Advocacy & Public Policy Committee News v. 11 n. 12, December 2025

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

• Asfour, Nana. “Opinion | To Love, to Honor, to Exist: Palestinian Artists on War and Loss.” The New York Times, December 30, 2025. [paywall]

• Dalbow, Tara Anne. “How Artists Responded to 2025’s Surging ICE Raids.” ARTnews, December 19, 2025.

• Dunbar, Francess Archer. “Miami Artist Group Calls for Art Basel 2026 Boycott.” Hyperallergic, December 6, 2025. 

• Farfan, Isa. “New York Graffiti Shows ICE Arresting the Statue of Liberty.” Hyperallergic, December 12, 2025.

• Lawson-Tancred, Jo. “Pussy Riot Ruled an ‘Extremist’ Organization by Russian Court.” Artnet News, December 15, 2025.

• News Desk. “Artists Rally for First Amendment Rights at NYC’s Federal Hall.” Artforum, December 17, 2025. 

Copyright & Licensing; Open Access

• Brittain, Blake. “Adobe Sued for Allegedly Misusing Authors’ Work in AI Training.” Reuters, December 17, 2025.

• Brittain, Blake. “Google Lawsuit Says Data Scraping Company Uses Fake Searches to Steal Web Content.” Reuters, December 19, 2025. 

• Perlmutter, Shira, and George Thuronyi. “Year in Review: The U.S. Copyright Office.” Copyright: Creativity at Work, Library of Congress Blog, December 29, 2025. 

• Peters, Mitchell. “Spotify Music Library Scraped by Pirate Activist Group.” Billboard, December 21, 2025. 

• Treisman, Rachel. “The Cultural Works Becoming Public Domain in 2026, from Betty Boop to Nancy Drew.” NPR, December 26, 2025. 

• Tucker, Ashley. “Lifecycle of Copyright: 1930 Works in the Public Domain.” Copyright: Creativity at Work, Library of Congress Blog, December 31, 2025.

Funding

• Fahrenthold, David A., Shane Goldmacher, Tyler Pager, and Theodore Schleifer. “Biden Has Raised Little of What He Needs to Build a Presidential Library.” The New York Times, December 13, 2025. [paywall]

• Farfan, Isa. “Will Canadian Visual Artists Finally See Resale Royalties?” Hyperallergic, December 5, 2023.

• Farfan, Isa. “Warhol Foundation Awards 31 Arts Writing Grants.” Hyperallergic, December 3, 2023.

• Mason, Amelia and Andrea Shea. “Massachusetts art museums look back on a tumultuous year.” WBUR, December 18, 2025.

• Nayyar, Rhea. “Louvre Museum to Hike Entry Fee Amid Heist Fallout.” Hyperallergic, December 1, 2025.

Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Access (IDEA)

• Battaglia, Andy. “Pope Leo Repatriates Indigenous Artifacts from Vatican Back to Canada.” ARTnews, December 12, 2025. 

• Eanet, Lindsay. “Fighting Anti-Queer Backlash with Citizen Archivists.” In These Times, December 15, 2025.

• Folta, James. “You Can Help Build the First Public Library in Gaza since the Genocide Began.” Literary Hub, December 8, 2025.

• Solomon, Tessa. “Texas State University Cancels Black History 101 Mobile Museum Visit, Prompting ACLU Challenge.” ARTnews, December 18, 2025.

Intellectual Freedom/Access to Information

• Forrest, Brett. “New Air Force Academy Guidance Triggers Free Speech, Academic Freedom Concerns.” KOAA News5, December 2, 2025.

• Hayes, Kelly. “You Can’t Fight Fascism While Defunding Libraries.” Organizing My Thoughts, December 3, 2025. 

• Peet, Lisa. “Supreme Court Will Not Hear Little v. Llano County.” Library Journal, December 16, 2025. 

• Riley, John. “University of Oklahoma Fires Transgender TA Who Failed Student.” Metro Weekly, December 26, 2025.

• Soloman, Tessa. “In 2025, Censorship and Firings Defined a Fractured Art World.” ARTNews, December 29, 2025.

• Wang, Claire. “US Librarians Tackle ‘Manufactured Crisis’ of Book Bans to Protect LGBTQ+ Rights.” The Guardian, December 15, 2025.

• Whitford, Emma. “Oklahoma TA On Leave After Student Claims Religious Discrimination.” Inside Higher Ed., December 2, 2025.

Technology and Digital Privacy

• Ansari, Hibah. “Lawmakers Renew Push to Regulate Kids’ Speech Online Despite Speech Protections.” American Civil Liberties Union, December 22, 2025.

• Gurley, Gabrielle. “Demands for Data Center Moratoriums Surge.” The American Prospect, December 22, 2025.

• Klosowski, Thorin. “Surveillance Self-Defense: 2025 Year in Review,” Electric Frontier Foundation, January 1, 2026.

• Michael, Chris. “Tourists to US would have to reveal five years of social media activity under new Trump plan.” The Guardian, December 10, 2025.

Workplace

• Burgess, Katherine. “Union push is about more than pay, library workers say.” MLK50: Justice Through Journalism, December 3, 2025.

• Le Stradic, Ségolène and Ana Castelain. “Louvre Museum Staff Go on Daylong Strike, Shutting Out Tourists.” The New York Times, December 15, 2025. [paywall]

• Niiler, Eric. “Research Library at NASA’s Goddard Space and Flight Center to Close Friday.” The New York Times, December 31, 2025. [paywall]

• Stromberg, Matt. “LACMA Workers Vote Overwhelmingly to Unionize.” Hyperallergic, December 18, 2025.

• Tebben, Susan. “Columbus library workers make union plan official.” Ohio Capital Journal, December 17, 2025.

• U.S. Government Accountability Office. “Public Libraries: Many Buildings Are Reported to Be in Poor Condition, with Increasing Deferred Maintenance.” December 18, 2025.  

Miscellaneous

• Hughes, William. “Read This: How Mubi has been operating in the wake of its big nasty funding controversy.” Paste, December 31, 2025.

• Porter, Catherine. “This Museum Housed 120,000 Works of Art. Now It’s Empty.” The New York Times, December December 21, 2025. [paywall]

• Schuessler, Jennifer. “At the National Archives, a Deep Dive Into the American Story.” The New York Times, December 5, 2025. [paywall]

Special News Alert: 47th Presidential Administration and Cultural Heritage

• Boucher, Brian. “Trump Reappoints Mary Anne Carter, From His First Term, as NEA Chair.” ARTnews.com, December 19, 2025. 

• Carrigan, Margaret and Sarah Cascone. “White House Pressures Smithsonian to Comply With Review or Risk Funding Loss.” Artnet News, December 22, 2025.

• Farfan, Isa. “How Trump Impacted Arts and Culture in 2025.” Hyperallergic, December 17, 2025.

• Farfan, Isa. “Museum Grants Terminated by Trump Reinstated After Court Order.” Hyperallergic, December 9, 2025.

• Limbong, Andrew. “Libraries and museums get federal funding back after Trump cuts.” NPR, December 4, 2025.

• Mazzei, Patricia. “The 85-Year-Old Activist Trying to Block the Trump Presidential Library Plan.” The New York Times, December 2, 2025.

• Nayyar, Rhea. “White House Renews Threats to Smithsonian Institution.” Hyperallergic, December 22, 2025.

• Zaru, Deena, et al. “University Presidents Reflect on Academic Freedom amid Trump’s Push to Reshape Higher Education.” ABC News, December 11, 2025.

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