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# Week in Review: MoMA Terminates All Educator Contracts; Funders Offer $5K Artist Grants
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/week-in-review-moma-terminates-all-educator-contracts-funders-offer-5k-artist-grants/
- Published: 2020-04-10T11:00:10.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T16:38:58.000Z
- Description: Also, the Getty Research Institute acquired the Emmett Williams archive, and more.
- Author: Cassie Packard
- Tags: News, Week in Review, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-hidden, #Import 2025-11-24 07:41 (2019, 2020, part 2)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2020/04/anamaria-morris_those-who-care.jpg)

A poster by Anamaria Morris (image courtesy the artist and Elizabeth Jaeger)

*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.*

MoMA [terminated contracts with all of its freelance museum educators](https://hyperallergic.com/moma-educator-contracts/). In an email sent this week, the museum told educators “it will be months, if not years, before we anticipate returning to budget and operations levels to require educator services.”

Projecting $7 million in losses in 2020, the [Whitney Museum laid off 76 staffers](https://hyperallergic.com/whitney-museum-lays-off-76-staffers/). Director Adam Weinberg says many of those who were laid off “work in visitor-related roles and are no longer able to fulfill their duties now that the Museum is closed.”

UOVO art handlers [filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board](https://hyperallergic.com/uovo-art-handlers-file-labor-board-complaint-saying-they-were-laid-off-for-union-support/) saying they were laid off for supporting unionization.

Elizabeth Jaeger, an artist, and Cady Chaplin, a nurse at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan, started a campaign for artists to submit illustrations, paintings, and digital edits [thanking healthcare workers](https://hyperallergic.com/artists-decorate-hospital-icu/). They are using the posters to decorate hospital ICUs.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2020/04/gmarksphoto-performance-swaia2019-113.jpg)

A performance at 2019 Indian Market (photo by Gabriella Marks, courtesy SWAIA)

The largest Native arts market in the United States, the Santa Fe Indian Market, was [postponed to 2021.](https://hyperallergic.com/largest-native-arts-market-in-us-postponed-to-2021/)

Organizations including the Joan Mitchell Foundation and the Ford Foundation came together to match $5 million in seed funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and will distribute [$5,000 unrestricted grants to individual artists](https://hyperallergic.com/artist-relief/).

As the COVID-19 pandemic roils the arts community, the Getty Trust, Warhol Foundation, and Frankenthaler Foundation [launched emergency funding initiatives](https://hyperallergic.com/emergency-relief/) to support the cultural sector.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2020/04/gerbil-museum-2.jpg)

Nine-month-old brothers Pandoro and Tiramisù survey London’s newest art institution, The Gerbil Museum (photo courtesy museum trustees Filippo and Marianna)

A London couple made a [mini-museum for their gerbils](https://hyperallergic.com/the-gerbil-museum-london/) to visit during quarantine.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2020/04/ruth-asawa.jpg)

Ruth Asawa forever stamps (image courtesy USPS)

Here’s a first look at the designs for new [US postage stamps featuring Ruth Asawa artworks](https://hyperallergic.com/ruth-asawa-stamps/).

## Transactions

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2020/04/11_001.jpg)

Yoshimoto Nara, “Pup Cup” (2003), Injection molded plastic, contained in the original plastic presentation package, 9 1/4 x 7 x 7 in. (23.5 x 17.8 x 17.8 cm) (image courtesy Phillips)

The **Getty Research Institute** announced [the acquisition of the **Emmett Williams** archive](http://news.getty.edu/getty-research-institute-acquires-archive-poet-and-visual-artist-emmett-williams.htm?ref=hyperallergic.com), also known as the Berlin archive. The American-born Williams relocated to Europe to 1949 and rose to acclaim through his contributions to the Fluxus movement. The archive, which spans the late 1950s to 2007 when Williams died, features artwork, performance instructions, prints, correspondence, and more. Notable items include a group of Fluxus scrolls used in poetry performances; 100 letters that Williams wrote to his first wife Laura, which document early developments in Fluxus and his own work; and artwork by Williams and his circle, which included **Charlotte Moorman**, **Seiichi Niikuni**, **Dieter Roth**, and **Daniel Spoerri**. The archive will be available to researchers once it is catalogued.

The **Hepworth Wakefield** announced [the acquisition of nearly 100 works](https://hepworthwakefield.org/news/the-hepworth-wakefield-announces-major-gift-of-100-artworks-from-local-collectors/?ref=hyperallergic.com) from local Yorkshire collectors and patrons Terence Bacon and John Oldham. Bacon and Oldham, who have been collecting art since the 1930s, gifted pieces by British ceramicists such as **Dame Lucie Rie**, **Angus Suttie**, and **Alison Britton**, as well as an impressive 43 pots by **John Ward**. The donation also features works on paper and paintings by British artists including **Sir Terry Frost RA**, **Rose Hilton**, and **Craigie Aitchison**, who was also a friend of the couple.

