Protesting art and putting on a show

Plus, the National Symphony Orchestra courts patriotic donors.

It’s cold out!

Girl with Cherries by Marco d’Oggiono (1491–95)

We don’t really know if the United States will make an appearance at the 2026 Venice Biennale—one of the biggest international art and architecture events, which happens every two years. In a way it’s kind of an Olympics of art: each country selects an artist (or a few) to represent it. In 2024, the artist Jeffrey Gibson became the first Indigenous artist to exhibit a solo show for the U.S.’s pavilion. Next year, there may not even be a U.S. pavilion.

Why’s that? It seems the financing has gone all wrong. In the U.S., the artist commission (plus additional costs like shipping) is covered only partially by government funding (typically, a $375,000 grant from the State Department), and the remaining hundreds of thousands—or even millions—in expenses must be covered through corporate sponsorship, private philanthropy, and institutional dollars. Months ago, the Department reportedly selected the sculptor Robert Lazzarini for the commission, but before the choice could even be announced, plans for institutional funding through the University of South Florida collapsed, the Washington Post reported. Lazzarini’s commission was supposed to be announced in September. The Biennale opens May 6.

The art industry intelligence platform Baer Faxt reported that Utah-born, Mexico-based sculptor Alma Allen will now represent the U.S. in Venice, though ArtNews’s sources say that the government can’t make this announcement until the shutdown is over. Whether this will actually be the case remains to be seen.

Maybe you already saw that the password for the Louvre’s security system at the time of the heist was “Louvre,” but it bears repeating. A report published last week also said that the museum’s administration, over decades, prioritized high-profile acquisitions over completing essential security upgrades, Le Monde reported. So far, we also know that one of the suspects is a 39-year-old motocross influencer who, at one time, was a security guard at Paris’s Centre Pompidou, the arts hub that is now closed for renovations until 2030, Le Parisien reported.

Amid all of this, the Louvre added its first contemporary female artist to its permanent collection, Le Monde reported. The Dutch-South African painter Marlene Dumas is known for her close-up, colorful portraiture. “Her work fits into a form of eternity and essentiality that are the very reason for the Louvre’s existence,” said Donatien Grau, adviser for contemporary programs at the museum.

Also in Paris: A major protest of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, which performed at the Philharmonie de Paris on Thursday, Le Monde reported. Four people have been arrested for disrupting the concert, including one man who lit and carried a flare through the auditorium. Palestine Action France claimed responsibility for the action, writing on Instagram: “In the face of the [Philharmonie de Paris’s] refusal to listen during an ongoing, proven genocide, we had no other choice: It was a moral duty to do everything possible to prevent the concert from going ahead.” The United Nations recently reported that Israel has rejected more than 100 aid requests since Gaza ceasefire earlier in October.

French culture minister Rachida Dati and Aurore Bergé, minister for gender equality, condemned the protest in a joint statement, calling the action antisemitic. The concert itself had higher security measures than usual, including the presence of both uniformed and plain clothes police.

The orchestra received a standing ovation and finished the concert with the Israeli national anthem, which the Philharmonie stressed to Le Monde in a statement, was not planned.

Philharmonie de Paris director Laurent Bayle told the paper: “It is troubling to observe how tensions around artistic projects are growing, and will surely continue to increase…intersecting with a multitude of social issues. The situation raises new questions about how institutions should justify their programming choices, as well as their ability to stand by them.”

Opera star Aigul Akhtmetshina released a statement after the protest, which may have been directed toward this protest, similar stories, or even the many recent controversies about programming Putin allies at opera houses worldwide. The concert pianist Anna Geniushene released a similar statement to Slipped Disc. Both musicians were born in Russia.

Akhtmetshina wrote, in part:

In these times it feels deeply wrong that artists constantly stand under pressure—because of politics, religion, nationality or simply because society needs somewhere to unload its frustration. Too often the easiest target becomes art. But our mission is the opposite of division. Even in the darkest times—we are here to bring people together.

She spoke out against the cancellation of artists on the basis of nationality, gender, race, identity, or politics. (One of those is starkly different than the others, I might point out.) She also pointed to a 1980 Unesco decree that “artistic creation must be protected from political pressure.” But this is not the exact phrasing of Unesco’s 1980 Recommendation Concerning the Status of the Artist. The 34-page statement doesn’t exactly talk about political pressure in this way, but says that member states have a “duty to protect, defend, and assist artists and their freedom of creation.”

This is a great ambition. But in practice, art is very often shaped by political pressure—or even used is one that does not hold up to the reality of the world in which we find ourselves because…where is the money coming from? You only have to look at the Trump administration’s crack down on arts funding and its agenda to promote patriotism through art, particularly ahead of the Semiquicentennial. Or Saudi Arabia’s multi-billion dollar investment in the arts.

We should always push for artistic freedom and the protection of artists. But we should not be naive enough to suggest that there never is political motivation behind artistic programming or commissions.

How do you get the Silicon Valley elite excited about ballet? San Francisco Ballet is betting on its rebrand to build on its audience. The company—which has the second biggest budget of any in the U.S., after New York City Ballet—just completed the rollout of its biggest rebrand in 15 years, for which it worked with design agency Burnkit and advertising agency The Shipyard and photography by Kristian Schuller.

The vivid imagery is distinctively contemporary, and leans into the idea of “innovation”—an unexpected but welcome choice for a centuries-old art form. “As one of the world’s preeminent ballet companies and an ambassador for the spirit of innovation and creativity in San Francisco and across the West Coast, SF Ballet’s brand cements a new era for us and evokes the look and feel of experiencing live dance of the highest caliber: dynamic, transcendent, and endlessly inspiring,” said executive director Branislav Henselmann in a press release.

Below the paywall: The Philadelphia Art Museum’s new legal battle, opera companies doing good, a very exciting ballet promotion, and more.