Advocacy & Public Policy Committee News v. 12 n. 1, January 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

• Cieslik, Emma. “New Artwork on National Mall Lampoons Trump-Epstein Birthday Card.” Hyperallergic, January 20, 2026. 

• Farfan, Isa. “Gabrielle Goliath to Seek Legal Action After Axed Venice Biennale Pavilion.” Hyperallergic, January 21, 2026.

• Greenberger, Alex. “Israel Plots Venice Biennale Return as Artists Threaten to Boycott.” ARTnews, January 12, 2026. 

• Pham, Vinh Phu. “Archival Art Will Not Save Us.” Hyperallergic, February 2, 2026.

• Segalovich, Isabella. “Artist’s Street Signs in Philadelphia Warn of Fascism Ahead.” Hyperallergic, January 27, 2026. 

Funding

• Baker Harris, Nevaeh. “Does library funding come from SG, UF or the libraries? The answer is yes.” The Independent Florida Alligator, January 17, 2026. 

• Berning Sawa, Dale. “Persistent low attendance and funding cuts are forcing US museums to think local.” The Art Newspaper, January 26, 2026.

• Farfan, Isa. “United States Artists Awards $50K Grants to 50 Fellows.” Hyperallergic, January 14, 2026.

• Martinez, Alexandra. “More US artists forced to pay for their own shows as museum and culture budgets shrink.” The Art Newspaper, January 7, 2026.

• McLain Horner, Katie. “Library Funding Updates, and More News For Library Workers.” Book Riot, January 13, 2026.

Intellectual Freedom/Access to Information

• Andrews, Ben. “Amid U.S. redaction scandal, Carney government developing AI systems to black out sensitive documents.” Ottawa Citizen, January 13, 2026.

• Butler, Colin. “Ontario school board invokes secrecy provision to withhold records on $34K fine art collection.” CBC, January 15, 2026.

• Denning, Kate. “What does ‘academic freedom’ mean? UNC system works toward definition.” Carolina Public Press, January 29, 2026.

• Di Liscia, Valentina. “Nan Goldin's Battle Against Censorship.” Hyperallergic, January 28, 2026.

• Greenberger, Alex. “Museum Nixed Nan Goldin Acquisition Because of Comments on Gaza.” ARTnews, January 22, 2026. 

• Nadworny, Elissa. “Texas A&M University cancels programs in women's and gender studies.” NPR, January 30, 2026

• Weissman, Sara. “New Alliance Aims to Protect Colleges and Universities From Government Meddling.” Inside Higher Ed, January 28, 2026.

• Young, Robin. “Is Plato woke? Texas professor banned from teaching ‘Symposium.’” NPR, January 16, 2026.

Technology and Digital Privacy

• Cohen, Lena. “Google Settlement May Bring New Privacy Controls for Real-Time Bidding.” Electronic Frontier Foundation, January 29, 2026.

• Costanzo, Roslyn. “Inside the Canadian Museum of History’s experiment with artificial intelligence.” The Globe and Mail, January 26, 2026.

• Di Liscia, Valentina. “Another NFT Platform Bites the Dust.” Hyperallergic, January 28, 2026.

• Forristal, Lauren, and Amanda Silberling. “Here’s what you should know about the US TikTok deal.” TechCrunch, January 23, 2026.

• Goodin, Dan. “Notepad++ users take note: It's time to check if you're hacked.” Ars Technica, February 2, 2026.

• Jancer, Matt. “Google Is Going to Kill Its Dark Web Monitor. Here’s Why.” Vice, January 13, 2026. 

Workplace

• Córdova, Kim. “MFA Boston Layoffs Thrust the Museum into a Credibility Crisis.” Boston Art Review, January 31, 2026. 

• DeMare, Kiara. “Denver Public Library workers move to unionize in 2026.” Denverite, January 2, 2026.

• Solomon, Tessa. “Met Workers Vote to Join Local 2110 UAW, Creating One of the Nation’s Largest Museum Unions.” ARTnews, January 16, 2026. 

Miscellaneous

• “2025 Year in Review.” Libraries Journal, January 2, 2026.

• Johnson, Ted. “Actors And Musicians Help Launch ‘Stealing Isn’t Innovation’ Campaign To Protest Big Tech’s Use Of Copyrighted Works In AI Models.” Deadline, January 22, 2026. 

• Martin, Bryan. “Accessibility Should Be at the Center of Museum Education.” Hyperallergic, January 20, 2026. 

• Orenstein, Natalie. “Vanderbilt University buys old CCA campus in Rockridge.” The Oaklandside, January 15, 2026.

Special News Alert: 47th Presidential Administration and Cultural Heritage

ICE Protests

• Boucher, Brian. “‘Risking Your Life Is Unbelievably Inspiring’: Minneapolis Artists Put Their Bodies on the Line Against ICE.” ARTnews, January 30, 2026. 

• Cascone, Sarah. “Leading U.S. Museums and Galleries Join Nationwide Strike Protesting ICE.” Artnet News, January 29, 2026.

• Collins, Jon. “Privacy advocates: ICE using private data to intimidate observers and activists.” MPR News, January 13, 2026.

• Davis, Damien. “After the Strike, Will Art Galleries Be Allies?” Hyperallergic, January 30, 2026. 

• Richman, Josh. “Report: ICE Using Palantir Tool That Feeds On Medicaid Data.” Electronic Frontier Foundation, January 15, 2026.

• Solomon, Tessa. “An Artist Is Chanting Renee Good’s Last Words Before She Was Fatally Shot by ICE Officer Outside the Agency’s New York Field Office.” ARTnews, January 13, 2026.

GLAM Organizations

• Di Liscia, Valentina. “Artists Call on Jewish Museum’s Support to Save New Deal-Era Murals.” Hyperallergic, January 23, 2026.

• Di Liscia, Valentina. “Trump Withdraws From Major Culture Preservation Groups.” Hyperallergic, January 9, 2026.

• Farfan, Isa. “Philadelphia Sues Trump Administration Over Removal of Slavery Exhibits.” Hyperallergic, January 23, 2023.

• Heckman, Jory. “Marco Rubio out as Acting Head of National Archives.” Federal News Network, February 4, 2026.

• Mancini, Ryan. “Smithsonian, under White House pressure, turns over details on planned exhibits.” The Hill, January 14, 2026.

• Tangermann, Victor. “NASA's Library Shutdown Scandal Is Ballooning.” Futurism, January 9, 2026.

Higher Education

• Farfan, Isa. “Congress Funds Institute for American Indian Arts.” Hyperallergic, January 22, 2026. 

• “University of Kentucky Flags Nearly 1,200 Organizations for Termination/Deeper Review.” Federation of Associations in Behavioral & Brain Sciences, January 13, 2026.

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