In this week’s Art World Roundup, the National Portrait Gallery in London has pledged to increase the number of women represented in their permanent collection while a small bowl found at a yard sale for $35 turned out to the a 15th century treasure. Also, an Italian court has evicted a school established by Steve Bannon from a 13th century monastery, galleries across London prepare for the city’s first ever gallery weekend, and Amplifier has called on artists to submit their designs for their #Vaccinated poster campaign.

Reframing narratives means revisiting women in the NPG collection

Given research done in recent years, it might not surprise you that only 12 percent of the National Portrait Gallery’s collection of works is by women, but it might be a little more surprising that even in an institution devoted to depictions of people, only 25 percent of their permanent collection portrays women. This week the National Portrait Gallery (NPG) in London, which is currently closed for a three-year renovation project, announced a three-point plan to begin rectifying the underrepresentation of women within their collection, both in terms of sitters and artists. One facet of the plan is to properly research the women already included in the NPG’s collection, a task that has not been well done before now according to NPG curator Flavia Frigeri. Secondly, the NPG will begin acquiring works of significant women in history to fill out gaps in the museum’s collection. The final prong of the plan is the NPG’s pledge to commission more works by contemporary women artists. The project, called Reframing Narratives: Women in Portraiture, will be conducted in partnership with Chanel. The announcement coincides with Women’s History Month and a series of interviews released by the museum with prominent women including Sarah Gilbert, lead scientist on the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine; Amika George, a period poverty campaigner; and Kanya King, founder of the Mobo Awards. According to The Guardian, Frigeri hopes that when visitors are welcomed back to the NPG after its renovations are completed in 2023, the collection will be visibly more balanced.

One man’s trash is an auction treasure

You never know what you might come across at a yard sale and a Ming dynasty-era bowl that just sold at Sotheby’s for $721,800 proves it. The small bowl was bought for just $35 by an eagle-eyed buyer at a flea market in Connecticut who thought the bowl looked a little extraordinary. They brought the bowl to Sotheby’s to have it appraised the result was an Antiques Roadshow-style moment. It turned out that the bowl dated back to the 15^th century and was made for the Yongle court of the Ming Dynasty. Only a handful of works like the bowl are known to exist and reside in the collections of the National Palace Museum in Taipei, the British Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the National Museum of Iran in Tehran. The bowl held a pre-sale estimate of $300,000 to $500,000 but those estimates were shattered during the March 17^th auction. “Today’s result for this exceptionally rare floral bowl, dating to the 15th century, epitomizes the incredible, once in a lifetime discovery stories that we dream about as specialists in the Chinese art field,” Angela McAteer, head of the Chinese works of art department at Sotheby’s New York, said of the bowl following the auction. “Upon viewing the bowl for the first time, our team immediately recognized the quality of this undisputed gem, and it is a reminder that precious works of art remain hidden in plain sight just waiting to be found.”

Italian court revokes lease for Bannon’s school for “modern gladiators”

In 2017, former chief White House strategist for the Trump administration Steve Bannon and business partner Benjamin Harnwell were granted a 19-year lease to use a 13^th century Italian monastery for a new school. The duo had plans to open an institution that would train “modern gladiators” in a “Judeo-Christian tradition.” However, those plans have been halted after a tribunal handed down a 40-page ruling this week that formally revoked that lease, evicting the would-be school from the Monastery of Trisulti. According to the ruling, the eviction was based on “public interest” and found that Bannon and Harnwell lied on their application concerning their intentions for the site and their ability to maintain the 800-year-old monastery. Bannon responded in characteristic fashion, calling the decision a “joke which brings further shame on Italy’s already-stained judiciary in the eyes of the whole world.” Bannon continued in a statement saying “we refuse to be stopped by the corrupt bureaucracy that infests Italian government and hurts the Italian people.” Meanwhile, Nicola Zingaretti, president of the Lazio region of Italy and where the monastery is located, praised the court’s decision. Promising to restore the historic site, Zingaretti continued saying “we want it to become one of the symbols of the Italian rebirth.”

