Advocacy & Public Policy Committee News Alerts v. 12 n. 10, October 2026

Advocacy & Public Policy Committee News support the committee's mission to monitor governmental activities and social justice issues affecting the professional interests of ARLIS/NA and to keep the ARLIS/NA membership informed. The monthly alerts are intended to be conversation starters, help members keep up on public policy issues and alert members to new developments. The articles compiled in the News Alerts bring to the forefront recent news from a range of perspectives designed to elicit discussion; they are not compiled to represent the views of ARLIS as an organization or the members of the Advocacy and Public Policy Committee.

Previous issues can be found here: https://www.arlisna.org/news/appc-news-alert 

Art & Activism 

• Lee, Anna. “Fall of Freedom Returns With Hundreds of Anti-Authoritarian Art Actions.” Hyperallergic. October 1, 2026.

• Lee, Anna. “The MIT Professors Bedazzling Security Cameras to Highlight Campus Surveillance.”  Hyperallergic. October 20, 2026.

• Lee, Anna. “This Ron DeSantis Statue Can’t Take the Heat.” Hyperallergic, October 16, 2026.

• Nayyar, Rhea. “Artists Honor Immigrants in Monuments Across New Jersey.” Hyperallergic, October 1, 2026. 

• Shah, Duaa. “How Art Can Deliver Justice for Refugees.” Hyperallergic, October 23, 2026. 

Copyright & Licensing; Open Access 

• McSherry, Corynne, and Tori Noble. “Rewriting Copyright Law for Generative AI Would Hurt Everyone.” Electronic Frontier Foundation, October 30, 2026.

• Mullin, Joe. “Congress Has Another Site-Blocking Bill, And This One Targets VPNs.” Electronic Frontier Foundation, October 2, 2026.

• Rabinovitch, Ariel. “Library and Archives Canada Cracking down on AI Books amid Copyright Threats.” Global News, October 22, 2026.

Funding 

• Enis, Matt. “Mellon Foundation: Community Based Archives ‘Powerful but Precarious.’” Library Journal, October 5, 2026.

• Lee, Anna. “Mamdani Doubles Grants for NYC Artists.” Hyperallergic. October 2, 2026. 

• Lee, Anna. “NYC to Provide Free Art Supplies to Grantees.” Hyperallergic. October 12, 2026. 

• Nayyar, Rhea. “MoMA, Centre Pompidou, and M+ Announce Novel Collection Alliance.” Hyperallergic. October 30, 2026. 

Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Access (IDEA) 

• Cristiana, Grigore. “In Battle Over Auschwitz Watercolors, Roma Victims Are Getting Left Behind.” Hyperallergic, October 27, 2026. 

• Stromberg, Matt. “Queer Artists Say Tom of Finland Foundation Has Lost Its Way.” Hyperallergic, October 2, 2026. 

• Verán, Cristina. “Indigenizing the Design Canon: Curator Brian Johnson’s ‘Designed to Be Red’ Is a Bold Reclamation of Native American Visual Culture.” Cultural Survival, October 27, 2026.

Intellectual Freedom/Access to Information

• Cochran, Lexi Lonas. “Book bans reach all-time high, led by Texas and Florida and fueled by AI.” The Hill, October 7, 2026. 

• Di Liscia, Valentina. “Hundreds Protest in Colombia After Far-Right President Removes Works From National Museum.” Hyperallergic. October 19, 2026. 

• Italie, Hillel. “PEN America: Nearly 12,000 school book bans in a year, a record high.” AP News. October 5, 2026.

• Lee, Anna. “In South Carolina, Artistic Freedom Is on the Ballot This November.” Hyperallergic. October 30, 2026.

• Legal Defense Fund. “LDF Calls on Congress to Preserve Operations, Access, and Oversight of the National Archives and Records Administration.” Legal Defense Fund. October 28, 2026.

• Wilkening, Susie. “Museums and Censorship: A 2026 Annual Survey of Museum-Goers Data Story.” American Alliance of Museums. October 12, 2026.

Technology and Digital Privacy 

• “AI agents tried to hack Library and Archives Canada website, research firm says.” CBC News, October 1, 2026.

• American Library Association. “ALA showcases outsized impact of library broadband at FCC.” October 14, 2026.

