Advocacy & Public Policy Committee News v. 11 n. 4, April 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 

Special News Alert: Trump Administration and Cultural Heritage

Trump Administration and DEI

• Farfan, Isa. “Japanese American National Museum Stands Up for DEI.” Hyperallergic, April 9, 2025.

• Farfan, Isa. “Smithsonian Institution Says It Won’t Remove Anti-Segregation Exhibits.” Hyperallergic, April 28, 2025.

• Hsu, Tiffany. “The White House Frames the Past by Erasing Parts of It.” New York Times, April 5, 2025.

• Jacobs, Harrison. “Metropolitan Museum of Art Director Max Hollein Says Trump Anti-DEI Push ‘Doesn’t Apply to Us.’” ARTnews, April 24, 2025. 

• Nayyar, Rhea. “Harriet Tubman Erased From US Parks Website Without Agency’s Permission.” Hyperallergic, April 8, 2025.

• Wiggins, Christopher. “Trump’s Kennedy Center Scraps All WorldPride Programming.” The Advocate, April 8, 2025.

Federal agency defunding

• Di Liscia, Valentina. “Hundreds of Museum and Library Grants Terminated Overnight.” Hyperallergic, April 10, 2025.

• Limbong, Andrew. “Small and rural libraries are feeling the cuts from President Trump's executive order.” NPR, April 22, 2025.

• Maher, John. “Publishers Ask Congress to Defend Libraries as Federal Library Grant Funding Ends.” Publisher’s Weekly, April 3, 2025.

• Melhado, William. “Trump’s cuts to California State Library lead to hiring freeze and furloughs.” The Sacramento Bee, April 16, 2025.

• Roebuck, Sarah. “Prison libraries brace for staffing and program cuts after IMLS funding loss.” Corrections1, April 9, 2025.

• Schuessler, Jennifer. “American Library Association Sues to Stop Trump Cuts.” New York Times, April 8, 2025.

• Smith, Kateri. “Native American Institutions and the Defunding of Agencies.” First American Art Magazine, April 23, 2025.

• Solomon, Tessa. “Trump’s Sculpture Garden of ‘American Heroes’ Moves Ahead with NEH Funding.” ARTnews, April 11, 2025.

• Solomon, Tessa. “Museum and Library Union Launches Legal Battle Against White House to Stop Cuts.” ARTnews, April 9, 2025. 

Miscellaneous

• Baraniuk, Chris. “Inside the desperate rush to save decades of US scientific data from deletion.” BBC, April 23, 2025.

• Battersby, Matilda. “Books ‘exempt from US Tariffs’ – but Booksellers and Distributors Still Anticipate ‘Major Supply Chain Issues.’” The Bookseller, April 4, 2025. 

• Fu, Veronica. “What Should Libraries Do in the Face of Trump’s Tariffs?” Katina Magazine, April 24, 2025.

• O’Keefe, Ed, and Kathryn Watson. “Trump Ousts Biden-Appointed Holocaust Museum Board Members, Including Doug Emhoff.” CBS News, April 29, 2025.

• Solomon, Tessa. “Climate Activist Who Targeted Degas Sculpture Found Guilty of ‘Crime Against the United States.’” ARTnews, April 8, 2025.

• Sorapuru, Julian E.J., and A.Z. Madonna. “An archivist’s job is to ‘keep the receipts.’ What happens when they can’t do their job?” Boston Globe, April 18, 2025.

Art & Activism

• Davis, Ben. “Images of Protest Move Differently Now. We Are Still Catching Up.” Artnet News, April 9, 2025.

• Farfan, Isa. “17,000 Children’s Shoes Line Pennsylvania Avenue in Moving Gaza Memorial.” Hyperallergic, April 7, 2025. 

• Farfan, Isa. “Activist Convicted in Degas Sculpture Action Says He Did It ‘For My Two Children.’” Hyperallergic, April 9, 2025. 

• Farfan, Isa. “Art Scholars Pledge to Boycott Columbia University.” Hyperallergic, April 4, 2025. 

