Trump Axes Holocaust Museum Board Members, San Fran’s Pier 29 to Become Exhibition Space, Germany’s New Culture Minister Slated: Morning Links for April 30, 2025
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The Headlines
TRUMP AXES HOLOCAUST MUSEUM BOARD MEMBERS. The Trump administration has fired US Holocaust Memorial Museum board members nominated by former president Joe Biden, including former second gentleman Doug Emhoff, reports the Washington Post. The White House said it plans to replace them “with steadfast supporters of the State of Israel.” Emhoff, who is Jewish and the husband of former vice president Kamala Harris, commented on social media that “Holocaust remembrance and education should never be politicized. To turn one of the worst atrocities in history into a wedge issue is dangerous — and it dishonors the memory of six million Jews murdered by Nazis that this museum was created to preserve.”
ART ON WATER. San Francisco’s long-vacant Pier 29 warehouse will be converted into a large artist studio and exhibition space by the Community Arts Stabilization Trust (CAST) in partnership with the SF Port Commission, reports Axios. The 47,000-square-foot indoor space, along with a 23,000-square-foot outdoor area, will host a six-month studio residency program called Art + Water, publicly accessible exhibitions, performances, and other creative events. Meanwhile, local author Dave Eggers will spearhead the residency with the city’s Arts Commission-member JD Beltran, according to a statement. “At a time when studio space is ever-less affordable, and art instruction costs a fortune, Art + Water will bring both together in one radically accessible space,” Eggers said.
The Digest
Ames Yavuz gallery in London has opened its new, 2,600-sq.-ft Mayfair space with a show titled “Ellipsis” by Isabel and Alfredo Aquilizan. It is the gallery’s first “European” base. [Ames Yavuz]
Criticism is mounting over the appointment of former journalist Wolfram Weimer as Germany’s new culture minister. Weimer is being faulted for his lack of art world experience, but also his conservative ideas, with some cultural workers expressing concerns he will push a right-leaning agenda, which they warn must not mirror the US administration’s infiltration into the arts sector. [3sat]
The Los Angeles Lakers player Luka Dončić is paying the full $5,000 cost for restoring a mural of deceased Lakers star Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gigi, who perished in a helicopter crash. After the mural was vandalized, its creator, artist Louie Palsino, created a GoFundMe page to help restore it. [The Guardian]
Ai Weiwei has designed a large-scale camouflage netting installation for the forthcoming Art X Freedom art program on Roosevelt Island in New York City. [Dezeen]
Kathleen Reinhardt, who heads the Kolbe Museum in Berlin, will be curating the German pavilion at the forthcoming Venice Biennale. Since Reinhardt began leading the Kolbe Museum, she has fostered exhibitions that connect with contemporary art, making her a “wise choice” according to observers. [Monopol Magazine]
The Kicker
TRUMP PROPAGANDA MACHINES. President Trump is an adept image manipulator, and a few articles are taking a closer look at how he does this, from gilded portraits, to tightening restrictions on what the White House’s official photographer is allowed to document. On that note, renowned White House photographer Pete Souza dissects “how Trump is perverting the presidential photo stream,” in an enlightening piece for Vanity Fair that draws comparisons to past presidents and what these official photographs can show. Similarly, the New Yorker’s Katy Waldman analyzes how Trump uses “A.I. slop” – but not only – to create visual propaganda not unlike the work of royal court painters of old, or some sort of digital cross between the two.
