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# Week in Review: Indianapolis Museum Director Resigns Amid Controversy; Guggenheim Signs Union Contract
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/week-in-review-indianapolis-museum-director-resigns-amid-controversy-guggenheim-signs-union-contract/
- Published: 2021-02-19T12:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T16:38:38.000Z
- Description: Also, Turkey filed an unprecedented lawsuit to dissolve an arts organization founded by jailed philanthropist Osman Kavala, and more.
- Author: Jasmine Weber
- Tags: News, Week in Review, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-hidden, #Import 2025-11-24 09:11 (2021, 2022, part 1)

*Week in Review is a weekly collection of news, developments, and stirrings in the art world.* [*Subscribe*](https://hyperallergic.com/newsletters?utm%5Fsource=page&utm%5Fcampaign=artmovements) *to receive these posts as a weekly newsletter*.

## Turmoil at Indianapolis Museum

- An offensive job description seeking a new director for the **Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields** drew ire from artists, IMA patrons, and former and current museum workers. Thousands [called for **Charles L. Venable**’s removal](https://hyperallergic.com/indianapolis-call-for-museum-presidents-removal-job-posting-white-art-audience/) as president over the listing, which mentioned “maintaining the Museum’s traditional, **core, white art audience**.” Amid the mounting pressure, the IMA announced [**Venable's resignation**](https://hyperallergic.com/indianapolis-museum-of-art-president-resigns/). Its statement also noted that the museum will establish a committee to conduct a review of leadership and expand curatorial representation “of/for/by Black, Latino/a/x, Indigenous, Women, People with Disabilities, LGBTQIA, and other marginalized identities.”

## Cultural Suppression in Turkey

- Turkey’s Trade Ministry filed a lawsuit [demanding the dissolution of **Anadolu** **Kültür**](https://hyperallergic.com/turkey-targets-osman-kavalas-arts-organization-in-unprecedented-lawsuit/), an institution founded by jailed philanthropist **Osman Kavala** in 2002\. Last week, the US Department of State urged Kavala's release after three years of imprisonment without conviction.
- A **theater** **ensemble** has been targeted by Turkish authorities, [accused of **terrorist** **propaganda**](https://hyperallergic.com/kurdish-theater-targeted-terrorism-propaganda/) for its Kurdish-language performances.

## Community-focused Grants

- A new [**$1.6 million grant** to seven institutions](https://hyperallergic.com/a-new-grant-will-digitize-thousands-of-indigenous-oral-histories/) will support the **digitization of Indigenous oral histories** to make them widely available, especially to Native communities.
- A new **$38.5 million** [**Getty fund**](https://hyperallergic.com/la-arts-recovery-fund-getty/)is a massive effort to preserve jobs and retain the cultural capital of **Los Angeles’s creative workforce**.

## In Other News

- Yup’ik choreographer **Emily** **Johnson** says that her residency at **Montclair State University** was revoked after she requested the school commit to decolonial practices, including a land acknowledgment. She says she then [faced **verbal** **abuse**](https://hyperallergic.com/emily-johnson-peak-performances-residency-revoked/) and “unethical and punishing measures” from **Jedidiah Wheeler,** head of the university's **Peak** **Performances** series.
- The **Guggenheim Museum** has [signed a contract with its **union**](https://hyperallergic.com/guggenheim-signs-union-contract-local-30/) after a year of tense negotiations. The three-year **collective** **bargaining agreement** represents 22 full-time employees and 145 on-call staff of the museum’s art handlers and facilities staff.
- A [new **Alabama** **bill**](https://hyperallergic.com/alabama-bill-confederate-monuments/) could make it illegal to put up signs offering historical context on the site of **Confederate statues** and other monuments.
- A [new project from **Google Arts + Culture**](https://hyperallergic.com/experience-wassily-kandinskys-art-through-simulated-synesthesia/) uses machine learning and **Wassily** **Kandinsky**’s extensive color theories to interpret what the painter might have heard when working on this painting.

## Awards & Accolades

- The artists participating in **Desert X** 2021 have been announced. | [Desert X](https://desertx.org/?ref=hyperallergic.com)
- **Shanel Edwards** was awarded the third annual **Eva Yaa Asantewaa Grant For Queer Women(+) Dance Artists** by Queer|Art.
- **Rashaad Newsome, Rodolfo Peraza, Sondra Perry, Stephanie Dinkins,** and **Black Quantum Futurism** are the inaugural recipients of its new arts and tech fellowship by the **Knight Foundation**. | [Knight Foundation](https://knightfoundation.org/2021-knight-arts-tech-fellowship/?ref=hyperallergic.com)

## Transitions

- **Kobena Mercer** was appointed the Charles P. Stevenson Chair in Art History and the Humanities at **Bard College.**
- **Joshua Vincent** was named interim executive director of the **Southern Vision Alliance**.

## In Memoriam

- Brenda Ballin (1929–2021), guide at the Metropolitan Museum of Art | [*New York Times*](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/12/obituaries/brenda-ballin-virus-lost.html?ref=hyperallergic.com)
- Teresa Burga (1935–2021), conceptual artist | [*ARTnews*](https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/teresa-burga-dead-1234583686/?ref=hyperallergic.com)
- J. Hillis Miller (1928–2021), literary critic and scholar | [UCI News](https://news.uci.edu/2021/02/11/remembering-distinguished-professor-emeritus-j-hillis-miller/?ref=hyperallergic.com)
- Johnny Pacheco (1935–2021), bandleader, producer, musician, and co-founder of Fania record label | [*New York Times*](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/15/arts/music/johnny-pacheco-dead.html?ref=hyperallergic.com)
- Danny Ray (1935–2021), emcee and “cape man” for James Brown | [*Rolling Stone*](https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/danny-ray-james-brown-cape-man-emcee-dead-1123420/?ref=hyperallergic.com)
- Albor Ruiz (1940–2021), columnist for the *Daily News* | [*New York Times*](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/14/business/media/albor-ruiz-dead.html?ref=hyperallergic.com)