Advocacy & Public Policy Committee News Alerts v. 12 n. 3, March 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

• Banfield, Devon. “Toronto AIDS Memorial at Risk? Activists Push Back on Redesign.” NOW Toronto, March 21, 2026.

• Battaglia, Andy. “Collective Climate Action Implemented by Los Angeles Arts Institutions.” ARTnews, March 10, 2026. 

• Battaglia, Andy. “Statue Removed from Delaware During Black Lives Matter Protests to Be Reinstated in Washington D.C.” ARTnews, March 23, 2026. 

• Farfan, Isa. “Plan to Close DePaul Art Museum Faces Community Backlash.”  Hyperallergic. March 3, 2026. 

• Farfan, Isa. “The Tender Work of Preserving Renee Good’s Memorial.” Hyperallergic, March 16, 2026. 

• Lawson-Tancred, Jo. “Venice Biennale Artists Push to Ban U.S., Israel, and Russia From Exhibition.” Artnet News, March 31, 2026.

• Nayyar, Rhea. “Dozens of Venice Biennale Artists Demand Israel’s Exclusion.”  Hyperallergic. March 17, 2026.

• Woodham, Ed. “Social Malpractice in the Age of Cultural Compliance.” Hyperallergic, March 25, 2026.

Copyright & Licensing; Open Access

• Butler, Colin. “Why Much of Canada’s National Art Collection Isn’t Online.” CBC News, March 1, 2026.

• Gedlu, Betty. “Supreme Court Agrees With EFF: ISPs Don't Have To Be Copyright Enforcers.” Electronic Frontier Foundation, March 26, 2026.

• Nayyar, Rhea. “Forget About Getting Your AI Art Copyrighted.”  Hyperallergic. March 6, 2026.

Funding

• American Library Association. "After Blocking Cuts to FY 2026 Funding, Library Advocates Call for Boost in Federal Funding for FY 2027."  March 5, 2026.

• Benzine, Vittoria. “Meryl Streep Makes Seven-Figure Donation to National Women’s History Museum.” Artnet News, March 18, 2026. 

• Harris, Gareth. “British Museum secures £5m sponsorship for Bayeux Tapestry display.” Art Newspaper, March 2, 2026. 

• Op de Beeck, Nathalie. “FY2027 Budget Process Begins, with Library Line Items.” Publisher’s Weekly, March 20, 2026.

• Short, Aaron. “Can Diya Vij Make NYC More Affordable for Artists?” Hyperallergic, March 3, 2026.

Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Access (IDEA)

• Cieslik, Emma. “Meet the Woman Who Made Museums More Accessible.” Hyperallergic, March 16, 2026.

• Davich, Julie Brener. “At Making Their Mark Forum, Art Figures Debate Gender Inequities in the Market and the Museum.” ARTnews, March 10, 2026. 

• Durón, Maximilíano. “South Carolina’s International African American Museum Officially Acquires Earliest Known Daguerreotypes of Enslaved Americans.” ARTnews, March 13, 2026.

• Farris, Phoebe. “Indigenous Women Artists Representing at the Whitney Biennial 2026.” Cultural Survival Quarterly. March 24, 2026.

• Ironcloud, Petala. “The Met Touted Her as Its First Native American Curator. Amid Criticism, She Quietly Left.” ARTnews, March 31, 2026. 

• Mohamed, Nasser. “Don’t Believe What Art Basel Qatar Is Trying to Sell You.” Hyperallergic, March 10, 2026. 

• Native News Online. “19th Stop in San Jacinto, California, NABS Continues to Collect Crucial Stories Across Indian Country, Announced.” Native News Online, March 12, 2026.

• Paulson, Michael. “Playwrights Horizons Settles Case Over Discounts for People of Color.” The New York Times, March 17, 2026. [paywall]

• Stromberg, Matt. “Artists Grapple With Cesar Chávez’s Legacy After Abuse Allegations.” Hyperallergic, March 20, 2026. 

Intellectual Freedom/Access to Information

• American Library Association. "'Dangerous' Bill Inviting Government Censorship Passes House Committee."  March 18, 2026.

• Asaf, Seher. “‘Unusually Steep’ Decline in U.S. University Autonomy, Index Shows.” Inside Higher Ed, March 20, 2026.

• Farfan, Isa. “Israel Reportedly Considers Banning Artist and NYC First Lady Rama Duwaji.” Hyperallergic, March 20, 2026.

• Farfan, Isa and Valentina Di Liscia. “Text Messages Reveal How University of North Texas Leaders Axed an Anti-ICE Show.” Hyperallergic, March 11, 2026.

• Herbert, William A., Isaac Kamola, Timothy Reese Cain, Erin Ward, Anita Levy, Katheryn Ritchie, and Ariana Gonzalez. “Academic Freedom and Collective Bargaining: A Joint Report by the National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professions and the AAUP’s Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom.” AAUP, March 2026.

• Matisse, Jonathan. “Tennessee librarian fired for refusing to move more than 100 books from children’s to adult section.” Associated Press, March 31, 2026.

