First Pass

37 stories from 8 sources

Arts institutions face sharper questions about trust, money, and power

Day’s Recap

Supporting Articles

Cambridge professor Jason Arday is facing plagiarism allegations just as he prepares to launch a new book. His account also includes dramatic claims of threats, harassment and extraordinary athletic feats, but some people are questioning whether those stories are credible.

5:33 PMNew York Times Arts

Former students at Michigan’s Interlochen Center for the Arts have come forward with previously unreported allegations of abuse involving Jeffrey Epstein. Their accounts are part of a broader investigation into alleged sexual misconduct and assault at the prestigious arts school.

3:54 PMHyperallergic

Sacha Jafri’s enormous, 17,000-square-foot painting sold in Dubai for a reported $62 million in 2021. Jafri believed the money would go to children’s charities, but the funds have yet to reach them.

3:22 PMARTnews

Gagosian has closed its small London space in Burlington Arcade and plans to shut its Basel location. Both began as pop-ups, but changing costs and priorities are prompting the mega-gallery to trim its physical footprint.

5:34 PMARTnews

Clara Wu Tsai and Joseph Tsai are divorcing after nearly three decades together. The couple, who were jointly named among the 2025 Top 200 Collectors, have built a major contemporary art collection alongside their public and business lives.

6:04 PMARTnews

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has quietly put a small Leonardo da Vinci painting on display, on loan from collector Ken Griffin. Leonardo specialist Martin Kemp supports the attribution to Leonardo and his studio, giving the work plenty of art-historical weight despite its modest size.

5:52 PMARTnews

Other Developments

A curated list of other prominent stories from this day.

Dudley Laufman, a farmer, poet, and musician who helped revive contra dancing, has died at 95. Through his calling and performances in the 1960s and 1970s, he introduced the traditional social dance to a new generation.

9:13 AMNew York Times Arts

Mildred Pitts Walter noticed that her Black kindergarten students in 1950s and 1960s Los Angeles rarely saw themselves in the books they read. She responded by writing books that put Black children, families and history at the center.

5:14 PMNew York Times Arts

Workers at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Massachusetts are pushing for a union vote. They cite poor working conditions and understaffing at the museum, which honors the creator of The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

5:01 PMHyperallergic

Artist Sharmistha Ray has turned three pickleball courts in downtown Pittsburgh into a colorful, fully playable installation called "Geometry of Play." Players can use the courts while moving through Ray’s large-scale artwork.

4:37 PMHyperallergic

Historian Micki McElya revisits the 1968 Miss America pageant in Atlantic City, where the event became a flashpoint for debates over beauty, race, feminism and power. Her new book, "Liberation Summer," places that afternoon inside a country undergoing rapid social change.

3:45 PMNPR Arts

Mary de Rachewiltz, Ezra Pound’s daughter, has died at 101. She translated and championed her father’s poetry while also trying to separate its literary importance from his support for fascism.

10:23 AMNew York Times Arts

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