin. “Trump Claims He Will Replace the Head of the US National Archives.” The Art Newspaper, January 8, 2025.

This issue of News Alerts was compiled by Michele Jennings, Stephanie Kays, Torie Quiñonez, and Annie Sollinger.