All posts tagged: Exhibit

Smithsonian Presidents Exhibit Reopens With Low-Key Trump Impeachment Mention

Smithsonian Presidents Exhibit Reopens With Low-Key Trump Impeachment Mention

Published by José Betancourt

For the past year, the Smithsonian Institution has found itself in the awkward position of telling the nation’s story while being supported in part by a government that wants to narrow how that story is told. In December, the White House threatened to revoke funding to the institution if it did not hand over a trove of wall texts and exhibit plans for a review. So when a permanent exhibition of presidential portraits closed for a refresh earlier this spring, whether some important but unsavory facts about the current president would be there when it reopened was unclear. Now we know: The “America’s Presidents” galleries at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., are back, and President Trump’s two impeachments are technically there. But they are mentioned without context, in a way that underlines the Smithsonian’s touchy relationship with an administration that has not hesitated to strong-arm the institution. Last summer, the Smithsonian National Museum of American History quietly took down references to Trump’s two impeachments from a display on presidents who had faced the …

Lauren Sánchez Bezos cozies up with Anna Wintour to unveil Met’s new Costume Art exhibit amid gala backlash

Lauren Sánchez Bezos cozies up with Anna Wintour to unveil Met’s new Costume Art exhibit amid gala backlash

Published by Daniella Wilson

Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Lauren Sánchez Bezos appeared all smiles alongside her friend Anna Wintour in New York today to unveil the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s new Costume Art exhibit ahead of the Met Gala this evening. Sánchez Bezos, whose sponsorship of this year’s star-studded fashion event and accompanying exhibit with her billionaire husband Jeff Bezos has proved controversial, was welcomed to the stage at a press conference Monday morning by Wintour, the gala’s chair since 1995, who credited Sánchez Bezos as the only person in the room who could “wear a bias cut dress while banking a helicopter.” Introducing the exhibit to a group of select press, including The Independent, Wintour called Sánchez Bezos a “force for joy” and “generosity,” saying: “She and her husband, Jeff, have …

Most Fashion Mannequins Are About a Size 2. the Met Gala Exhibit Is Making Room for Diverse Bodies

Most Fashion Mannequins Are About a Size 2. the Met Gala Exhibit Is Making Room for Diverse Bodies

Published by Sam Flores

NEW YORK (AP) — On a sultry summer day in Brooklyn last year, artist and couture designer Michaela Stark found herself in a studio surrounded by 175 cameras, for a photo shoot unlike any she’d done before. Clad only in her signature corsetry that binds the flesh, Stark stood in the midst of a circle as the cameras captured all angles of her body, simultaneously — part of an intricate process known as photogrammetry. The goal: to scan her body and build a mannequin — three, actually — for display in one of the world’s top museums, the Metropolitan Museum of Art. And at the Met Gala, no less. “It was definitely a bit nerve-wracking,” recalls Stark of the “intimate and vulnerable” experience. But, she quips, “something about being naked on a 40-degree (Celsius) day in a corset that isn’t hiding anything kind of takes the awkwardness away from the situation, actually.” The mannequins, and others based on real-life models like Stark, will be featured in “Costume Art,” the upcoming spring exhibit at the museum’s …

‘Our Empire’ exhibit at the Cheech highlights the Inland Empire

‘Our Empire’ exhibit at the Cheech highlights the Inland Empire

Published by Sam Flores

Dilapidated buildings and decaying signage may put off the casual observer. But for Redlands-based artists James McClung and Marcus Mercado, the gritty patina of the Inland Empire urban landscape conjures memories of life in the region. Honoring these unassuming entities is the main focus of a new community exhibit, titled “Our Empire,” at the Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art & Culture. A total of 29 acrylic, mixed media paintings and drawings by McClung and Mercado will be on display at the Altura Credit Union Community Gallery until Oct. 23. “James and Marcus’ artistic excellence, deep local roots and passion to tell the stories of their neighborhoods aligns with the vision of the Altura Credit Union Community Gallery — a space dedicated to providing opportunities for SoCal artists to showcase their work and uplift the people and places of our region,” said Valerie Found, interim executive director of Riverside Art Museum. “A lot of people that grew up in these communities see some of these locations and they’re very relatable to their upbringing,” says McClung. …

Traveling exhibit challenges stereotypes about Muslim giving

Traveling exhibit challenges stereotypes about Muslim giving

Published by Sam Flores

(RNS) — As politicians in Washington singled out Somali and Muslim immigrant communities in Minnesota last year, a familiar stereotype resurfaced: Muslims as outsiders and “takers.” And amid a high-profile investigation into a pandemic-related fraud scheme in the state, advocates say suspicion of Muslims rose and their contributions to Minnesota’s economy, culture and communities were disregarded. A traveling exhibit called “Inspired Generosity” aims to challenge that.  It opened in Minneapolis last week at the Robert J. Jones Urban Research and Outreach-Engagement Center Gallery at the University of Minnesota and highlights how Muslims in the U.S. have served their neighbors for decades. First debuted in Atlanta in September 2024, it arrives with new resonance after months of federal immigration enforcement that has shaken the city’s Somali and Muslim neighborhoods.  “People think of Muslims, unfortunately, as proselytizers, takers, that we are not contributing to our country,” said Dilnaz Waraich, president of the WF Fund, a philanthropic group that organized the exhibit. “We need to tell different stories of generosity.” Inspired Generosity features 50 stories of giving from …

