A giant warehouse chock full of free art supplies … could such a place exist? Queens is lucky enough to have one in Materials for the Arts, a nearly 50-year-old resource for artists across disciplines that also diverts millions of pounds of supplies from landfills each year. Executive Director Tara Sansone opines today about the crucial role the organization plays in the local cultural landscape, and why more cities should sponsor similar projects.
Elsewhere in the opinion section, artist Paige Phillips of the GRIT collective critiques Fia Backström’s exhibition at the Queens Museum and its problematic framing of rural communities in Appalachia. And in the news, the Guggenheim Museum has tapped the Hirshhorn’s longtime director Melissa Chiu to lead its flagship museum in New York City.
Read on for more in reviews and our beloved community columns. Plus, don’t miss New York Print Week if you’re in town! Hyperallergic Members can get free one-day passes to both the IFPDA Print Fair and the Brooklyn Fine Art Print Fair.
—Lakshmi Rivera Amin, associate editor
Join us a member to unlock free day passes for the IFPDA Print Fair & Brooklyn Fine Art Print Fair
What If Every City Provided Artists With Free Supplies?
Materials for the Arts offers free tools for teachers and artists in New York, but what if more cities funded programs like ours? | Tara Sansone
News
Guggenheim Museum Appoints Melissa Chiu as Next Director
After 12 years at the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum, Chiu will be joining the New York institution this coming September.
Tonika Lewis Johnson: Segregation and How to Disrupt It
Join us on April 15 for a conversation with social justice artist and recent MacArthur “Genius Grant” winner Tonika Lewis Johnson and Hyperallergic Senior Editor Valentina Di Liscia.
Opinion
How to Extract the Story of Appalachia
Fia Backström’s Queens Museum exhibition replaces beauty and complexity with a visual and narrative language that reduces the region to a site of suffering. | Paige Phillips on behalf of the GRIT collective
From Our Critics
David Novros’s Portable Murals
Instead of being an object against the wall, Novros made his intricate, multi-paneled paintings with it in mind. | John Yau
It’s Gabriele Münter’s World, We’re Just Living in It
It is her home, her landscape, her family and friends, portrayed in these images that feel miles away from her contemporaries’ modernist abstraction. | Natalie Haddad
Center for Craft – 2026 Craft Archive Fellowship
Four $5,000 awards will be offered to fellows conducting research on underrepresented craft histories. The fellowship will culminate with a featured article on Hyperallergic and a virtual program hosted by the Center for Craft. Read more on Hyperallergic.
Deadline: May 20, 2026 | centerforcraft.org
See more in this month’s list of opportunities for artists, writers, and art workers!
Community
Required Reading
This week: Compton’s forthcoming art center, a Lebanese artist’s workshops for displaced children, dog sledding in Yukon, the NGA goes viral on TikTok, stop-motion versus AI, and more.
Art Movements: Meet The Met’s New Photography Curator
Oluremi C. Onabanjo’s new role at The Met, grants for Queens artists and orgs, the “pinkest pink” turns 10, and more art industry news.
Member Comment
Amrita Singhal on Alex Paik’s “Theresa Hak Kyung Cha Made Human Again“:
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ICYMI
Nine Lessons on My Path From Engagement to Leadership
My career has been defined by a steady effort to collapse silos: between curatorial and educational work, between institutions and communities, between what museums have been and what they might yet become. | Ryan N. Dennis
