Posts

Commission of Fine Arts Approves Trump’s Proposed White House Ballroom

On Thursday, President Donald Trump came one step closer to building his $400 million White House ballroom, when an arts commission packed with allies approved designs for the project. Bypassing the usual review process—which at this stage of planning would normally have entailed only a preliminary vote—the Commission of Fine Arts gave its final approval of the proposal. The seven-person commission voted six-to-zero in favor of the plans, meaning they will not be subject to further review; the ballroom’s original architect James McCrery recused himself. The vote came despite mass opposition to the project, with the panel’s secretary Thomas Luebke saying during the meeting that he had received thousands of messages from concerned members of the public across the country. Luebke noted that “The general comments were that they were concerned about the illegal demolition without permits or oversight, inappropriate scale that will dwarf the White House, the violation of historic preserva...
Post a Comment
Read more

Isaiah Zagar, The Artist Behind Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens, Has Died at 86

Image
Isaiah Zagar, an artist who created one of Philadelphia’s great public art attractions, died on February 19 due to complications from heart failure and Parkinson’s Disease, which he had been diagnosed with in 2023. His death was confirmed by Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens (PMG), the nonprofit organization that tends to the eponymous artwork. His creations “defined the spirit of Philadelphia,” writes the Philadelphia Inquirer . Zagar’s work is included in the collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the Fabric Workshop and Museum, the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, and the Brandywine Workshop and Archives. He received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Pew Charitable Trusts. Born in Philadelphia, Zagar was raised in Brooklyn and earned a BFA in painting from New York’s Pratt Institute. At age 19, he discovered a sprawling art environment created in Woodstock, New York, by untrained artist Clarence Schmidt, which in...
Post a Comment
Read more

Academy Series underway Saturday as Hurricanes teams kick off

Sevens rugby took the spotlight a fortnight ago, now it is the start of the fifteens game for many players in the wider region. The second annual Sam Doyle Memorial Cup series takes place at Massey University, Palmerston North over the next fortnight. The series sees the Academy sides of Wellington, Hawke’s Bay and Manawatu...
Post a Comment
Read more

In Congress Deposition, Billionaire Collector Les Wexner Claims He Was ‘Conned’ by Jeffrey Epstein

Les Wexner, the billionaire founder of L Brands and a major art collector, gave testimony to the US House of Representatives on Wednesday, in a closed door deposition from his home in New Albany, Ohio. In an opening statement to the House Oversight Committee, which is conducting an investigation into the Jeffrey Epstein case, Wexner said he had been “naive, foolish, and gullible” for trusting Epstein. “I was naive, foolish, and gullible to put any trust in Jeffrey Epstein. He was a con man,” Wexner said in a prepared statement that was made available to media. “While I was conned, I have done nothing wrong and have nothing to hide.” While Wexner’s testimony was not made public, Democratic lawmakers said that the 88-year-old retail magnate provided few new details and said that he could not remember key events. Primarily, he denied wrongdoing and said he had never witnessed or had knowledge of Epstein’s criminal conduct. He also rejected claims that he had sexual contact with Epstein...
Post a Comment
Read more

Fossil in Montana Seen as Evidence of Vicious Tyrannosaurus Attack

A rare fossil in the collection of the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, Montana, is the subject of new research that suggests its shows signs of an attack by a Tyrannosaurus rex. As reported by Phys.org, the skull of an Edmontosaurus—a duck-billed creature that counts among the last dinosaurs to exist—has a Tyrannosaurus tooth lodged within it in a way that indicates a fateful bite to the face. The skull, found in 2005 in eastern Montana and currently on display in the Museum of the Rockies’s Hall of Horns and Teeth, is the subject of a paper published in the journal PeerJ . (Its not-so-snappy title: “Behavioral implications of an embedded tyrannosaurid tooth and associated tooth marks on an articulated skull of Edmontosaurus from the Hell Creek Formation, Montana.”) “Although bite marks on bones are relatively common, finding an embedded tooth is extremely rare,” said Taia Wyenberg-Henzler, a University of Alberta doctoral student who collaborated on the paper with Museum of the...
Post a Comment
Read more

What happened 100 years ago Part 2: Representative rugby in 1926

A look back at how the season panned out 100 years ago. A recap of the 1926 representative season below. As discussed in part 1 of this series looking at the 1926 club and grassroots season, Athletic won the Senior Club Championship with University runners-up, ending the multi-year dominance of Petone and Poneke. The representative season...
Post a Comment
Read more

South African Court Rejects Gabrielle Goliath’s Bid to Reinstate Venice Biennale Pavilion

A South African high court has dismissed artist Gabrielle Goliath’s last-ditch bid to overturn the cancellation of her Venice Biennale pavilion, rejecting the application just hours before the exhibition’s submission deadline. Goliath’s proposed pavilion, titled Elegy , was selected last month by the nonprofit Art Periodic to represent South Africa at the upcoming Venice Biennale, with Ingrid Masondo as curator. Days later, however, South African culture minister Gayton McKenzie canceled the selection, calling the work “highly divisive.” The decision came just eight days before participating nations must finalize their projects, raising fears that South Africa could be left without a pavilion at the 61st Venice Biennale, which opens in May. In their application, Goliath and Masondo argued that McKenzie lacked the contractual authority to cancel their selection and that his decision infringed on the artist’s constitutional right to freedom of expression, as first reported by Artnet...
Post a Comment
Read more