News Update

| A sculpture of activist Jen Reid in Bristol was removed by City Council only 24 hours after it was installed. Created by artist Marc Quinn, the statue had stood in place of a bronze of 17th-century enslaver Edward Colston that was toppled by demonstrators in June. Installed by Quinn and a team in the early hours of Wednesday, July 15,  the sculpture was swiftly condemned by Mayor Marvin Rees, who said it was put up without city permission. After removing the sculpture this morning, Bristol City Council announced it would be held at the local museum “for the artist to collect or donate to [its] collection.” Mayor Rees said the people of Bristol should democratically decide what should replace the slave trader’s monument. Read the full story here.

| The regulation would have forced international students enrolled in online-only universities in the fall to leave the country. In the week since the controversial guidelines were announced, eight federal lawsuits were filed by universities, including Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Hundreds of other institutions, including independent art schools where international students make up a significant fraction of the student body, such as the Pratt Institute, joined amicus briefs in support of the legal motion. The update means a return to the guidelines issued in March at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, when the Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) of the Department of Homeland Security temporarily waived restrictions on international students engaging in online coursework. Read the full story here.

| Nat Small, a police officer in Washington who was scrutinized for his tattoo associated with the Nazi SS corps, announced he will alter the tattoo to remove the double lighting bolt symbol. For over a month, local residents of Walla Walla held rallies and sent hundreds of letters and emails to the local city council and the police department urging them to address Small’s employment. Read the full story here.

| Applications are now open for the Culture Connects Coalition Artist Relief Fund, which aims to grant $100,000 to Santa Fe artists whose incomes have been affected by the coronavirus. The application can be found in English here and Spanish here, and grant amounts will range from $500 to $1000.

| 2,579 artists have signed the “Artists4Bernie” open letter endorsing the Vermont Senator as the Democratic presidential nominee. Since February 24, this number has nearly quadrupled its original count of 665, with artists including Nan Goldin, Hito Steyerl, and Kara Walker supporting his 2020 campaign. Read the full story here.

| The board said that the decision was due to the material of the mural — papier maché, which is “inconsistent” with the aesthetics of the neighborhood — rather than the content. Miller called the ruling a “violation of his property rights, his First Amendment rights of public expression and free speech, the right not to have his art discriminated against and censored because of its content, and his right to participate in the rich art heritage and messaging through art in Santa Fe,” the Santa Fe New Mexican reported.

| Since yesterday, February 24, the number of artists, critics, and cultural workers supporting Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaign with an open letter has jumped from 665 to more than 1,200 today, with the addition of names like Gabo Camnitzer, Aria Dean, Bouchra Khalili, Elka Krajewska, and Agustina Woodgate. Read the full story here.