Weekend reading: November 20 edition

Around Ohio

• ICYMI, the Wex has closed temporarily due to Columbus’ recent ascension to severe purple status on the state COVID map. 
• The Columbus Museum of Art has decided to do the same.
• The Thurber House has put out a call for help.
• Columbus Alive caught up with our virtual presentation of Fundi: The Story of Ella Baker.
• And spoke with Cameron Granger about the work he’s been doing with us.
• Writer Scott Woods got a first look at Aminah Robinson’s restored home.
• The annual Small and Wonderful show is up at Hammond Harkins, with work by Laura Bidwa, Dennison Griffith, Jenny Holzer and many others. Private appointments are available.
• The Columbus Metropolitan Library has started a new book club: “Let’s Talk About Race: One Book - One Community.”
• The Cleveland Cavaliers has hired artist Daniel Arsham as its new Creative Director.

Around the globe

• A new survey from the American Alliance of Museums reports that one in three museums in this country are currently closed.
• With institutions around the country shutting down in response to COVID, Art News compiled info on some virtual museum offerings worth checking out.
• This is another: the National Gallery is selling tickets to a virtual tour of its blockbuster Artemisia Gentileschi exhibition.
• A new virtual exhibition is crowdsourcing information on missing artworks by artists such as Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Cezanne.
• Here’s a virtual view of the new gallery show by Jibade-Khalil Huffman, one of the contributors to our upcoming show Climate Changing.
• Sunday brings a concert and conversation with Lonnie Holley.
• Flag Wars codirector Linda Goode Bryant is among the recipients of the Anonymous Was a Woman grants for 2020.
• Artforum film critic Amy Taubin is on the list of 2020 Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writer Grant recipients.
• In major movie industry news, director Patty Jenkins’ sequel to her superhero hit Wonder Woman will debut simultaneously in theaters and on HBO Max.
• Spike Lee (seen at top of page at the Wex in 2008) is reportedly making a musical about the discovery of Viagra.
• Patton Oswalt reviewed the new oral history of Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused.
• Steve McQueen wrote a remembrance of his friend Okwui Enwezor as part of a special issue he’s guest edited of the Observer New Review.
• The Studio Museum of Harlem’s Thelma Golden and Legacy Russell from MoMA spoke with filmmaker Garrett Bradley about her acclaimed documentary Time.
• There’s a new startup school in New York City focused on Black Art History.
• German arts magazine Monopol has put Black Lives Matter at the top of its 2020 list of the most powerful players in the art world. 
• The Museum of Modern Art has rehung its permanent collection galleries with a shift toward internet-age works.
• Here’s a profile of Shanghai art collective Slime Engine and its hybrid work in the physical and virtual worlds.
• Charles Yu won the National Book Award for fiction for his book Interior Chinatown.
• And Douglas Stuart won the Booker Prize for his novel Shuggie Bain.
• A Singapore-based nonprofit commissioned a booklet full of hacks to make IKEA furniture friendlier to people with dementia. 
• A new collection by H&M made from upcycled fabrics was inspired by the 2019 Venice Biennale.  
• Lastly, the man under the mask of New York City subway performance artist “Pizza Rat” squeaks—er, speaks.

Stay safe, everyone.