Weekend reading: June 5 edition

Around Columbus

• Ohio State President Michael V. Drake announced the university is planning to open for fall classes. 
• On September 1, Drake will be succeeded by Kristina M. Johnson, the university’s 16th President.
• Sending good thoughts to the intrepid reporters from The Lantern who were pepper sprayed by police in the campus area this week.
• We’re proud to be among the many, many Columbus businesses and organizations to sign on to this letter to Columbus City Council supporting the declaration of racism as a public health crisis.
• Artists of Columbus including Richard Duarte Brown, Lisa McLymont, Stephanie Rond, and Jen Wrubeleski took to the streets this week to paint the boards covering store windows downtown (seen at top of page) and a few of them wound up on CBS This Morning.
• Even more murals went up in the Short North, and the Greater Columbus Arts Council has created a tool for artists and businesses looking for muralists to connect more easily.
• No, Aaron Dessner of Cincinnati-born band The National is not paying people in Columbus to riot.
• Virtual Gallery Hop is back tomorrow, and more modestly sized.
• Craftin’ Outlaws has curated a shop of work by black artists and makers.
• The Columbus Arts Festival is pivoting to an online event.
• Columbus artist Dani ReStack is featured in a New York Film Festival program entitled “Film as Subversive Art.” It’s part of We Are One: A Global Film Festival, running through this weekend.
• The College of Arts and Sciences announced this week that it’s received a donation of $17 million, the largest single gift in the college’s history.
• Ohio State CAS professor Frederick Aldama has released a new children’s book out about the chupacabra, a mythical creature popular in Latinx communities.

Around the globe

• Emma Amos, past Guerrilla Girl and the only woman member of Spiral Group, passed away.
• As did Christo, creator of epic, ephemeral public sculpture works.
• A group of Minneapolis artists has created a mural honoring George Floyd at the site of his murder.
• More mural remembrances of Floyd have popped up as far away as Syria.
• Chicago illustrator Shirien Damra’s viral portrait of Floyd is one of many other responses from artists.
• Artist Adam Pendleton shared his experience in the New York City protest with Art News.
• In response to a shattered storefront window being labeled as an artwork and “Black Lives Matter” being painted in massive yellow letters on the pavement leading to the White House, The Washington Post’s Sebastian Smee writes about when public art becomes political.
• Last weekend, an Egyptologist at the University of Alabama at Birmingham tweeted detailed instructions to take down an obelisk and protesters got to test it out on a Confederate monument with the approval of the city’s mayor.
• The Criterion Collection has removed the paywall for a wealth of great films reflecting the black experience, including Julie Dash’s Daughters of the Dust.
• For its premiere, the video series Password Protected from Brooklyn’s Pioneer Works offers a guided tour of 2015, a video work examining racially biased “predictive” policing, with creator American Artist.
• Artforum’s current issue has an essay on the shift in meaning over time of the word “police.”
• The Walker Art Center has ceased its relationship with the Minneapolis Police Department until it implements change.
• There's been an interesting development in the field of archiving video games.
• The Nasher Museum’s art engagement program for Alzheimer’s sufferers is now available online.
• The grant making initiative Critical Minded has started a relief fund for cultural critics of color.
• You’ve heard of #BlackoutTuesday, but did you know about #WhitePeopleWednesday?
• The Cannes Film Festival lineup for 2020 has been announced.
• Steve McQueen, who has two films playing in this year’s fest, has dedicating them to George Floyd and Black Lives Matter.
• AMC Theaters may not survive 2020.
• 2020 Eisner Award nominations are in.
• Everyone needs to read this story of how one person can make a difference.
• We’ll end with this moving new video from Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater members. “When our hearts break we stand, and when our hearts break we dance.”

Stay safe out there.