Weekend Reading: September 13 Edition

Around Columbus

• ROY G BIV Gallery opened its call for artists for its 2025 calendar. Among the jurors this year is our own Film/Video Curatorial Assistant Layla Benali.
• And Wex Social Media Coordinator Austin Dunn co-authored this piece on accessibility on social media with Art Possible Ohio’s Megan Fitze.
• Matter previewed the inaugural show at Awesome Gallery, a lovely solo exhibition by neurodivergent artist Elizabeth Newell.
• The site also shared a great, albeit non-exhaustive, playlist of Ohio songs.
• A grant from the city will help Columbus College of Art and Design convert a parking lot into a park.
• Here’s the story behind the newly colorful crosswalks popping up around town.
• Our sincere thanks to Columbus Navigator for watching a Hallmark movie with ties to Columbus so we didn’t have to.
• It’s official: Cincinnati is on the shortlist for possible future locations for the Sundance Film Festival.
• Congratulations to Hanif Abdurraqib for once again making the longest for the National Book Award for nonfiction, this time for There’s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension.
• Thursday, McConnell Arts Center hosts a reception for a new exhibition from local treasure Stephanie Rond.
• Thursday also brings the season opener for Available Light Theatre: Adrian Einspanier’s The Lunch Bunch.
• And next weekend is a big one for Columbus-raised photographer Ming Smith. In addition to our Friday opening celebration of shows featuring Smith and Rotimi Fani-Kayode, the Columbus Museum of Art will open two Smith shows of its own.
   

Around the Globe

• MoMA Director Glenn Lowry announced that he’s stepping down after 30 years on the job.
• The new group Readying the Museum aims to fight inequities in art institution administration.
• “Art museum etiquette for dummies (and overthinkers),” anyone?
• Here’s a Los Angeles Times piece for anyone who’s ever wondered why climate activists have targeted artworks.
• The Brooklyn Museum has a new brand.
• The CEO of the Museum of Pop Culture considered how museums can expand engagement with schools.
• Rod Mason and Mark Gonzalez, designers of popular limited-edition novelty popcorn containers, stepped out from behind the bucket.
• The New Yorker covered Gary Hustwit’s Eno. The filmmaker will bring an exclusive generative version of the doc to the Wex October 7.
• The New York Times did a deep dive into the epic documentary about Prince by filmmaker Ezra Edelman—and why we may never see it.
• Francis Ford Coppola is suing Variety over its coverage of his passion project, Megalopolis.
• Pedro Almodovar picked up a Golden Lion at the Venice Film Fest for his latest, The Room Next Door.
• Almodovar also spoke to The Guardian about the role of fiction in a healthy life.
• Supporters rallied around a small Indiana cinema after it became a target online for a screening of John Cameron Mitchell’s cult classic Hedwig and the Angry Inch.
• Ever dropped your keys or phone in a movie theater? This story suggests you hold onto them tighter if you ever visit Chicago’s legendary, newly renovated Music Box Theatre.
• The Brooklyn location of Alamo Drafthouse has been renamed for Spike Lee.
• The Wrap questioned why directors of animated films aren’t allowed to join the Directors Guild of America.
• Oscar-winning actor Kathy Bates shared that her current role in the Matlock reboot will be her last.
• In a head-scratching and potentially wide-reaching decision, the Second Circuit Court upheld a ruling against the Internet Archive’s Open Library, claiming that free access to books is disincentivizing to authors.
• The Little Free Library initiative has a plan to help areas hit hardest by book bans.
• Meanwhile, a school district in Florida has been ordered to bring back three dozen banned books containing LGBTQ+ content.
• And exiled Russian publishers are finding workarounds to get books about subjects the country would ban to readers there.
• Here’s a look at how the landscape has changed for touring musicians due to the increase of in-store gigs at record shops.
• Sculptor and “art machine” maker Rebecca Horn died at the age of 80.
• Iconic actor James Earl Jones passed away at 93. Here’s a look at his legacy beyond being the voice of Darth Vader.