The Palisades fire approaches the Getty Villa in Pacific Palisades on Tuesday, January 7, 2025. The building behind is Villa de Leon. Photo: Hans Gutknecht/MediaNews Group/ Los Angeles Daily News via Getty Images.

Major Art Institutions Launch $12 Million Fire Relief Fund for L.A. Artists

A coalition of local and international cultural institutions, led by the J. Paul Getty Trust, have announced a $12 million emergency relief fund for members of the Los Angeles arts community affected by the wildfires that have devastated the city since January 7.

Via Artnet

Under Trump, national arts funding is in question. In Chicago, can the tap stay on?

Local artists like Johnson have, in recent years, benefited from a grant program run by the city’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE) that gives money directly to individual artists, performers and filmmakers.

This year, that grantmaking is under close scrutiny as COVID relief monies dry up, philanthropic support for the arts shifts and the level of federal arts funding becomes a glaring question mark during a second Donald Trump presidency. During his first term, Trump became the first president of either party to propose defunding the National Endowment for the Arts — an effort that ultimately failed.

Chicago, meanwhile, is accepting a new round of applications for its direct-to-artist grant program until Jan. 15. Advocates and artists alike say this program is a steadying force in an arts economy in major flux. And while the cultural affairs department has pledged to keep it, officials won’t say how much funding will be available to the program this year.

Via WBEZ

In an Extravagant New Gallery, Nick Cave Goes Big in Bronze

The typical gallerist moving to TriBeCa spends a small fortune making their new space look like the derelict former warehouses that originally drew artists downtown because they were cheap. It’s the kind of contradiction that makes the art world what it is — an over-the-top luxury business with a disingenuous devotion to Minimalism. But it can feel a little grating sometimes, and that’s why I was so delighted with the frank ostentation of Jack Shainman Gallery’s new TriBeCa flagship at 46 Lafayette Street, and of its complementary opening show, “Nick Cave: Amalgams and Graphts.”

Via NYT