• Hernández, Javier C., Rachel Saltz, and Amanda Webster. “Climate Activists Interrupt New York City Ballet Performance.” New York Times, April 23, 2025.

• Pontone, Maya. “Climate Protesters Target NYC’s Iconic ‘Charging Bull’ in Earth Day Protest.” Hyperallergic, April 22, 2025.

Copyright & Licensing; Open Access

• Allison, Annie. “U.S. Copyright Office Issues Highly Anticipated Report on Copyrightability of AI-Generated Works.” Reuters, April 2, 2025. 

• Ho, Karen K. “Artist Stuart Semple Loses Trademark Infringement Lawsuit to Yves Klein Estate.” ARTnews, April 30, 2025. 

• Landymore, Frank. “Meta Says It’s Okay to Feed Copyrighted Books Into Its AI Model Because They Have No ‘Economic Value.’” Futurism, April 19, 2025.

• Nazru, Ami. “Japanese Lawmakers Weigh In On Legality Of AI-Generated Ghibli-Style Art." Animehunch, April 19, 2025.

• Solomon, Tessa. “Copyright Case Between Deborah Roberts and Richard Beavers Gallery ‘Amicably Resolved.’” ARTnews, April 14, 2025. 

Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Access (IDEA)

• Farfan, Isa. “Is the Smithsonian Museum of the American Latino Finally Moving Forward?” Hyperallergic, April 20, 2025.

• Graeber, Laurel. “New Voices Help Museums Tell New (or Forgotten) Stories.” New York Times, April 22, 2025.

• Middleton, Margaret. “Amid Attacks on Trans Rights, Museum Staff Push for All-Gender Restrooms.” Hyperallergic, April 20, 2025.

• Pontone, Maya. “Brooklyn Welcomes a New Center for Formerly Incarcerated Artists.” Hyperallergic, April 6, 2025.

• Thomas, Alexandra M. “A Celebrated Librarian’s Concealed Life.” Hyperallergic, April 6, 2025.

• Villa, Angelica. “Women Artists Report Facing Underrepresentation, Career Setbacks, According to Anonymous Was a Woman Survey.” ARTnews, April 9, 2025. 

Intellectual Freedom/Access to Information

• Aton, Francesca. “Fort Worth Police Return Photographs Seized from Sally Mann Exhibition.” ARTnews, April 25, 2025. 

• Aton, Francesca. “Fort Worth Police Spent $7 K. Visiting New York for Sally Mann Investigation.” ARTnews, April 28, 2025.

• Farfan, Isa. “Republican-Led Bill Would Penalize Texas Museums for ‘Obscene’ Art.” Hyperallergic, April 3, 2025.

• Lamdan, Sarah. “Book Rating Websites as Tools for Censorship.” Intellectual Freedom Blog, April 4, 2025.

• Villa, Angelica. “How a Protest, an Exhibition, and a Faculty Labor Dispute Rocked the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.” ARTnews, April 23, 2025.

• Villa, Angelica. “RISD Students Protest Relocation of Pro-Palestine Art Exhibition.” ARTnews, April 16, 2025.

Technology and Digital Privacy

• Giardina, Carolyn. “CalArts, Chanel Launch Center for Artists and Tech With AI Focus.” ARTnews, April 25, 2025.

• Horvath, Bruna. “Viral AI-Made Art Trends Are Making Artists Even More Worried about Their Futures,” NBC News, April 18, 2025.

• Jacobs, Harrison. “OpenAI CEO Sam Altman Continues to Completely Miss the Point With AI Art.” ARTnews, April 9, 2025.

• Jacobs, Harrison. “Dali Museum Produces Salvador Dali’s Once-Lost Screenplay With Google’s New Generative Video Platform.” ARTnews, April 10, 2025.

Miscellaneous

• Cipolle, Alex V. “Union Rally Targets Walker Art Center.” MPR News, April 11, 2025. 

• Peet, Lisa. “L.A. Libraries React and Recover in the Aftermath of January Wildfires.” Library Journal, April 17, 2025.

• Veillette, Eric. “How Canadian film archives are fighting to save nearly forgotten culture.” Globe and Mail, May 3, 2025.

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