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- The European Alliance of Academies has launched a nearly $2 million plan to support artistic freedom under pressure in Europe.
- Iranian artists in the diaspora are torn between the joyful hope of regime change and fear of rising casualties amid the ongoing war.
- The US Supreme Court will not hear a case asking for copyright protection of art made by artificial intelligence.
The Headlines
MONEY WHERE YOUR MOUTH IS. On Monday, the European Alliance of Academies announced the launch of a four-year plan, called Re:Create Europe, armed with a budget of 1,761,000 euros ($2,044,750) to tackle “the growing pressures on artistic freedom and cultural autonomy across Europe,” reports El Pais. “Artists and cultural professionals are increasingly working under conditions shaped by war and aggression, political instrumentalization, economic precarity, ecological collapse, and shrinking civic space,” stated the Alliance. The EU has pledged to fund 60 percent of the project, which focuses on financially aiding 10 art spaces and programs, including censored artists, via “mobility programs, blended learning formats, onside residencies, digital mapping, and international conferences,” per a press release. The Círculo de Bellas Artes (CBA) in Madrid will reportedly receive about 320,000 euros ($371,561) from the new program, replacing the drastic funding cut by the city’s regional government in a move some suspected was politically motivated.
IRANIAN ARTISTS TORN. Iranian artists abroad are torn between feeling joy and terrifying anxiety, reports Le Monde. Many describe a sense of jubilation at the prospect of an Iranian regime change, while simultaneously fearing the rising civilian death toll since the start of American and Israeli strikes on the country. “Being Iranian at such a time means living in permanent contradiction,” said experimental musician Sara Bigdeli, who lives in Paris. “There is a real fear for human lives, and at the same time a form of almost guilty hope,” said the exiled Iranian who discussed the ongoing war alongside other visual and performing artists, as well as gallerists. “A lot of people, despite the danger, feel that this crisis could represent the possibility of a way out of decades of violence and suffocation,” added Bigdeli.
The Digest
The US Supreme Court said it will not hear a case over whether art by artificial intelligence can receive copyright protection. The Monday announcement ends the years-long quest by computer scientist Stephen Thaler to have art crafted by his AI system “DABUS” receive federal copyright protection. [ARTnews]
Nicholas R. Bell will lead Canada’s most visited museum, the Royal Ontario Museum, following the departure of Joshua Basseches. Bell is currently CEO of the Glenbow Museum in Calgary, Alberta, where he launched a major renovation due to be completed by 2027. [The Globe and Mail]
Ahead of this year’s TEFAF Maastricht fair, which mostly features older art, exhibitors are toiling through an intensified barrage of red tape since the implementation of a European Union legislation known as 2019/880. This stricter regulation was designed to curb the sale of stolen or looted antiquities used to fund terrorism, but many dealers say it is unnecessarily disproportionate, despite approving of its broader goal. [Financial Times]
Faig Ahmed, born in Sumqayit, Azerbaijan, and now based in the capital city Baku, will represent his native country at the 2026 Venice Biennale. Ahmed is known for his surrealist weaving works, and his Venice exhibition will be curated by Gwendolyn Collaço. [Artforum]
The Kicker
TECH BROS BRING BURNING MAN ART TO SF. If it’s been looking like the new public art in San Francisco borrowed a page from Burning Man, that is no coincidence. As Frieze’s Moses Hubbard informs us, a new project called Big Art Loop, privately funded by tech baron Sid Sijbrandij’s eponymous foundation, is installing up to 100 large-scale artworks around San Francisco, most of which, thus far, were originally designed for Burning Man, the annual “festival that has become a favored venue for Silicon Valley elites to raise venture capital while tripping on psychedelics,” as Hubbard sees it. But this raises a few burning problems. The sculptures in the Big Art Loop sidestep publicly funded art vetting processes, handing the Sijbrandij Foundation outsized sway over the curated results. This has translated into 18 artworks installed in the city thus far, which mostly share a “Burner ethos” that generally goes for spectacle, scale, and a quick read. “The ultimate litmus test for most of the sculptures made for Burning Man is their ability to make you stop and say, whoa,” for a hot minute, before moving on, writes Hubbard.
