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          September 30, 2022

                                    Dispatch: This Week in the Art World

                         The Philadelphia Museum of Art. Photo: Rgordon6/Wikipedia Commons.

                Philadelphia Museum of Art Staff on Strike

                Roughly 180 unionized employees of the PMA went on strike on September 26 as part of a continuing effort to secure a fair contract, for which they have been negotiating with museum officials for two years. The action followed a one-day “warning” strike and the filing of an unfair-labor-practices grievance with the National Labor Relations Board. Primary among the issues the union seeks to address is the need to improve wages, which are well documented as being significantly lower than those for staff at similar institutions. The striking workers also aim to reduce health care costs, charging that the insurance plans currently offered by the PMA are so expensive and the wages so low that most staff have no hope of affording quality health care.

Also: The Whitney announced the curators of its 2024 Biennial, and the Guggenheim abruptly terminated its long-running Hugo Boss Prize.

                                     Serhiy Svetoslavsky’s Ice Harvesting, ca. 1900, in the collection of the Kherson Regional Art Museum. Photo: Arthive.com.

                            Ukrainian Museum Collections to Come Under Russian Control as Annexation Looms

                        Several dozen Ukrainian museums will be commandeered by Russia on September 30 after President Vladimir Putin signs a decree annexing the occupied territories of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia, with Russia gaining possession of the thousands of artifacts and heritage works in the institutions’ collections.

                                     Meg Onli and Chrissie Iles. Photo: The Whitney Museum of American Art.

                            Chrissie Iles and Meg Onli to Curate 2024 Whitney Biennial

                        The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, revealed that the pair will co-organize the eighty-first iteration of the Biennial. Iles is the Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Curator at the Whitney and has co-organized two previous editions of the Biennial. Onli, a writer and independent curator based in Los Angeles, is the former director and curator of the Underground Museum.

                         Nicholas Galanin’s Never Forget, 2021, in the Forge Project collection. Photo: Jason Wyche.

                Bard College Receives $50 Million in Support of Indigenous Studies

                The “transformational” $25 million gift from the Gochman Family Foundation and a matching gift of $25 million from George Soros and the Open Society Foundations will fund a Center for Indigenous Studies and will support the school’s first Indigenous Curatorial Fellow. Through these initiatives, developed in partnership with Forge Project, Bard hopes to attract students from Native American and Indigenous communities.

                         Issue seven of The Drift.

                David Zwirner Announces Partnership with Literary Magazine The Drift

                The blue-chip gallery will become the lead funder of the triannual publication. Founded in June 2020 by recent Harvard grads Kiara Barrow and Rebecca Panovka, the magazine appears in print and online and focuses on culture, literature, and politics. During its brief existence, it has become known for introducing emerging young talent, especially women and people of color.

                                     Robert Newland. Photo: Superblue.

                            UK Art Dealer Robert Newland Pleads Guilty to Aiding Inigo Philbrook in $86 Million Fraud

                        Newland, a onetime business partner of disgraced art dealer and convicted fraudster Philbrick, on September 23 pleaded guilty to a single count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud for his part in helping Philbrick swindle art dealers and collectors through various means. The British dealer entered the plea in a New York district court following his extradition from the UK. If convicted, he could face up to twenty years in prison.

                                     The Power Plant, Toronto.

                            Toronto’s Power Plant Board Sees Mass Exodus over Management Kerfuffle

                        Twenty-four of the twenty-seven members of the contemporary art space’s board submitted their resignations in protest of the institution’s management by the Harbourfront Centre, an affiliated nonprofit organization. The departing board members contended that Harbourfront attempted to unseat a dozen Power Plant board members and replace them with its own slate of directors, chosen from among its own board and staff.

                         The Guggenheim Museum in New York. Photo: hounddiggity/Flickr.

                Guggenheim Eliminates $100,000 Hugo Boss Prize

                The institution gave no reason for the cancellation of biennial prize, which was launched with the German luxury fashion company Hugo Boss in 1996 to reward innovation and influence in contemporary art. Modeled after the Turner Prize in Britain but unrestricted by nationality or age, the prize frequently included a solo exhibition at the museum and had become a mainstay of the international art world.

                                                    What’s new on artforum.com and bookforum.com

                            Övül Ö. Durmusoglu Remembers Fulya Erdemci

                            Samuel Medina on Zoe Zenghelis

                            Michael O’Connor on Jem Calder’s stories of technology and work-life imbalance

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