Fuelling culture war, UK government forms new ‘retain and explain’ board for controversial monuments
“Independence cuts both ways,” UK culture secretary Oliver Dowden warns museums and heritage bodies
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Deaccession
Chicago’s Public Schools Have A Major Collection Of WPA Murals. Why Are People Calling For Them To Be Covered Up?
For essentially the same reasons that some people wanted the murals at George Washington High School in San Francisco to be covered over or removed. – Artnet
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San Francisco Removes A Statue Of A Native Man Lying At The Feet Of A Missionary
The statue was near City Hall, part of the Pioneer Monument that was put up in 1894 – and which Native peoples in and near the city have been protesting for decades. There’s a lawsuit, of course, but the city didn’t destroy the statue; workers moved it into storage. “After the truck carrying the statue […]
Who Should Store Confederate Monuments After They Come Down?
That all depends on the lawsuits – and the museums. “‘Truth is, we absolutely could not take them,’ says Christy Coleman, CEO of the American Civil War Museum in Richmond, Va. Coleman often receives calls from cities hoping to find homes for their Confederate monuments. ‘The biggest reason, I’d say, that museums aren’t able to […]
Confederate Memorials ‘Belong In A Museum’ – Or Do They?
“Are museums, in fact, the appropriate place for storing these gigantic homages – not even to the Civil War itself – but to the Jim Crow movements that fueled their commissioning and erection on state capitol grounds, university commons, city parks and other places of power in the early decades of the 20th century? We […]
Controversial Statue Of Stephen Foster In Pittsburgh Comes Down
“The move followed an October decision by the Pittsburgh Art Commission, which found that the statue should be removed within six months and hosted in a private, ‘properly contextualized’ location. Many residents have held that the sculpture – showing a shoeless African-American banjo player seated at the famed composer’s feet – is condescending or outright […]
States Are Using Preservation Laws To Block The Removal Of Confederate Monuments
“Once a community decision has been made about a controversial monument, officials often have to deal with public preservation laws designed to impede the removal of historic monuments. Efforts to remove statues in places like Baltimore and Memphis hav…
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New York Removes A Statue Of The ‘Father Of Gynecology,’ Who Experimented On Enslaved Black Women
This wasn’t a fast decision about the man who didn’t use anesthesia when he performed experimental surgeries on the women. “The removal of his 80-year-old statue comes after eight years of protests, activism and the local community collecting more than…
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SJC ruling clears Berkshire Museum to sell artworks
The Berkshire Museum can sell works of art and raise up to $55 million to keep its doors open and
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