Technology and Digital Privacy

• Bahr, Will. “Minecraft’s Uncensored Library Adds a United States Wing,” The New York Times, March 11, 2026. [paywall] 

• Electronic Privacy Information Center. “Jury Finds Meta and Google Negligent in Landmark Social Media Addiction Case.” March 25, 2026.

• Jancer, Matt. “TikTok Won't Introduce End-to-End Encryption.” VICE, March 6, 2026.

• Nickelsburg, Monica. “Washington passes new AI laws to crack down on misinformation, protect minors.” KUOW, March 24, 2026. 

• Welk, Brian. “Sora Is Dead at OpenAI, and So Is Its Deal with Disney, but the AI Video Battle Is Just Beginning.” IndieWire, March 24, 2026. 

Workplace

• Aponte, Claudia Irizarry. “NYU Faculty Strike as Union and University Reach Impasse on Wages.” The City, March 23, 2026. 

• Peet, Lisa. “ALA Staff to Unionize.” Library Journal, March 25, 2026.

• Solomon, Tessa. “Guggenheim Union Rallies Outside Carol Bove Reception for New Contract.” ARTnews, March 5, 2026. 

Miscellaneous

• Artforum. “SVA Says It Will End Curatorial Practice Master’s Program.” Artforum, March 2, 2026.

• Battaglia, Andy. “Mexican Culture Ministry Calls on eBay to Halt Sales of Pre-Columbian Artifacts.” ARTnews, March 20, 2026. 

• Cassady, Daniel. “Congress Moves to Expand Holocaust Art Restitution Claims.” ARTnews, March 18, 2026. 

• Cheshire, Lee, and Elena Goukassian. “Exclusive | The World’s 100 Most Visited Art Museums in 2025: New Venues a Big Hit with Visitors.” The Art Newspaper. March 31, 2026.

• Greenberger, Alex. “Artists and Art Professionals Denounce Mexico’s Handling of Resurfaced Art Collection: ‘An Institutional Blunder.’” ARTnews, March 16, 2026. 

• Schuessler, Jennifer. “At the National Archives, the Declaration Gets More Company.” The New York Times, March 31, 2026. [paywall]

Special News Alert: 47th Presidential Administration and Cultural Heritage

• Artforum. “Board Votes Unanimously to Shut Down Kennedy Center for 2 Years.” Artforum, March 18, 2026. 

• Artforum. “DOGE Canceled Museum Grant for HVAC Systems After ChatGPT Flagged It As DEI.” Artform, March 17, 2026.

• Bahr, Sarah. “Tracking Trump’s Efforts to Reshape Cultural Institutions.” The New York Times, March 27, 2026. [paywall]

• Boucher, Brian. “Where Did the IMLS’s Funding for Museums and Libraries Go? Into Trump’s ‘Freedom Truck’ Road Show, It Seems.” ARTnews, March 5, 2026. 

• Cassady, Daniel. “Trump Installs Christopher Columbus Statue on White House Grounds.” ARTnews, March 23, 2026. 

• Cieslik, Emma. “‘Jeffrey Epstein Walk of Shame’ Pops Up in DC.” Hyperallergic, March 6, 2026. 

• Cieslik, Emma. “New Protest Art Lampoons Trump’s Gaudy Bathroom Redesign.”  Hyperallergic. March 30, 2026.

• Jacobs, Harrison. “$2 M. NEH Grantee: Artists Would Be ‘Wise’ to Be ‘Unpolitical.’” ARTnews, March 16, 2026. 

• Kinsella, Eileen. “Toppled Monuments Are Reappearing Across the U.S. Under Trump.” Law & Politics. Artnet News, March 25, 2026.

• Lawson-Tancred, Jo. “The Cultural Heritage Sites Damaged by the U.S.-Israel War on Iran.” Law & Politics. Artnet News, March 19, 2026.

• Miller, Leigh Anne. “Underground Railroad Museum Sues Trump Administration Over Canceled Grant.” ARTnews, March 25, 2026.

• Nayyar, Rhea. “US and Israel Strikes Damage 17th-Century Palace in Isfahan.”  Hyperallergic. March 10, 2026. 

• Nguyen, Tina. “The Pentagon formally labels Anthropic a supply-chain risk.” The Verge, March 5, 2026. [paywall]

• Schuessler, Jennifer, and Zachary Small. “A Peek Into Trump’s Planning of America’s 250th Suggests a Religious Focus.” The New York Times, March 18, 2026. [paywall]

• Small, Zachary, Jennifer Schuessler, and Marcus Maddox. “Why Did Trump Officials Award $2 Million to a Small Art School in Queens?” The New York Times, March 16, 2026. [paywall]

• Society of American Archivists. "SAA Monitors the Nomination of Bradford P. Wilson to Be the Next AOTUS." March 12, 2026.

• Tsioulcas, Anastasia. “8 Architecture and Culture Groups Sue Trump and the Kennedy Center Board.” NPR, March 23, 2026. 

• Yuan, Farren Fei. “DHS Appropriates Japanese Artist’s Work in Racist X Post.” Hyperallergic, March 24, 2026.

This issue of News Alerts was compiled by Caroline Clavell, Michele Jennings, Stephanie Kays, Torie Quiñonez, Annie Sollinger, Madison Sussman, and Sarah Wade.