Reading list, 23 November 2019

The Open Society Foundations, funded by George Soros, has launched a 4 year, US$15M fund to aid restitution of taonga to Africa:

The Open Society’s initiative will support African lawyers, scholars, archivists, and grassroots organizations campaigning for the return of artifacts taken during the colonial era. It will also fund meetings between cultural leaders and work to promote partnerships between museums, governments, and other organizations. 

A report from the Happy Museum with case studies on how six Welsh museums have responded to the Welsh Wellbeing of Future Generations Act

At 88, Agnes Denes Finally Gets the Retrospective She Deserves

Psychology researcher Muireann Irish was one of the speakers I heard at the Big Anxiety conference a few weeks ago: The self in dementia is not lost, and can be reached with care

The Efficiency-Destroying Magic of Tidying Up - a system that looks like chaos to you might simply be complicated.

A number of New Zealand and Pacific voices in this NYT article: Is It Time Gauguin Got Canceled?

On the Dora Maar survey exhibition at Tate Modern: Dora Maar: how Picasso's weeping woman had the last laugh (with the Guardian's reliably bad headline-writing for these kinds of revisionist stories)

A one year review for Max Hollein: At the Entrenched Met Museum, the New Director Shakes Things Up

Counting Ourselves: First comprehensive national NZ survey on transgender health and wellbeing

Disney+ attaches warnings of 'outdated cultural depictions' to classic films

On Dread Scott's slave rebellion reenactment in Louisiana: With a Slave Rebellion Re-enactment, an Artist Revives Forgotten History

A couple of reports from this month's MCN conference in San Diego:

• Because they are hard… Reflections on #MCN2019 by Suse Anderson
• Sustaining and Maintenance: Reflections on MCN2019 by Rachel Ropeik

Reading list, 9 November 2019

Zadie Paul on painter Celia Paul's memoir: The Muse at Her Easel and a response as well from Rachel Cusk in the New York Times: Can a Woman Who Is an Artist Ever Just Be an Artist?

I've just started digging into RNZ's Now We Are Five (Million) on Aotearoa's population growth

Ditto, I need to set some time aside to dig into the NZ Herald's series Land of the Long White Cloud: Pākehā New Zealanders reflect on their colonial past and future.

Amy Qin for the New York Times: ‘Museum Diplomacy’ as New Pompidou Center Opens in Shanghai

Reading list, 2 November 2019

"So why not monetize the intangibles?" Punting the idea of paying admission for popular book stores.

The latest Gray Market: Why Ethical Vetting of Collectors Won't Reshape the Art Market, responding to Brian Boucher's In the Post-Warren Kanders Era, Artists and Dealers Wonder: Should Collectors Be Vetted? for Artnet

Age and readiness are not the same thing: Museum Directors Under 40: A Brief History of 20 Young Leaders Who Helped Shape Their Institutions (American context)

Ngarino Ellis, New Zealand's only Māori art history lecturer, interviewed on RNZ

Teenagers, boomers, and intergenerational critique via merchandise #okboomer

Australian arts activists The Countess have released their latest report on gender representation in the visual arts 

My October Nine to Noon appearance (the Kaldor Public Art Projects exhibition at AGNSW; Renaissance Bologna's unusual support of women artists and The Countess report's data on the not-unusual gender imbalances in Australia's visual arts; the Adam Art Gallery's forthcoming 20th anniversary shows)

Paula Bray on the process of using BookSprints to collaboratively write a book on setting up, running, and shutting down labs in cultural institutions, all in 5 days.

Have been a bit ho-hum on the MOMA opinion pieces, but will always make time for Maura Reilly - MoMA’s Revisionism Is Piecemeal and Problem-Filled: Feminist Art Historian Maura Reilly on the Museum’s Rehang