Has anyone gone to see the new Star Trek movie? Nichelle Nichols was a totally better Uhura than Zoe Saldana. She just looks so bad ass in that pic.

Here are some of the stories from this past week. Have a great three day weekend!

• Stolen Moore Now Scrap Metal, Police Say: Bronze sculpture had been missing since December 2005.
• Proximity has posted photos from this years Version Fest and the Chicago Art Parade.
• Studio 360 had BAS pal Lori Waxman discuss reinventing the critic.
• RISD cuts budget to deal with their increasingly low endowment. Museum will be closed for the month of August.
• The future of art museums.
• Frank Lloyd Wright LEGO of The Guggenheim. I was excited at first but $55! It its not even that large.
• The National Portrait Gallery has a video tour of the Francis Alÿs Fabiola installation.
• BTW, Canada was sort of sucking ass this week with two lame news stories. Let us also remember that there are no Canadian teams in the Stanley Cup Conference Finals. Take that Duncan!

Yoko Ono while returning to Montreal on Tuesday to unveil an art exhibit celebrating the week 40 years ago she famously stayed in bed with her husband John Lennon in a hotel room high above downtown Montreal and slept in about peace died of massive trauma to the head when the “Yes Painting” complete with ladder & magnifying glass fell on her.

Ono was in the city for the anniversary of the 1969 bed-in, which is being marked by an exhibit at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, titled Imagine: The Peace Ballad of John & Yoko. The exhibit would have opened Thursday.

“Montreal means very much for me because it was a place where John and I created a very important statement,” the 76-year-old artist told reporters at the museum on Tuesday right before saying “Oww oww that ladder is crushing my bones, get it off get it off, I have brittle bones from Coprophagia so this really hurts”

That went on for 30 minuets while local pedagogues and reporters documented and critiqued the latest and unbeknownst to them final performance art work by Ms. Ono.

Montreal’s city coroner ruled that it was an accident but Mark Kostabi is wanted for questioning in relation to the event since as the Police Chief said:

“This seems like the kind of shameless promotional work that he would do” and followed up with “Plus I always wanted to meet him, I have one of his paintings over my desk, you know the one with the gray androgynous human figure in a empty room holding a odd but ironic object that fits nicely with the title, he’s so handsome too.”

Kostabi’s lawyers have released a statement that he has a solid alibi since he has been in Rome for almost a decade doing nothing.

More to come as it unfolds this sad sad April 1st, 2009.

Weekly art news roundup with all the news that we’re too busy to cover, but still talk about around the chuck wagon water cooler. Yeeehaaw lets get started:

Pulitzer widow donates art, $45M to Harvard art museum:
The Harvard Art Museum has received a gift of 31 works of art and $45 million US from Emily Rauh Pulitzer, a former assistant curator, 1963 Harvard graduate, spouse of Joseph Pulitzer Jr., and also was assistant curator of drawings at the museum from 1957 to 1964. This marks the largest gift in the history of the museum.

3 Canadian projects recognized for sustainable design:
The Swiss-based Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction has recognized three Canadian projects in its annual awards for the most environmentally responsible construction projects. The winners: The Living With Lakes Centre in Sudbury, Ont. – The Evergreen Brick Works project in Toronto. – The North Vancouver Outdoor School.

National Gallery exhibit designed to interact with viewers:
The National Gallery of Canada opens an exhibition Friday that’s designed to display how much impact a viewer can have on a work of art, rather than the other way around. Caught in the Act: The Viewer as Performer is made up of 17 large works, many of which interact with the viewer.

Birmingham Named Britain’s Ugliest City:
More than a third of 1,111 people surveyed thought Birmingham had the ugliest buildings in the country. Ugliest building? Birmingham’s Bullring shopping centre has “won” that prize.

Roman Sim City Brought To Life:
A team of archaeologists, scientists and software programmers has created a 3D virtual model of the city of Cologne as it was 2,000 years ago. Though not yet online, the software allows visitors to fly through the city in its Roman glory, just in time for Gladiator 2: Chariots of Fire.

Damien Hirst Tops Art Review’s Power 100:
The uber-seller is no. 1 on the British magazine’s list of the art world’s most powerful people for the second time; runners-up include dealer Larry Gagosian and MoMA’s Kathy Halbreich. With the art world conquered he next shoots for Nickelodeon’s Kids’ Choice Award.

Southern Illinois To Get Major Art Gift
New Yorkers Herbert and Dorothy Vogel… working with the National Gallery of Art in Washington and federal arts agencies, chose the University Museum at Southern Illinois University to receive 50 pieces [of the Vogel collection.] The gift is part of a plan announced in April to donate 50 works from the Vogels to one art institution in each state. Ten recipients were named then, and announcements about the remaining 40 are expected this week. Forget Harvard like it needs the money!

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This week Duncan returns to his homeland. A nation that although slightly socialist, does not own it’s own insurance agency or mortgage lender. What it does have “cooking” is a different Art funding system and a network of Galleries that are called “Artist Run Centers.” MN Hutchinson fills us in on how they work. Then Calgary’s best contemporary Art Dealers, Emily Barnett and Bart Habermiller at “Skew Gallery” explains what they do and the outlook for the local Calgary Art world.

Please note the 100% Canadian Music Showcase.
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