Kim Sajet, director of the Milwaukee Art Museum and former director of the National Portrait Gallery, interviewed in the NYT on the Trump Administration attack on the Smithsonian, particularly on Anthea Hartig, director of the Smithsonian Museum of American History. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/30/a...

For Museum Boss Who Became a Trump Target, It’s Déjà Vu All Over Again (Gift Article)

Kim Sajet left as director of the National Portrait Gallery when she found herself in the White House cross hairs. Now she’s watching another Smithsonian chief go through it.

nytimes.com

Hoping that Yale doesn’t capitulate to the Trump administration. americanprospect.bluelena.io/index.php?ac...

Yale loses the Capitulation Bowl

The university’s...

americanprospect.bluelena.io

Wonder Twin Powers ACTIVATE!!!!

Betye Saar would have tuned 100 on Thursday. She was an incredible artist and an amazing interlocutor. Rest in Power. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/27/a...

Betye Saar, Artist Who Upended Black Stereotypes, Dies at 99 (Gift Article)

Working with dolls, family photographs, fabric scraps and other found objects, she became a leading figure in assemblage art.

nytimes.com

Good grief, this hits home.

This is what authoritarianism looks like. Trump Orders Warnings Placed at ‘Inaccurate’ Smithsonian History Museum www.nytimes.com/2026/07/24/a...

Trump Orders Warnings Placed at ‘Inaccurate’ Smithsonian History Museum (Gift Article)

President Trump said the signage at the National Museum of American History would correct what a disputed White House report described as “extreme political activism.”

nytimes.com

"The Upperman family’s move underscores a reality institutions may increasingly face: if donors believe the original purpose of their gifts can no longer be honored, they can take both their money–and their legacy–somewhere else." www.theroot.com/why-a-promin...

So who's going to tell artist Sergio Furnari that Michaelangelo's David and Pietà as well as DaVinci's Mona Lisa were commissioned? www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

New York sculptor spent $100,000 to make a Charlie Kirk statue no one wants to buy

Sergio Furnari said he thought the lifesize sculpture – which no one commissioned – would raise ‘millions’ of dollars

theguardian.com

Statement from Annie Farmer on meeting with Todd Blanche: "After meeting with Todd Blanche, I feel even more confident in urging senators to vote against his confirmation as the United States' Attorney General. "I found him abrasive, condescending, and intentionally noncommittal to survivors."

#booksky

No lies detected.

Philip Bump@pbump.com · 3w ago

Escorting the nine-year-old to a friend’s birthday pool party, I told him I wasn’t going to swim in part because I’m dressed for work. He told me I could just jump in like Mamdani did. This is what socialism does to our children.

Ripley, OH was a center of Underground Railroad activity and the home to John Parker and John Rankin, who it is said helped thousands escape bondage in the South. Parker’s house in on the Ohio River, which separates Ohio from Kentucky and before the Civil War, separated freedom from slavery.

This morning in Biddeford, Maine, a 26-year-old man said goodbye to his wife and daughter and left for work. Moments later he was dead, shot in the head by ICE agents, the second man ICE has killed in six days. ICE is killing our neighbors. ICE cannot be reformed. Abolish ICE.

I hope the Yale Law School short circuits any deal with the Trump administration. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/07/u...

Yale Law School Fights to Stop Trump Deal

nytimes.com

First time academic book authors. Do your reviewers a favor and include a TOC with page numbers. #academicpublishing

I appreciate the @theguardian.com’s willingness to call this group what it is. Neo-fascist group Patriot Front parades Confederate flag in Washington DC on Fourth of July www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Neo-fascist group Patriot Front parades Confederate flag in Washington DC on Fourth of July

Hundreds of masked members of the white supremacist organization marched and chanted in the US capital

theguardian.com

Brilliance at the Barbie Pond on Ave Q in DC.

In working on my current book called, "Structural Adjustment: Mapping and the Visual Cultures of Blackness," I came across a graphic I made for the Boston Globe in 1985 for a story written by @markmuro1.bsky.social on maps and their biases.

David Hockney, revolutionary British artist, dies aged 88 www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...

David Hockney, revolutionary British artist, dies aged 88

Bradford-born painter, who made his name with sun-kissed visions of California, has died

theguardian.com

I'm thrilled to share that I have been appointed as the inaugural Executive Director of the Sam Gilliam Foundation, charged with advancing Sam’s legacy and fostering programs and initiatives that support emerging artists and thinkers in their work. samgilliamfoundation.org/news/dr-stev...

Dr. Steven Nelson Appointed Inaugural Executive Director of Sam Gilliam Foundation | Sam Gilliam Foundation

samgilliamfoundation.org

I have so much respect for Lonnie Bunch. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/28/a...

Curating in the Cross Hairs: Is This the Smithsonian Chief’s Last Show?

nytimes.com

Colbert was unleashed by CBS, which could make him more influential than he already is. I hope he takes full advantage of his freedom.

Dean Obeidallah@deanobeidallah.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Today Stephen Colbert's Late Show ends after 11 seasons. He was cancelled by CBS to make Trump happy. And now the scumbag Trump is celebrating the end of Colbert's show. What Trump doesn't get in his demented mind is that Colbert will be more popular and effective going forward off corporate TV!

Making false arrests can be a very expensive enterprise. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/20/u...

He Was Jailed Over a Charlie Kirk Post. The Sheriff Now Owes Him $835,000.

nytimes.com

I just took action with @theactionnetwork.bsky.social: Free DC Primary Election Survey. Take action here: actionnetwork.org/forms/free-d...

Free DC Primary Election Survey

We're excited about the upcoming primary election and need you to be part of it to ensure a win for candidates that will stand up for DC: our people, our autonomy. We also want to make sure you know...

actionnetwork.org

US District Judge Colleen McMahon ruled that the mass termination by the National Endowment for the Humanities of more than 1,400 grants was “unlawful, unconstitutional, ultra vires, and without legal effect.” www.historians.org/news/federal...

Federal Judge Rules to Restore National Endowment of the Humanities Funding In Historic Case - AHA

Statements From American Council of Learned Societies, American Historical Association, and Modern Language Association on the Ruling FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - May 7, 2026 - This afternoon US District J...

historians.org

Supreme Court deals a death blow to the Voting Rights Act www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

Supreme Court deals a death blow to the Voting Rights Act

The "now-completed demolition" of the law could take us back to the Jim Crow era.

motherjones.com

@georgetownlaw.bsky.social must be proud. 🤯

The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Pretty rough look for @georgetownlaw.bsky.social here👇🏽 — Randy Barnett is apparently a constitutional law professor there, Faculty Director of the Georgetown Center for the Constitution.🤔

Hakan Topai’s points are relevant throughout the university. hyperallergic.com/the-death-of...

The Death of the Art School

The rampant corporatization and "administrification" of American higher-education institutions has turned students into mere consumers.

hyperallergic.com

Maybe the Justice Department should have consulted the Merriam-Webster dictionary before indicting James Comey. www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/eig...

What does 'eighty-six' mean?

It comes from 1930s soda-counter slang meaning that an item was sold out.

merriam-webster.com

As a member of the Kress Foundation Board of Trustees, I’m thrilled to share that we have appointed Lisa Schermerhorn as our next Director. www.kressfoundation.org/news/l-w-sch...