Judge Orders Return of Slavery Exhibit at President’s House

Judge Orders Return of Slavery Exhibit at President’s House

Published by José Betancourt

To receive Morning Links in your inbox every weekday, sign up for our Breakfast with ARTnewsnewsletter. The Headlines GEORGE ORWELL-IAN. On Monday, a judge ruled the Trump administration cannot alter historical facts and must temporarily rehang an exhibition about slavery at a monument to George Washington and John Adams’ home in Philadelphia, while a lawsuit proceeds, reports the New York Times. Last month, the Interior Department and the National Park Service removed displays about slave history, including Washington’s ownership of slaves at the so-called President’s House, to ensure “accuracy, honesty and alignment with shared national values.” But the City of Philadelphia hit back with a lawsuit. Now, by the sounds of Judge Cynthia M. Rufe’s opinion in favor of a preliminary injunction against removing the show, the city has a strong case. “As if the Ministry of Truth in George Orwell’s ‘1984’ now existed, with its motto ‘Ignorance Is Strength,’ this court is now asked to determine whether the federal government has the power it claims—to dissemble and disassemble historical truths when it has some domain over historical facts,” Rufe wrote. “It does not.” Related …

LACP exhibit ‘Reservoir’ explores the visual language of loneliness

LACP exhibit ‘Reservoir’ explores the visual language of loneliness

Published by Sam Flores

The photograph is so intimate, so vulnerable, it’s painful to look at. It depicts a woman in her early 20s lying on a hospital bed twisted to the side, her wrists and ankles restrained. The black-and-white image — nearly five feet wide — is so crisp that bits of the woman’s toenail polish glimmer and the hair on her thigh appears to spark. Most pronounced: the loneliness and resignation on her face. “I was 20 or 21 then. I’d had a psychotic episode and was taken to a public hospital in Massachusetts,” says Palm Springs-based artist Lisa McCord of the self-portrait she later staged. “I’m very transparent and I wanted to share my experience afterward. It was the ‘70s. I’d tell people, in school, I’d been in a psychiatric hospital and no one wanted to hang out with me — it was a very lonely time.” McCord’s work is part of an exhibition at the Los Angeles Center of Photography addressing the idea of loneliness, now considered an epidemic in America. The exhibition, “Reservoir: Photography, …

Faith leaders criticize Trump administration’s removal of Philadelphia slavery exhibit

Faith leaders criticize Trump administration’s removal of Philadelphia slavery exhibit

Published by Sam Flores

(RNS) — Religious leaders are among those objecting to the National Park Service’s removal of a historic exhibit about slavery located steps away from Philadelphia’s Liberty Bell and that featured African Methodist Episcopal Church founder Richard Allen and Absalom Jones, the first Black priest in the Episcopal Church. On Thursday (Jan. 22), exhibit supporters and city officials learned that NPS staffers had removed panels from “The President’s House: Freedom and Slavery in the Making of a New Nation,” an exhibit that, according to a page on the park service’s website, examined “the paradox between slavery and freedom in the founding of the nation.” As of Wednesday afternoon, the website said “Page not found” where that information previously had been. The open-air exhibit, which opened in 2010, is located on the site where Presidents George Washington and John Adams lived in the 1790s and features a replica of the exterior of the dwelling and a wall with the names of the nine enslaved Africans Washington brought there. Independence National Historical Park, which hosted the exhibit, was …

Pa. Gov. Josh Shapiro Files Brief Against Removal of Slavery Exhibit

Pa. Gov. Josh Shapiro Files Brief Against Removal of Slavery Exhibit

Published by Jenni Sidey

Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro filed an amicus brief on Tuesday in support of the City of Philadelphia’s lawsuit against the Trump administration’s removal of an exhibit about slavery at the Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia. That exhibit, entitled “Freedom and Slavery in the Making of a New Nation,” served as a memorial to the nine enslaved people who worked at the President’s House Site, where George Washington lived for the majority of his presidency. (The White House wasn’t completed until 1800, during John Adams’s presidency.) Other panels of the exhibit discussed the slave trade and slave economy, according to the New York Times. Related Articles Independence National Historical Park, which also includes Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell, is managed by the National Park Service. The Interior Department removed the exhibit last week, citing President Donald Trump’s March 2025 executive order in which he listed Independence National Historical Park as being subjected to the “corrosive ideology” of acknowledging the historical accuracy of slavery in this country and that US Presidents owned slaves by falsely …

Philadelphia sues after Trump orders removal of slavery exhibit

Philadelphia sues after Trump orders removal of slavery exhibit

Published by Sam Flores

Philadelphia filed a lawsuit against the Department of Interior Thursday following the removal of a slavery exhibit at the President’s House site in Independence National Historical Park. The exhibit is a memorial to nine enslaved people George Washington owned during the founding of the country. All signs relating to the exhibit were taken down Thursday afternoon, according to an Independence Park employee who told the Philadelphia Inquirer, “I’m just following my orders.” The signage removal comes after a March 2025 executive order called for the review of over 400 national sites to remove or modify interpretive materials that “inappropriately disparage Americans past or living.” The order specifically called out Independence Park and the Biden administration for its “corrosive ideology.” In reaction to the removed materials, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, said Trump “will take any opportunity to rewrite and whitewash our history.” “But he picked the wrong city — and he sure as hell picked the wrong commonwealth. We learn from our history in Pennsylvania, even when it’s painful.” Shapiro said in a statement. …