London galleries band together for first ever gallery weekend

The summer is a shining beacon of hope for normalcy for people across the UK with the promise that lockdown will be significantly, if not totally, relaxed. For London galleries, the summer will also bring the city’s first ever gallery weekend. Galleries are tentatively able to reopen in April, but the gallery weekend, scheduled for June 4^th through 6^th, will be a weekend to revive galleries across England’s capital and reintroduce them to the community. Gallery weekends are popular in many European cities, but London hasn’t held one due to the spread-out nature of its galleries. However, after a pared down Frieze in 2020 and a year of lockdown, galleries across the city were open to the idea after a grassroots venture, called London Gallery Weekend, reached out. Ultimately, 80 galleries, ranging in size, are set to participate in the debut event. To accommodate the unique strata of galleries in the city, each day of the weekend will focus on a different area of galleries. On Friday, galleries in Soho, Fitzrovia, and Mayfair (categorised as Central) will partake in the festivities. Saturday will feature galleries in East London while Sunday will turn to South London establishments. Gallery fees will fall between £300 and £3,000 per gallery, depending on its size, so that smaller galleries are able to partake alongside larger, more established galleries. “We had been talking about Frieze last year, it was almost like a moment of reacknowledgment of the art scene after this massive lockdown in London, and there was this really nice moment where, although it was very local, people were out and about visiting galleries again,” Jeremy Epstein, co-founder of Edel Assanti gallery who spearheaded the gallery weekend, told Artnet News. “I think we all felt like, given the size of our city and how many people engage with the museum system, we would love to see our galleries more visited.”

Amplifier puts out call for artist for #Vaccinated campaign

After the pandemic set in a year ago, Amplifier, a non-for-profit design lab, called on artist to create posters to raise awareness about the spread of COVID-19 and honour those on the front lines of fighting the virus. That call brought in more than 10,000 submissions and the organisation released a series of 160 artworks as a result. Using that same tactic, Amplifier is now asking for submissions from artists for posters that encourage viewers to get the coronavirus vaccination. The #Vaccinated campaign will consist of 100 posters selected by Amplifier from submissions. Amplifier will be distributing a total of $100,000 in awards for winning submissions. Alongside the poster series, the #Vaccinated campaign will also hold Instagram Live sessions with doctors to offer information and dispel concerns about receiving the vaccination. Cleo Barnett, executive director of Amplifier, told Artnet News that the posters will be distributed to millions of people. “There is a long history of racism within the medical field and the science field, looking at eugenics and medical testing on Black and brown bodies,” Barnett continued. “It’s going to be really important to collaborate with a diverse group of artists to address any of these questions and create artwork inspired by the research out there.” Amplifier is taking submissions, the guidelines for which can be found here, for #Vaccinated through April 20, 2021. “Amplifier’s job is amplify the most important movements of our time,” said Barnett. “If you’re an artist, an illustrator, or a designer, your voice really does matter, and the artwork that you’re creating does contribute to our collective future.”

You might not be familiar with Becontree Estate in east London, but when it was completed nearly 100 years ago, it was the largest council estate in the world. Now, in celebration of is centenary, the Royal Institute of British Architects have teamed up with Create London and London Borough of Barking and Dagenham (LBBD) to revamp and redesign 12 neglected and underused corner lots located within the estate. Together, they have announced that Squaring the Corners, a proposal by Nimtim Architects ard artist Katie Schwab, has been selected to revive Becontree’s corner plots.

The first homes in Becontree were built in 1921 and it would take another 14 years for the estate to be completed. Part of the Garden City movement, Becontree was nestled in farmland that was sectioned up and made into plots for individual homes. Life in Becontree offered parks, front and back gardens, and undefined green spaces. In the end, it was home to 120,000 people

Today, Becontree is a richly diverse area, but 12 of its undefined green spaces need of reconsideration. So, as part of LBBD’s long-term strategy for land in the estate, six emerging and mid-career architectural practices were invited to offer their designs for the corner plot commission. The firms asked to participate were selected in part for their own diversity, having Black, Asian, or minority ethnicities represented within their senior management.

Ultimately, Nimtim Architects’ Squaring the Corners prevailed.

Through Squaring the Corners, corner plots are redefined as civic squares. Each civic square consists of a junction of four corner plots that will be classified into four categories: meet, rest, grow, and play. Some civic squares will embody more than one category. Nimtim Architects along with Schwab have designed a new series of routes that will connect the civic squares to pre-existing Becontree amenities “adding a finer layer to enrich the existing masterplan.”

“Each square suggests new activities and performs new functions by inviting residents to take ownership of them,” reads the announcement of Squaring the Corners. “Their designs borrow generously from geometries, colours, and materials within the estate – both in their original and current customised manifestations. With a strong focus on biodiversity, the ambition is to encourage the re-establishment of the original ecosystem of the heath, thus creating a part wild, part intimate public space: much smaller in scale than the large municipal parks, and much more social than the adjacent front gardens.”

Schwab has worked on crafted interiors and textiles at Becontree and will assist in the sourcing of local materials. She will also help integrate Nimtim Architects’ design into Becontree.

Squaring the Corners will get underway in the spring as part of a year-long programme of events, learning, exhibitions, and commissions, both artistic and architectural, to celebrate the milestone for Becontree.

