New England Journal of Aesthetic Research news headlines

NYTimes’ Nicolai Ouroussoff on Gardner Museum expansion: “All three museums [Gardner, Barnes, Getty], each built by a wealthy eccentric, once represented intensely personal visions. All were conceived as alternatives to the offerings of the elite cultural establishment. And by the time the Barnes completes its move, all will have been remade into slick, corporate artistic institutions of a sort that their founders no doubt would have deplored. … But there is something else behind the uniformity of these plans as well. What were once eccentric creations have become polite and well behaved. Gorgeously crafted, they are about reinforcing the existing cultural consensus — not rebelling against it.”

Boston MFA director Malcolm Rogers tries to sell his own attributed-to-Van Dyck painting at Netherlands art fair. “It doesn’t belong to me; it belongs to a charitable trust,” he tells the NY Times. “The proceeds will go into the trust, and I will get 5 percent of the income until I die. Then the capital and the appreciated gains will go to the museum.”

RISD student Darian Brenner on Japanese earthquake-tsunami-nuclear catastrophe: “I hope they will be able to recover, and if they do, another art movement will spring up to help them heal.”

Howie Carr: “Beantown poster child for PBS excess.”

Diversity: “At the Rhode Island School of Design, the number of students identifying themselves as Asian rose from 9.2 percent in 1990 to 14.53 percent in 2010, while the number of black students fell from 2.5 percent to 1.65 percent.”

Trial begins for RI art dealer accused of $6M con.

In advance of the PAX conference in Boston from March 11 to 13, Maddy Myers writes about how gamers love the language of sex abuse and bigotry. One player says: “I explained to my ['World of Warcraft'] guild at least ten times why rape jokes were disrespectful to rape survivors who were, beyond a doubt, included in that guild chat and vent. We had many women in our guild, at least two of whom were rape survivors. Now, not everyone would have known that, but no excuses. The players just wouldn’t give up ‘their’ word.” The topic brings to mind this classic piece of New Games Journalism.

Actress Emma Watson announced that she’s “decided to take a bit of time off [from studying at Brown University] to completely finish my work on Harry Potter (the last one comes out this summer) and to focus on my other professional and acting projects. I will still be working towards my degree… it’s just going to take me a semester or two longer than I thought : )” At least Providence still has James Franco at RISD.

Art-benefit posters depicting nude man, woman upset some at UMass Dartmouth. Thinking of posters for the graphic design group’s next event, an organizer said: “Maybe not so much frontal nudity. But if that pushed the boundaries, what else can we do?”

Vandal clothes billboard of nude Renaissance Venus in Minnesota.

SPACE Gallery in Portland plans to expand into the space next door following a successful fundraising campaign.

Nate Duval of Marlborough, Mass., makes cool posters for the Decemberists, Phish, Wilco, Spoon, Broken Social Scene, etc.