A collaboration between Robert Motherwell’s The Dedalaus Foundation, The Brooklyn Rail, and The Jamestown Charitable Foundation has resulted in Come Together, a selling exhibition benefitting artists and New York residents affected by Hurricane Sandy last year.  Including works by Alex Katz, Mark di Suvero and the Bruce High Quality Foundation, the show opens on October 20th.  “Hurricane Sandy affected the art community more directly than 9/11,” says Phong Bui, an artist and the publisher of the Brooklyn Rail, who is organising the show. (more…)

After the monumental damages to New York’s art world caused last year by Superstorm Sandy, which some estimate between $200 and $300 million, Art Insurance firms are feeling the pressure to adjust their policies.  Many firms are subtly adjusting their underwriting agreements, taking into account newly redrawn flood maps and the risks of subterranean storage as part of policy coverage as factors in the coverage of high-value artworks.  “Sandy was a wake-up call,” says Christiane Fischer, president and CEO of AXA Art Insurance. “People are much more aware of how much New York is in the path of hurricanes.”  (more…)

The Whitney’s new building, scheduled to be finished in 2015, was affected by hurricane Sandy’s floods last year, forcing “significative adjustments.” Located at the intersection of Gansevoort and Washington Streets, the building is just one block away from the river, raising concerns about the possibility of future floods. As a preventive measure, the Whitney has committed to bring top-specialists to remodel the walls, lobby, and basement, to make them waterproof. In consequence, the museum has also increased its capital goal by $40 million to a total expense of $760 million. In this regard, Adam D. Weinberg–the Whitney’s director–says that “77 percent of the total [has] been raised. About half of the additional funds will pay for flood mitigation, […] the other half will cover unexpected costs.” (more…)

Artist and architect Maya Lin is profiled in the New York Times, and discusses her new show at Pace Gallery, her recent work, and her thoughts on the environmental catastrophe’s caused by Hurricane Sandy last year, when much of Downtown New York was flooded. “A flood doesn’t exist except in our memory banks,” she said. “It’s a temporal event. It’s not the river and it’s not the land. It’s neither here nor there.” (more…)