Design Chosen--"Reflecting Absence" by architects Michael Arad and Peter Walker has been selected as the winning design for the World Trade Center Site Memorial Competition. The entire 16-acre site will be a living memorial, with "Reflecting Absence" as its centerpiece, to those lost in the terrorist attacks on September 11th and in the 1993 bombing. See an illustration and models at www.WTCSiteMemorial.org.

New Sculpture Installed--A life-sized sculpture of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt with their dog Fala now graces the recently opened Henry A. Wallace Visitor and Education Center at the home of the former President and First Lady in Hyde Park, NY. Taken from a 1933 photo, it was created by a team of 20 artists from StudioEIS of Brooklyn at the Tallix foundry in Beacon, NY.

Studios to Consolidate--The Walt Disney Co. has announced it will close its animation studio at Walt Disney World in Florida. Employees may relocate to the main animation studio in California. It was just a matter of time for computer generation to render hand drawings for animated films nearly obsolete.

Treasures to be Sold--Sotheby's has announced that it will sell nine Faberge Imperial Easter Eggs from the world-renowned Forbes Collection. In addition, 180 other dazzling Faberge creations will be offered at auction in New York on April 20 and 21, and all are estimated in excess of $90 million. Of the 50 Imperial Eggs, those located in the U.S. include the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (5), New Orleans Museum of Art (3), The Hillwood Museum (2), The Walters Art Museum (2), and The Cleveland Museum of Art (1).

Exhibitions

Milwaukee Art Museum, WI -- The 80th Annual Scholastic Art Awards--Wisconsin Regional Exhibition features outstanding work from throughout the state in 13 different media categories by young people grades 7-12. The Gold Key Award-winning artworks continue on to national competition. Through February 28.

The Textile Museum, Washington, DC -- Navajo Blankets of the 19th Century: Selections from The Textile Museum Collections features 16 blankets made between 1800 and 1890 and highlights the powerful aesthetics and significant trends that characterize nineteenth century Navajo weaving. The exhibition also explores how Navajo blankets were made and how experts today analyze the materials, structures, and designs to assess and assign dates to each textile. Through March 14.

San Diego Museum of Art, CA -- George Inness and the Visionary Landscape includes approximately 35 of Inness's finest paintings, spanning all periods of his career that demonstrate the important place Inness holds in the development of 19th-century landscape painting in America. Through April 18.

Copyright ARTtalk Vol. 14 No. 4 -- February 2004