– What Color is Pepper Spray?: Forty-six artists, including Shepard Fairey, have contributed black-and-white artwork to the “Police Brutality Coloring Book,” a 48-page DIY publication inspired by violent police action against Occupy Wall Street protesters. [Wired]
– What's in a Name?: Miami uber-developer Jorge M. Perez has made a major donation to the Miami Art Museum — big enough that the museum is to become the Jorge M. Perez Art Museum of Miami-Dade County. But Perez told the Miami Herald he's saddened by the backlash against the naming plan. "When I saw the negative reaction, I was blown away," he said. He believes that naysayers are put off by "the idea of a Hispanic surname being attached to the city’s largest art museum." [Miami Herald]
– Grisly Art Therapy: A new military medical facility called the National Intrepid Center for Excellence offers holistic healing, including art, writing, and music therapies, for brain trauma and other invisible wounds of war. The program also offers neurologists the chance to study how art therapies physically affect the brain. The artwork created by soldiers — like one mask of an Iraqi man who was shot in the head, depicted with his brain exposed — begs the question: how useful is it to revisit violent images? [BBC]
– NEA, NEH Lose Funding While Smithsonian Gains: A new spending bill passed on Friday in the House includes a 5.6 percent budget reduction for the both the National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for the Humanities. The organizations would each be designated $146.3 million, down from $155 million last year. Under the bill, the Smithsonian would get a $400,000 budget increase. [LAT]
– Big Business Bought Liz Taylor's Jewels: Christie's recent Liz Taylor jewel sale brought in a staggering $116 million, but some of that money came from unexpected entities (besides Kim Kardashian). The 33.19-carat Krupp Diamond went to a Korean hotel conglomerate, which will display it at a theme park in Daegu. Bulgari also bought back $20 million in jewels. Other items went to celebrities and friends of Taylor who wanted to remember the star. [People]
– South Street Seaport Museum May Partner With Folk Art Museum: Can two ailing museums make one healthy institution? Both the South Street Seaport and the Folk Art Museum have had bad years, with staff reorganizations and budget crises. Now, the Folk Art Museum is considering mounting a major exhibition at the Seaport Museum in the coming year. [DNAinfo]
– Tate Triennial Gets Canceled: The Tate has canceled its 2012 triennial, an exhibition that attempets to pinpoint the latest in contemporary art. The museum cites ongoing construction on the Tate Britain Millibank project and schedule shake-ups as the cause of the cancellation. [TAN]
– ArtPrize Visitors Spend Serious Cash: This year’s ArtPrize had a net economic impact of $15.4 million for Grand Rapids, the city where the three-year-old, American Idol-style art competition is held, according to a survey conducted by Anderson Economic Group. Attendance reached 322,000, with 73 percent of attendees traveling from outside Grand Rapids. [WoodTV]
– Israel Moves to Annex West Bank, Starting With an Archeological Museum: In a highly-disputed West Bank settlement, a small archeological museum acts as the first sign of an Israeli occupation. A new bill would make museums in the settlements, like this one, eligible for government funding, previously only allocated to institutions inside Israel proper. In so doing, the bill would create a public precedent for applying Israeli law to settler areas. [CSM]
– Agnes Gund on Breaking into Art: The president emerita of the Museum of Modern Art pens a column for the Huffington Post with advice on how aspiring and emerging artists can break into — and actually make a living — in the field. [HuffPo]
– $10 Million for UC Davis Art Museum: Napa vintner Jan Shrem and arts patron Maria Farrow have given a $10 million gift to the University of California, Davis to name a new art museum slated for completion in 2015. [Art Daily]
– VIP Announces 2012 Exhibitor List: The VIP Art Fair has released a tentative list of expected participants for their second edition in February. New CEO Lisa Kennedy will be calling on her extensive experience in online retail to iron out the difficulties that made the 2011 run less than smoothly. [ITA]