• American Library Association. “Public Library Association and Microsoft announce effort to build responsible AI skills through libraries.” October 22, 2026.

• Ha, Anthony. “Will AI expose the rickety infrastructure of the internet?” TechCrunch, October 24, 2026.

• Klosowski, Thorin. “Happy Opt Out October! Let’s Find Real Alternatives to the Tech Giants.” Electronic Frontier Foundation, October 1, 2026.

• “Meta Fined $25 Billion by New Mexican Court for Violating Privacy During Cambridge Analytica Scandal.” EPIC, October 22, 2026.

• Silberling, Amanda. “You don't need to believe in a god to get a religious exemption from using AI at work.” TechCrunch, October 29, 2026.

• Whittaker, Zack. “Governments are hacking people with 'zero-click' spyware by showing them online ads.” TechCrunch, October 15, 2026.

• Whittaker, Zack. “LibreOffice says 'no AI' is now a software feature.” TechCrunch, October 6, 2026.

Workplace 

• American Library Association. “The State of U.S. Academic Libraries: Findings from the ACRL 2025 Annual Survey.” October 13, 2026. 

• Frank, Nicholas. “Museums Moving Forward Survey Finds Poor Management as Key Reason Why Professionals Leave the Field.” Glasstire, October 17, 2026. 

• Nayyar, Rhea. “Three NYC Museum Unions Ratify Contracts, Averting Strikes.” Hyperallergic. October 2, 2026. 

• Nayyar, Rhea. “Whitney Museum Union Ratifies Contract on Eve of Strike.” Hyperallergic. October 5, 2026.

• Whitford, Emma. “Rutgers Unions Win Academic Freedom for All Unit Members.” Inside Higher Ed. October 19, 2026.

• Witteveen, April. “Proceeding with Caution | Placements and Salaries Survey 2026.” Library Journal, October 19, 2026.

Special News Alert: 47th Presidential Administration and Cultural Heritage

• Boucher, Brian. “After a Museum Explores Homes Destroyed by US-Made Munitions, House Republicans Demand Information on Smithsonian’s Curatorial Process.” ARTnews, October 29, 2026. 

• Lee, Anna. “MoMA Helping “Sanitize” Leon Black’s Reputation, Protesters Say.” Hyperallergic. October 6, 2026.

• Lee, Anna. “Philadelphians to Vote on Permanent Arts and Culture Office on Election Day.” Hyperallergic. October 28, 2026. 

• Nayyar, Rhea. “Congressman Calls on Smithsonian to Document Trump’s “Narcissistic Self-Worship”.” Hyperallergic. October 28, 2026.

• Nayyar, Rhea. “European Parliament Installs Gilded Nude Statue Mocking Trump.” Hyperallergic, October 7, 2026. 

• Nayyar, Rhea. “Utah Groups Sue Trump Administration Over Nine Mile Canyon Construction Project.” Hyperallergic. October 13, 2026.  

• Society of American Archivists. “SAA Signs Letter to Senate and House in Support of Regulating the Papers of the Supreme Court Justices.” October 7, 2026. 

• Society of American Archivists. “SAA Thanks Dr. Lonnie G. Bunch III for his Remarkable Service.” October 22, 2026.

• Treisman, Rachel. “U.S. Historic Preservation Law Faces the Most Serious Threat in Its 60-Year History.” NPR, October 15, 2026.

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Do you use your art or information skills to do justice work, volunteering, or community organizing outside of ARLIS/NA? What kinds of advocacy and action do you think other ARLIS/NA members should get involved with, either in person or virtually?  The Advocacy and Public Policy Committee (APPC) is soliciting suggestions to create a resource list of opportunities for art information professionals to get involved with advocacy and activism inside or outside of the profession. This information will be shared via the monthly news alerts, which are sent to the listserv and posted on the ARLIS/NA website. Please complete our anonymous form: 

Start from Where You Are: A Crowd-sourced List of Opportunities to Take Action

We invite anyone to share this with their non-ARLIS/NA colleagues who are interested in sharing additional opportunities!

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This issue of News Alerts was compiled by Caroline Clavell, Torie Quiñonez, Madison Sussman, and Sarah Wade.