**Phillips** just kicked off [a series of online-only auctions](https://www.phillips.com/article/56269313/spring-2020-online-auctions?ref=hyperallergic.com) with an Editions and Works on Paper sale, which features 50 work by well-known modern and contemporary artists including **Alexander Calder** and **Takashi Murakami**. Of personal interest is **Yoshitomo Mara**’s “Pup Cup” (2003), a plastic puppy in a teacup that rotates (caveat emptor: it requires two AA batteries). The Editions and Works on Paper sale will be followed by Current Mood, a sale of contemporary art, and Desktop, a sale of contemporary art, editions, and design (details to be announced). The auction series will run through May.

## This Week in the Art World

The **Leslie-Lohman Museum** named **Laura Raicovich** as its interim director. | [*New York Times*](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/03/arts/design/leslie-lohman-museum-interim-director.html?ref=hyperallergic.com)

**Phoenix Art Museum (PhxArt)** has named **Tim Rodgers** as the museum’s Sybil Harrington Director and CEO. | [Press release](https://resnicow.com/client-news/tim-rodgers-appointed-sybil-harrington-director-and-ceo-phoenix-art-museum?ref=hyperallergic.com)

The **Centre Pompidou** re-appointed **Serge Lasvignes** as the museum’s president. | [*Artforum*](https://www.artforum.com/news/serge-lasvignes-to-serve-second-term-as-centre-pompidou-president-82689?ref=hyperallergic.com)

The **Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts** at Washington University, St. Louis granted the 2020 Stone & DeGuire Contemporary Art Awards to **Lyndon Barrois Jr.** and **Wyndi DeSouza**. | [Press release](https://samfoxschool.wustl.edu/news/13808?%5Fga=2.19202552.1524954726.1586443737-1332407900.1586443737&ref=hyperallergic.com)

The **FHNW Academy of Art and Design** appointed **Claudia Perren** as its director. | [*Artforum*](https://www.artforum.com/news/claudia-perren-named-director-of-basel-s-fnhw-academy-of-art-and-design-82698?ref=hyperallergic.com)

Michigan’s **Cranbrook Academy of Art and Art Museum** selected the new heads of painting, **Martha Mysko** and **Willie Wayne Smith**, and the new head of photography, **Chris Fraser**. | [*Art Newspaper*](https://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/serge-lasvignes-re-appointed-as-president-of-centre-pompidou?ref=hyperallergic.com)

## In Memoriam

**Helène Aylon** (1931­–2020), ecofeminist artist | [*ARTnews*](https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/helene-aylon-dead-coronavirus-1202683365/?ref=hyperallergic.com)

**Anne Bass** (1941–2020), ballet philanthropist | [*Vogue*](https://www.vogue.com/article/anne-bass-obituary?ref=hyperallergic.com)

**Honor Blackman** (1925–2020), Pussy Galore actress | [*Guardian*](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/apr/06/honor-blackman-james-bond-pussy-galore-avengers-dies-aged-94?ref=hyperallergic.com)

**Jeffery Camp** (1923–2020), British painter | [*Artforum*](https://www.artforum.com/news/jeffery-camp-1923-2020-82687?ref=hyperallergic.com)

**Renato Danese** (1944–2020), Chelsea gallerist | [*ARTnews*](https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/renato-danese-dead-1202683024/?ref=hyperallergic.com)

**Kate Johnson** (1969–2020), video artist and filmmaker | [18th Street](https://18thstreet.org/in-memory-kate-johnson/?ref=hyperallergic.com)

**Michael McKinnell** (1935–2020), Brutalist architect | [*New York Times*](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/04/arts/design/michael-mckinnell-dead-coronavirus.html?ref=hyperallergic.com)

**Marlo Pascual** (1972–2020), found image artist | [*ARTnews*](https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/marlo-pascual-dead-1202683118/?ref=hyperallergic.com)

**John Prine** (1946–2020), country-folk singer | [*Rolling Stone*](https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-country/john-prine-obit-253684/?ref=hyperallergic.com)

**Suellen Rocca** (1943–2020), Hairy Who cofounder | [*New York Times*](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/04/arts/suellen-rocca-dead.html?ref=hyperallergic.com)

**Chynna Rogers** (1994–2020), model and rapper | [Pitchfork](https://pitchfork.com/news/chynna-dead-at-25/?verso=true&ref=hyperallergic.com)

**Sergio Rossi** (1935–2020), Italian shoe designer | [*Harper’s Bazaar*](https://www.harpersbazaar.com/fashion/designers/a32034331/sergio-rossi-death/?ref=hyperallergic.com)

**Bill Withers** (1938–2020), singer-songwriter | [Associated Press](https://apnews.com/e19138ee60f29a319e45bcfba3e39331?ref=hyperallergic.com)

**Christina** **Monet Zilkha** (1959–2020), new wave singer and art critic | [NPR](https://www.npr.org/2020/04/02/825946888/cristina-monet-zilkha-singer-who-fused-punks-sneer-to-disco-s-bounce-dead-at-61?ref=hyperallergic.com)