Students continue to speak out against budget issue
CALIFORNIA—It’s been two months since student protesters rallied in the quad at Cal State Fullerton to protest a soon-to-be-enacted nine percent tuition increase for the California State University system. The protesters then followed that up by “occupying” an area behind the Pollak Library for three days and nights.
The nine percent tuition increase passed and it is expected to be enacted in the Fall 2012 semester. The campus closed for fall recess and the short-lived makeshift “occupy” encampment was broken up just three days after it began. The fall semester ended shortly thereafter.“We’re going to try to open up the lines of dialogue with the new president and the administration on our campus, but for the most part if it comes down to nothing, which is what we’re expecting, then we’re probably going to see some sort of action in March,” said Inga.
Inga was present Wednesday at the CSU Board of Trustees meeting in Long Beach despite the absence of student protesters.
“If anything positive came from the meeting it was basically (California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s) response to the board of trustees and the fact that they’re not holding the interest of the university and the public,” Inga said.
With a state budget that seems doomed in the short-run, future additional fee hikes for public education are likely and more student-held protests and demonstrations on California campuses can be expected.
February 2, 2012
Artist and poet Dorothea Tanning dies at age 101
NYC— Artist and poet Dorothea Tanning, died peacefully in her home in New York City on January 31. She was 101 years old. For 34 years, she shared a loving partnership with her husband, Max Ernst, first in the United States and later in France. After his death in 1976, she returned to New York and demonstrated that it is never to late to begin a new chapter in life. In her mid-seventies, she became more productive than ever in her studio, and in her mid-eighties launched a new and successful career as a writer and poet. She worked until her last days, publishing her second book of poems, Coming to That, in the fall of 2011.
February 1, 2012
Guards at London’s National Gallery on Strike to Protest Staff Cuts
UK—The Leonardo exhibition at the National Gallery in London faces disruption by strikes action from this week. Security guards say cuts leave works vulnerable to damage or theft. They are planning two-hour stoppages on 19 and 28 January and 2 and 4 February, with other possible dates to follow.
The strike follows the gallery’s instruction to the guards — referred to in London as “warders,” now called “gallery assistants” – to each watch over two rooms rather than one. Warders claim this allowed a man to attack two Poussin paintings in July while the warder was in the adjoining room.
A gallery spokeswoman said: “The majority of galleries…throughout the UK, across Europe and far beyond, all employ similar systems. The National Gallery will endeavour to keep the exhibition open and fulfil its obligation to people who already have tickets for that day.”
February 1, 2012
Artist Mike Kelly reportedly dies at age 58
NYC—Mike Kelley, one of the most critically acclaimed artists of his generation, has reportedly died at the age of 58. The Observer has reported that according to several sources close to the artist died, a cause of death has not been confirmed.
The artist had recently been selected for the 2012 Whitney Biennial, an exhibition that he has participated in seven times in the past. He had major one-person exhibitions at the Whitney Museum, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Louvre.
Mr. Kelley was born in 1954 in Detroit, and his childhood there provided material for many of his work. Beginning in the early 1970s, he played in the band Destroy All Monsters with Cary Loren, Niagara and Jim Shaw, producing noisy, metal- and punk-inflected music that has been an influence on generations of sound artists and noise musicians. Destroy All Monsters was recently the subject of two retrospectives, at the Prism Gallery in Los Angeles and at the Boston University Art Gallery.
February 1, 2012
US State Department and RISD Work Together on ART in Embassies
PROVIDENCE, RI—ART in Embassies (AIE), the US State Department, has began its inaugural art program in partnership with the Rhode Island School of Design. ART in Embassies: Morocco, which will be a winter-session studio art course, is being taught by artist Jim Drain as well as other RISD students and will culminate in a student-made large outdoor sculpture outside of the US Embassy building in Rabat, Morocco. The program will also involve classes taught by textile artist Soukaina Aziz El Idrissi of Morocco, dean of fine arts from RISD Anais Missakian, and interim associate provost Patricia Phillips. Chief curator of ART in Embassies Virginia Shore told the Wall Street Journal, “The mission of the ART in Embassies is to advance our nation’s cultural diplomacy through the international exchange of visual arts, culture, and ideas. While AIE has worked with more than 10,000 artists, museums, collectors, universities, and dealers over the past fifty years, this project with RISD is one of the most involved collaborations to date. Led by artist Jim Drain, along with ten RISD students, this project is engaging talented artists from both the US and Morocco. As part of our fiftieth anniversary, this project is representative of the culmination of our collective efforts, and one worth celebrating.”
February 1, 2012
Hauser & Wirth Announces Opening of Second New York Gallery
NEW YORK—Hauser & Wirth has announced the opening of a second location in New York City, a twenty-three-thousand-square-foot exhibition and project space located at 511 West Eighteenth Street. Set to open to in fall of 2012, the new location will serve “as a counterpoint to the intimacy of the gallery’s Upper East Side townhouse,” stated Hauser & Wirth in a press release issued today. Previously, the space was home to the Roxy roller skating rink and discotheque.
“New York is the world’s art capital and its cultural ecology is unlike that of any other city,” founder Iwan Wirth said. “We are excited to expand our capabilities as a social and cultural shop in such a rich, dynamic, creative environment. Hauser & Wirth’s entire global team is delighted and honored to be able to increase our participation in the life of New York City, and to create another special destination where the public can engage the work and ideas of the artists we represent.”
