Beloved painter Mr. Wash is building a Compton arts center to support formerly incarcerated artists like himself, Jane Horowitz reports for the Los Angeles Times:
The goal is to expand the property into a hybrid complex — designed by Morphosis Architects — featuring three artist studios where artists in residence will stay for six months, an art supply store, and a small-business incubator.
The vision is not simply creative. Mr. Wash sees the center as a replicable model for rehabilitation through the arts — one that begins with creative expression inside prison walls and extends, through structured support, into stable reentry. The self-taught Mr. Wash ran workshops while incarcerated, helping develop artists who might one day be among the center’s first residents.
The US-Israeli war on Lebanon has already displaced hundreds of thousands of children, and artist Abed Al Kadiri started a mural project for them to process and create, Rawaa Talass writes in Vogue Arabia:
Al Kadiri has so far held drawing sessions in six institutions, including Baissour Official Secondary School and Choueifat Cultural and Social Centre, where children and their families are seeking shelter. They are all invited to draw on long rolls of paper, which has proven to be a joyous and liberating experience for the children. “It’s a safe white space that allows them to express themselves freely about their sadness, their pain, their joy, their dreams,” he said. Among the most common motifs found in their drawings are the Lebanese flags, natural elements, and their homes. “They’re far away from their homes and they’re living in harsh conditions. The situation is really hard and tragic,” said Al Kadiri. “But there is something exceptional about children, which is their ability to overcome difficulty and be happy in the moment. That’s what we lose as we get older.”
A guerrilla projection protest at MFA Boston criticized the museum for its recent layoffs of some of the few people of color on staff, an all-too-common pattern in art institutions. Marianna McMurdock reports for the Boston Art Review:
The reduction was presented as a $5.4 million solution to the museum’s $13 million operating deficit; no other strategies to address the remaining $7.6 million deficit have been communicated in the months since. The institution has an endowment of $830 million. The lack of transparency surrounding the layoffs and targeting of specific departments, including those that supported teens, community engagement, and young people of color, have eroded staff and public trust. A change.org petition to reinstate Black and Indigenous staff has garnered over 2,500 signatures.
For colleagues in the space, the move also signaled a stark departure from diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, publicly championed as a commitment of the MFA in 2022. The museum was previously embroiled in a public scandal in 2019 when students of color were harassed during a school visit, causing the institution to sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the MA attorney general, which expired in 2024.
Esraa Abo Qamar reports on a medical school graduation in Gaza, where students complete their degrees as the genocide decimates hospitals and entire communities around them. In the Nation, he writes:
“There was no real space for lectures or proper training,” she said. “Most of the time, we were only observing, yet we were expected to perform at the same level in completely abnormal conditions.”
With the declining quality of education and training, Nawas relied heavily on her own efforts to keep going. “No one would give me an excuse if I fell behind, so I had to work harder on my own to make up for what was missing.” She trained at Al-Aqsa and Al-Awda Hospitals, where the lack of resources shaped every detail of her experience. “Even deciding to go to the hospital required long thinking, how will I get there, how will I come back?” she said. “During famine, my colleague and I once searched for something sweet just to get energy, and we found nothing.”
For the Walrus, Trina Moyles brings us into the world of sled dog racing, which mushers in Yukon are banding together to revive:
For Reimer, the goal has always been to keep her kennel small—no bigger than the size of her van and trailer, which are outfitted to sleep twelve dogs (and two humans). Fewer dogs means more care and resources directed to every animal. The nostalgia for long-distance forays is still there, says Reimer, but it’s not feasible for most mushers to train for the speed those races demand. “It’s created this huge divide,” she says.
What could create more sustainability is investing in races that help small kennels build experience and confidence. A two-dog skijoring race becomes a gateway for four dogs, and four dogs can lead to six, and so forth, she says. The future of long-distance racing may even require a co-operative approach with mushers pooling, or sharing, dogs.
In that way, the sport rebuilds itself the way it always has—team by team, dog by dog.
Manisha Krishnan finally asks the question on all our minds: Why are men on dating shows absolute trash? She spoke with Netflix’s reality TV head for Wired:
As I’ve previously written, while Love Is Blind was refreshing when it broke onto the scene, the men in the last few seasons have felt increasingly plucked from the conservative manosphere. The most recent Ohio season featured Chris Fusco, who compared himself to influencer and alleged human trafficker Andrew Tate, bragged about being “dominant,” and broke up with his fiancée Jessica Barrett for not working out enough. Another contestant, Alex Henderson, was a crypto bro who professed his love for President Donald Trump.
Combined with the constant talk (pressure?) around having babies and offputting racial dynamics—several contestants appear to have struggled when their partner was revealed to be a person of color—it made me wonder if Netflix is leaning into people with conservative ideals to appeal to the political right.
Riegg, who is Netflix’s vice president of nonfiction series and sports, tells me that’s not the case.
Hamidreza Afarideh played kamancheh on the rubble of his music school in Tehran that US and Israeli bombings destroyed last month, explaining in this heartbreaking video that he didn’t want the explosions to be the last sounds in the space:
AI is attempting to steal stop-motion animation from us … nothing is sacred anymore:
Two icons at the National Gallery reinventing curatorial practice:
Who among us would last a day in a medieval battle?:
Required Reading is published every Thursday afternoon and comprises a short list of art-related links to long-form articles, videos, blog posts, or photo essays worth a second look.
