This week’s coolest art news, so you can stay ahead, then get back to your iced coffee, sun-soaked playlist, or that half-finished sketch waiting on your balcony. ✏️

TOP 3 ART STORIES THIS WEEK
1. Tom Cruise Finally Gets an Oscar 🎬 🙂
Tom Cruise (62) is one of the biggest movie stars alive. For over four decades, he’s flown fighter jets, jumped off buildings, and redefined the action genre, doing his own stunts almost every time.
Despite four Oscar nominations, he’s never won.. until now.
This November, Cruise will receive an Honorary Oscar, the Academy’s way of recognizing a career that’s changed cinema, even if the usual trophies didn’t come.
He’ll be honored at the 2025 Governors Awards alongside:
Dolly Parton, for her lifetime of storytelling and philanthropy
Debbie Allen, who reshaped dance on screen
Wynn Thomas, the design mind behind Do the Right Thing and Malcolm X
The Academy also highlighted Cruise’s impact behind the camera, especially his role in reviving the theatrical experience during the pandemic with Top Gun: Maverick.
About time. 🥂
2. Uf, Not Again! Tourist Damages Painting at the Uffizi While Taking a Selfie
Another day, another museum accident caused by selfies.
This time, it happened in Florence, Italy, at the famous Uffizi Gallery, home to some of the most important art in the world. A tourist, trying to strike a fun pose for a photo, tripped and tore a 17th-century painting – a portrait of Ferdinando de’ Medici by Anton Domenico Gabbiani.
According to museum staff, the visitor wanted to imitate the pose in the painting and ended up falling backwards into it. The entire moment was caught on security cameras. He was quickly stopped and reported to police. The painting has been removed for repairs.
💡 Looks like it’s a sign of a bigger problem: more and more visitors see museums as photo backdrops instead of places of reflection and respect. The Uffizi now plans to set “very precise limits” on photo-taking, especially around fragile works.
The question is: Have we really come to value the selfie more than the seeing? Can we still walk into a museum and let the art look back at us… without needing to capture it, crop it, or post it? 📸
3. How a Small Garden in New York Was Saved by Its Community. 🌿
In the middle of one of the busiest cities in the world – NYC -, there’s a peaceful green space called the Elizabeth Street Garden. It’s filled with trees, flowers, stone sculptures, and a little gazebo where people gather for poetry readings, art events, and just to sit and relax.
The garden is a place where people connect without needing to buy anything or be anyone special.
For years, the city had planned to build a housing project on that land: 123 apartments for low-income senior citizens, especially those in the LGBTQ+ community. Many people agreed that affordable housing is important, but others felt torn: they said the garden didn’t have to be destroyed to build homes.
The preservation of the green space became a cause-célèbre when New York City artists joined the fight. Robert De Niro, Patti Smith, and visual artist JR, were among the bold-faced names advocating to preserve the garden.
Instagram post by @elizabethstreetgarden
And last week, the city finally listened.
Instead of flattening the garden, officials announced plans to build over 600 affordable apartments at three nearby locations. More homes — and the garden stays. 💚
Why does it matter? It matters because it’s about how we make choices as a community. It’s a reminder that communities still matter. Even in a globalized world, where decisions often feel out of reach, local voices can still shape what stays, and what grows.
Instagram post by @thisispattismith
Now the garden will stay open every day, from morning to evening, for anyone who needs a break from city noise, a breath of fresh air, or a moment of quiet beauty. ☀️🌼
Trend: Writers on TikTok Are Reminding Us How Real Writing Happens 📚✍️
Forget fast books: a wave of authors is taking to TikTok to show what real writing looks like: paper, pens, edits, snacks, and all. (And to prove they are NOT using AI for writing their books).
🖊️ “Writing a book with AI doesn’t make you a writer. It makes you a thief,” says fantasy author Victoria Aveyard, filming herself editing 1,000 printed pages: line by line, grape by grape.
Welcome to the slow writing rebellion.
While AI-written books flood Amazon (yep, hundreds…), these writers are sharing time-lapses of actual brainstorming, rewriting and doubting.
It might seem like a small thing (a drop in the ocean) but together, these moments are building toward something. A quiet counterweight to the AI-driven world. Where it leads, we’ll see.
Instagram post by @wired
Elsewhere, This Week:
🇸🇪 In Sweden, Museums want Gen Z
Gen Z wants… literally anything else.
A new report says most Swedish museums are desperately trying to attract 18–25 year-olds. Events, school collabs, co-creation… nothing’s quite sticking.
One museum chief put it bluntly: “We’re losing them during the most formative years.”
Is getting youth to museums a worldwide challenge? Any ideas on how to turn that around?
💎 Chanel Just Dropped a Glossy Arts & Culture Mag (It’s Luxe)
High fashion meets high culture: Chanel just announced that it is launching Arts & Culture Magazine, a 250-page stunner featuring artist collabs, iconic objects from Gabrielle Chanel’s own stash, and essays on the future of creativity.
Imagine bust sculptures in Chanel shades, pearls in seashells, and lion collages (yes, Coco was a Leo).
Printed, tangible, no algorithm in sight. It’s Chanel’s love letter to bookstores, slow media, and the idea that culture still deserves good paper.
🌙 Farewell to Artist – Arnaldo Pomodoro
Arnaldo Pomodoro, the Italian sculptor behind the world’s most iconic bronze spheres, has passed away at the age of 98. Just one day before his 99th birthday.
Pomodoro was internationally recognized for his gleaming orbs: polished bronze forms often fractured to reveal jagged interiors. This contrast between the smooth perfection of the geometric form and the chaotic complexity of the interior became his trademark.
Prime Minister Georgia Meloni said on X that Mr Pomodoro, who died at his home in Milan on Sunday, had “sculpted Italy’s soul”.

Sfera con sfera (‘Sphere within sphere’) by Arnaldo Pomodoro in Trinity College Dublin
At 78, Pomodoro was still thinking big. In 2004, he unveiled Novecento, a towering bronze spiral installed in Rome – proof that his ambition and creative energy never faded with age.
🕊️
Thanks for reading!
Now signing off for June — catch you in July, just around the corner.🙂 😎 xx


