What’s Happening: A new series of temporary art installations aims to platform American narratives neglected by the National Mall’s monuments.

The Download: From towering presidential monuments to somber memorials, tales of American history etched in stone abound on the National Mall. Many perspectives, however, remain absent there. A new series of public art exhibitions called “Beyond Granite” aims to level the hallowed playing field by handing over the microphone—or in this case, the chisel—to six artists seeking to champion neglected narratives through a series of temporary installations. The aim of the first group, called “Pulling Together” (until Sept. 18) and curated by Paul Farber and Salamishah Tillet, is to simply tell more of the American story.

Instead of romanticized men on horses, expect monuments highlighting the perils of Asian migration after the Vietnam War and spoken tributes to Black church leaders with AIDS. Etched within the whorls of a giant, blood-red fingerprint by Wendy Red Star, for example, is the searing statement from an Apsáalooke scout who addressed Congress over land rights in 1912. Derrick Adams, meanwhile, built a functional playground bisected by a wall printed with a 1954 photograph of Black and white children on a Washington playground after desegregation. “These new installations,” says Teresa Durbin, EVP of the Trust for the National Mall, “are opening the doors to a deeper and more meaningful dialogue about what stories we should pass on to the next generation.”

The centerpiece recalls Easter Sunday in 1939, when the great contralto Marian Anderson was barred from performing at Constitution Hall. (It was owned by the Daughters of the American Revolution, which didn’t allow Black performers.) Instead, she courageously sang “Of Thee We Sing” for a crowd of 75,000 on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Close to where that historic moment unfolded, Vanessa German crafted a statue of Anderson perched atop a plinth adorned with photographs of the crowd. Plastic flowers mimicking Namibian lilies and aluminum hands sprout from under her, nodding to the fragility of Black life in America. She may be dwarfed by Lincoln behind her, but the bold tribute embodies the triumph of “pulling together.”

In Their Own Words: “These artists have responded to that bold query with curiosity, candor, and compassion,” Tillet says. “As importantly, their temporary art installations, with their large scale and sweeping historical scope, generously invite the public to remember how Americans have gathered and continue to engage the National Mall as a place of play, protest, and patriotism.”

Surface Says: Not a bad way to pick up where the AIDS Quilt left off.

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In the literary heart of Paris, within the walls of a 17th-century edifice that once housed French jewelry house Chaumet, Moët Hennessy has debuted its first-ever cocktail bar. The brainchild of Franck Audoux, Cravan is expanding its presence from the 16th arrondissement to the storied district of Saint-Germain-des-Prés. Envisioned by Belgian designer Ramy Fischler, the glimmering new venture—which pays homage to Arthur Cravan, the multifaceted poet-boxer and a harbinger of the Dada and Surrealist movements—unfurls across four levels, complete with three cocktail bars, a custom bookstore collaboration with Rizzoli NY, and a private atelier and invite-only rooftop kiosk.

Audoux, a passionate cocktail historian and author of French Moderne: Cocktails from the Twenties and Thirties, is behind a drink menu that features champagne-based concoctions such as the Royal Basilic, a combo of Ruinart Brut, basil flowers, and black truffles from the Périgord region, as well as spirit-forward offerings like the tequila-spiked Isadora with morello sour cherries.

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For Wolf-Gordon curator and chief creative officer Marybeth Shaw, AI technologies like DALL-E and Midjourney ignited exploration of how AI would interpret prompts driven by human creativity. It’s a topical question: What is the role of human spontaneity and inventiveness in an era where generative AI can mimic these traits in a fraction of the time? In the hands of Shaw and design director Michael Loughlin, that question is regarded with care and deep concern. The thought experiment led to Project: HI > AI, Wolf-Gordon’s exhibition of artist-designed wallcovering patterns, juxtaposed with AI-generated counterparts.

This weekend, it seemed as if all of the Hamptons turned out to toast  Simone Levinson’s Champion of the Arts award from the Southampton Arts Center. Levinson was joined by 450 benefit guests who enjoyed dinner and a private visit to the center’s current exhibition, “Change Agents: Women Collectors Shaping the Art World,” along with performances by Ariana DeBose and Jessica Vosk. An afterparty gave night owls the chance to keep the festivities going with Mortlach whisky, caviar by Meredith Marks, and an astounding fundraising sum of nearly $1 million going towards the arts center.

When was it? Aug. 19

Where was it? The Southampton Arts Center

Who was there? Gaia Matisse, Riley Burruss, Ivy Getty, Ming Lee Simmons, Aoki Lee Simmons, and more.

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Surface Says: A master of timeless design, Carl Hansen & Søn always knows how to balance homeyness and modernity.

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