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The Headlines
REEL GENIUS. The filmmaker Amos Poe, a No Wave pioneer whose gritty, DIY films helped define New York’s punk scene in the mid- and late ’70s, died December 25 at 76 following a battle with cancer, Reuters reports. His seminal works—including The Blank Generation (1975), Unmade Beds (1976), and Subway Riders (1979–80)—broke through the formalism of earlier generations of Downtown filmmakers, offering a mix of humor, off-kilter tenderness, and keen-eyed observation of a moment defined as much by economic decay as by guerrilla freedoms. Often made with amateur actors on minimal budgets, Poe’s films moved with an energy that mirrored the underground he traversed: densely composed, taut sequences of people forced into motion.
FLAGGING TASTE. A controversy has erupted at the British Museum after director Nicholas Cullinan proposed a 2026 fundraising ball themed “red, white, and blue” to celebrate the planned loan of the Bayeux Tapestry from France, the Guardian reports. Some staff decried the color scheme as being “in poor taste” amid a surge in far-right activity across the UK, including anti-immigration rallies marked by flag-waving and xenophobic rhetoric. Cullinan’s supporters countered that national symbols should not be ceded to extremists, framing the theme as a celebration of heritage rather than politics.
The Digest
Conservators and engineers have employed artificial intelligence to assist in the reconstruction of a Cimabue fresco. The work was shattered into 120,000 fragments during a 1997 earthquake in the Basilica di San Francesco in Assisi. [The Art Newspaper]
National museums in Tehran and Dushanbe, Tajikistan, have announced cultural partnerships, including joint exhibitions and professional exchanges, that highlight their intertwined histories. [Tehran Times]
At Cairo’s newly opened Grand Egyptian Museum, visitors can witness firsthand the reassembly of a 4,500-year-old solar boat belonging to Pharaoh Khufu. [AP News]
Gothamist has picked the eight must-see cultural institutions across New York City, from the marquee museums to niche institutions. [Gothamist]
The Kicker
FREE THROW AND BRUSHSTROKES. This off-season, Washington Wizards forward Bilal Coulibaly traded the court for the canvas. The Washington Post visited his D.C. studio, where he painted alongside local artist Charles Jean-Pierre as part of the “Like Water for Chocolate City” series. The 21-year-old Paris-born player said his creative practice—portraiture and still life—demands the same qualities as his athletic career: discipline, risk, and imagination, making both pursuits as personal as they are revelatory.
