50 Protesters Oppose Trump’s 250-Foot DC Arch Before Court Halt

By Marcus Bennett

More than 50 protesters gathered south of Memorial Circle in Washington, D.C., on November 5, opposing Trump’s proposed 250-foot triumphal arch. The National Capital Planning Commission approved the project 8–4.

The rally took place within eyeshot of the Lincoln Memorial and John F. Kennedy Eternal Flame, ahead of the commission’s final meeting to vote. Emma Cieslik photographed the demonstration.

Hours after the vote, a district court judge granted the District of Columbia and Virginia a 14-day restraining order to halt construction.

What does the 14-day order change?

It changes the immediate timetable: construction must stop for 14 days, and no revised design or longer-term ruling accompanies the announcement. The proposal’s civic dispute therefore remains open, with the court intervention postponing rather than settling the decision over the monument.

Curatorial changes at two institutions

With the last Whitney Biennial closed, the Whitney has named Meg Onli and Zack Winokur co-curators of its 2028 edition. Onli co-curated the 2024 edition; Winokur is an opera director and producer. Staff writer Anna Lee reports the appointment, placing a returning curator alongside a producer from the performing arts at the head of the next American art exhibition.

Jordan Poorman Cocker, a Kiowa and Tongan curator, has just organized a major reinstallation of contemporary Indigenous art at Crystal Bridges.

In an interview with Petala Ironcloud, she treats Indigeneity as a global framework and community-driven work as the route to a “more honest story of American art.” Her practical test for museums is whether they can create space for Native artists to flourish.

The sitters behind Pink and Blue

A new book reviewed by Catherine Ostler follows the tragic lives of the two Jewish sisters depicted as cherubic girls in Renoir’s beloved Pink and Blue. Their rarefied existence within an elite, artistic French family would be overturned by the horrors of the Holocaust.

Eurídice Arratia’s image accompanies the discussion of the painting. Ostler’s approach turns a celebrated image into a history of its sitters, following what happened to the family around it rather than treating the picture as self-contained.

Appointments, programmes and funding

• The New School has appointed artist, educator and writer Pablo Helguera as the new director of the Vera List Center for Art and Politics.

The Intermedia + Digital Arts MFA Program at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County is accepting applications. Funding is available for tuition, healthcare and stipends, and applicants seeking financial support must apply by February 1.

Nada Shabout’s All Manner of Experiments: Legacies of the Baghdad Modern Art Group runs through January 3, 2027, at the NYU Abu Dhabi Art Gallery. The exhibition presents the 1950s group as a living archive in the United Arab Emirates today.

The Fund for the Met is seeking unrestricted support for the museum’s daily operations, conservation efforts and other costs, arguing that such funds keep the institution working for future generations.

A studio as a place of return

“A View From the Easel” profiles Natali Bravo-Barbee. She says: “As a mother, there are so many spaces in my life that are organized around other people’s needs. The studio is a space where I get to return to myself.”

Her account identifies the studio as more than a workplace. It is one of the few settings organized around her own needs, giving the practice of making images a practical connection to agency and self-possession.

Short reads

• Dalit activist and writer Yashica Dutt reports in New Lines Magazine on a wave of progressive South Asian leaders taking office across the United States.

• Gothamist offers a brief history of the New York City Marathon, which has just marked its 50th anniversary as a five-borough race.

• Wired reports that ED138, a large, bright trans-Neptunian object, may be a new dwarf-planet candidate, 20 years after Pluto was declassified as a planet and designated a dwarf planet.

From the archive

A new book resurrects the overlooked history of Michelangelo’s dome at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. Its central account credits a team of mathematicians and the Pope with saving the dome from collapse. Anthony Majanlahti supplied the accompanying Rome image.

The next test is immediate: construction must remain halted during the 14-day order, while the 2028 Whitney Biennial moves from appointment to preparation and Crystal Bridges’ community-driven reinstallation supplies a model for the institutional change Cocker describes.