Advocacy & Public Policy Committee News v. 11 n. 7, July 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

• Farfan, Isa. “Massive Mural of Ashamed Statue of Liberty Emerges in France.” Hyperallergic, July 7, 2025. 

• Giordano, Mari Carmen Barrios. “Anti-Gentrification Protest Targets Mexico City Contemporary Art Museum.” Hyperallergic, July 30, 2025. 

• Greenberger, Alex. “Nan Goldin Addresses Israel’s War in Gaza During Arles Talk: ‘Whose Lives Matter?’” ARTnews, July 10, 2025.

• Pontone, Maya. “Slain Palestinian Boy Honored in Illinois Playground Monument.” Hyperallergic, July 7, 2025. 

• Salfiti, Jad. “In a Culture of Silence, a Berlin Initiative Speaks Up for Palestine.” Hyperallergic, July 9, 2025.

Copyright & Licensing

• “Anthropic faces potential business-ending liability in statutory damages after Judge Alsup certifies class action by Bartz.” Chat GPT Is Eating the World, July 17, 2025

• Brittain, Blake. “US authors suing Anthropic can band together in copyright class action, judge rules.” Reuters, July 17, 2025

• Gold, Ashley. “Hawley and Blumenthal Introduce AI Protection Bill.” Axios, July 21, 2025.

Funding

• Alpasan, Eunice. “Illinois Secretary of State Awards $20M in Grants to More Than 600 Public Libraries Amid Federal Cuts.” WTTW, July 1, 2025.

• Beck, Caroline. “Funding unclear for Indiana’s Dolly Parton Library, but signups still open statewide.” Indianapolis Star, July 28, 2025.

• McGowan, Mary Frances. “Ohio library funding: DeWine signs budget cutting guaranteed funding formula.” Cleveland.com, July 1, 2025.

• Solomon, Tessa. “Donors to Reportedly Pull Funding from Florida University Museum After Proposed Transfer.” ARTnews, July 18, 2025.

Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Access (IDEA) 

• Cassady, Daniel. “Confederate Heritage Group Sues Over Stone Mountain Exhibition.” ARTnews, July 7, 2025. 

• Dayo, Bernard. “With NEA Funding Slashed, Arts Institutions Serving Black Communities Face an Uncertain Future.” ARTnews, July 17, 2025.

• Farfan, Isa. “Framing Heritage Destruction as a Human Rights Violation.” Hyperallergic, July 29, 2025.

• Pontone, Maya. “Artists Decry Centre Pompidou’s Cancellation of Caribbean Art Exhibition.” Hyperallergic, July 14, 2025.

• Walker, Adria R. “‘Art Can Be a Release’: How Black Girls in Art Spaces Is Bridging Cultural Gaps.” The Guardian, July 22, 2025.

Intellectual Freedom/Access to Information

• Anderson, Teresa, et al. “Trust and Integrity: A Research Imperative.” The Scholarly Kitchen, July 9, 2025.

• King, Trevor. “Michigan Library Association launches petition to ‘protect the freedom to read.’” WLNS, July 28, 2025.

• Kinsella, Eileen. “Amy Sherald Pulls Smithsonian Show Over Censorship Concerns.” Artnet News, July 24, 2025. 

• Pontone, Maya. “Yale Art Gallery Withdraws Federal Grant Requests After Trump DEI Ban.” Hyperallergic, July 16, 2025.

• Solomon, Tessa. “In Letter, Artists and Scholars Call for Reinstatement of Whitney ISP Leader Ousted Amid Censorship Controversy.” ARTnews, July 21, 2025.

Technology and Digital Privacy

• Capoot, Ashley. “Anthropic, Google, OpenAI and XAI Granted up to $200 Million for AI Work from Defense Department.” NBC News, July 14, 2025.

• Cole, Robinson. “Supreme Court Upholds Texas Age-Verification Law, Raising LGBTQ+ Privacy Concerns.” National Law Review, July 10, 2025.

• DiBenedetto, Chase. “The Internet Archive is now an official federal documents library.” Mashable, July 25, 2025.

• Farfan, Isa. “New Meta AI Feature Raises Photo Privacy Concerns.” Hyperallergic, July 6, 2025.

• Potter, Abbey, Isabel Brador, and Kate Murray. “New Community of Practice for Exploring Content Provenance and Authenticity in the Age of AI.” The Signal, July 18, 2025.

• Schneider, Matti. “LinkedIn removes hate speech protections for transgender individuals.” Open Terms Archive, July 29, 2025.

• Smart, John. “U.S. Courts Threaten to Outlaw Strong Encryption, Sparking Privacy vs. Security Showdown.” WebProNews, July 21, 2025.

Workplace

• Asefaw, Selina. “A Contract That Checks out: Library Workers at Dartmouth Win Again.” AFSCME, July 11, 2025. 

• Di Liscia, Valentina. “After Pressure, City Saves Jobs at Brooklyn Museum.” Hyperallergic, July 1, 2025.

• Farfan, Isa. “Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco Lays Off 12 Workers.” Hyperallergic, July 25, 2025.

• Kelley, Claire. “Solidarity in Action: Labor, AI, and the Future of Libraries | ALA Annual 2025.” Library Journal, July 16, 2025.

• Murray, Debra. “Louisville Speed Art Museum Employees Win Union Election.” LEO Weekly, July 11, 2025. 

• Winfrey, Anna Lynn. “OCLC laying off central Ohio workers over funding uncertainty, AI future.” USA Today, July 23, 2025.

Special News Alert: 47th Presidential Administration and Cultural Heritage

• Aton, Francesca. “Smithsonian Institution Exhibition Under Review by the White House.” ARTnews, July 7, 2025.

• Aton, Francesca. “Supreme Court Ruling Advances Trump’s Plan for Mass Layoffs of Federal Workers.” ARTnews, July 9, 2025.

• Di Liscia, Valentina. “What Can History Museums Offer in the Trump Era?” Hyperallergic, July 3, 2025. 

• Farfan, Isa. “Andres Serrano Proposes Trump Altar for the Venice Biennale.” Hyperallergic, July 24, 2025. 

• Farfan, Isa. “Chaco Canyon in Danger Under Trump Administration.” Hyperallergic, July 6, 2025.

• Farfan, Isa. “Trump Seeks to Defund Institute of American Indian Arts.” Hyperallergic, July 2, 2025. 

• Ho, Karen K. “Canadian Art Schools See Growth in Interest, Applications, and Enrollment from the US.” ARTnews, July 3, 2025. 

• Ho, Karen K. “President Trump’s Budget Bill Includes $40 M. for Statues at New National Garden of Heroes.” ARTnews, July 1, 2025. 

• Jacobs, Harrison. “Painter Says DHS Stole and Retitled His Work for Social Post About ‘Homeland’s Heritage.’” ARTnews, July 18, 2025. 

• Maher, Kevin. “Checking In on Federal Library Funding.” American Libraries, July 15, 2025.

• News Desk. “Smithsonian Flip-Flops on Erasing Mention of Trump from Impeachment Display.” Artforum, August 4, 2025. 

• News Desk. “Trump Once Again Withdraws United States from UNESCO.” Artforum, July 24, 2025. 

• Pontone, Maya. “Visa Denials Create Hurdles for Artist Residencies.” Hyperallergic, July 20, 2025. 

• Pontone, Maya. “What Were Federal Agents Doing at a Puerto Rican Museum in Chicago?” Hyperallergic, July 10, 2025. 

• Weine, Ken. “How My Museum’s Celebration of America’s 250th Birthday Got Complicated.” Hyperallergic, July 30, 2025. 

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