The 3,700-year-old remains of a couple buried together on the Iberian Peninsula in modern day Murcia, Spain, have archaeologist wondering if women held more power in the Early Bronze Age El Argar culture. The remains were entombed in a jar discovered in a hilltop complex called La Almoloya and a report recently published in Antiquity gives an overview of findings that have archaeologist revisiting the role of women in Argaric society.

La Almoloya is significant because it was a prominent place in El Argar society and offers a glimpse into one of the first Bronze Age palaces in Western Europe. The Argaric people thrived between 2200 BC and 1500 BC and lived in a structured and stratified society. Until this discovery, it was believed that the El Argar society structure was patriarchal, like many societies contemporary to it.

In the double burial, the remains of the woman, who died in her 20s, were found on top of those of the male, who died in his 30s. Alongside them were 29 “emblematic” objects, including rings, bracelets and ear plugs of both gold and silver, suggesting the two were of a high class.

The burial was discovered beneath the floor of a grand hall that archaeologists believe could have been used for political purposes in La Almoloya. The room, which was large enough to accommodate as many as 50 people, boasts benches and podium leading to researchers even referring to it as a parliament. “There have been hundreds of El Argar buildings excavated, and this one is unique. It’s quite clearly a building specialized in politics,” Dr. Cristina Rihuete Herrada, one of the archaeologists who discovered the burial and professor of prehistory at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, told The New York Times.

Also of particular interest to archaeologist was the fact that the woman was discovered still wearing a silver diadem, a headband-like crown. The impeccably crafted diadem is among only a handful ever found in Argaric society. Diadems, which consist of a thin band with a disc that hangs from the band over the nose, were only worn by women and women of very high status, at that.

Moreover, the age of the woman and the breadth of the grave goods found with her suggest that girls were considered women at an earlier age than boys were men.

The combination of the diadem, the number of grave goods, and the unique placement of the grave beneath the floor of a political room has helped form the hypothesis that the woman found would have held a political role within El Argar society.

Research is ongoing, but according to Rihuete-Herrada, the items found alongside the woman and man suggest they may have each had roles of power within society. The “enforcement of government decisions will be in the hands of men,” said Rihuete-Herrada citing a copper and silver dagger found among the man’s possession. She continued that due to the nature of items found with the woman, researchers now believe that “maybe women were political rulers, but not alone.”

At times, it seemed as though it might not make it, but this month, the San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) is celebrating its 150^th anniversary. The milestone not only makes the SFAI one of the oldest art schools in the US, but shows its perseverance, despite difficult terrain. So, to commemorate its extra meaningful birthday, the SFAI has announced the inauguration of the Access50 Scholarship Fund to make the terrain less difficult for deserving students.

The Access50 Scholarship Fund is specifically aimed at creating a more diverse body of students attending the school before entering the art world. 50 students from underserved backgrounds will be selected for the Access50 Scholarship and will receive support for the cost of tuition, which adds up to more than $45,000 per year.

Students enrolling in the autumn, for the 2021-2022 academic year, will be the first eligible for the Access50 Scholarship. The scholarship has the ability to benefit a wide cross section of SFAI students as new incoming students, transfer students, veterans, formerly incarcerated, and MA/MFA, among others, are eligible to apply. The scholarship can also be used for any degree programme offered at the school.

In support of the new scholarship fund, the SFAI received an initial donation from founder and CEO of The RealReal, Julie Wainwright. To kickstart the fund, the institution plans to raise $8 million to $10 million. Overtime, the SFAI plans to grow that fund to at least $50 million to maintain and grow the scholarship in the future.

“As a former SFAI student myself,” Lonnie Graham, who recently became the SFAI Board Chair, said in a press release, “I know how important it is for a young person who has something to say as an artist to have access to an environment like SFAI – a place where you can share ideas with an incredible faculty and student body who understand you. A place to learn how to cultivate new ideas and innovate. A place to actually understand all of the choices available to you. But what happens to all of that potential if you can’t get in the door?” Graham went on to thank Wainwright for her lead gift, echoing a statement from former SFAI Board Chair Pam Rorke Levy.

“The San Francisco Art Institute uniquely provides an environment where soulful creativity thrives,” Wainwright said. “One internet search of notable SFAI graduates confirms this. I helped fund these scholarships there because I firmly believe in art and artists as positive change agents. The launch of Access50 provides new opportunities for a more diverse student body to create and thrive.”

The lack of diversity within the arts has been a major flashpoint in recent years, but it is an issue that is not easy to remedy. It takes earnest change in all levels of the art world to bring about better representation. So, hopefully, SFAI’s Access50 Scholarship Fund will be part of the lasting change needed to create a better art world.