“Syria artist sets Guinness record with Damascus Mural”

VIA AFP

Damascus (AFP) – A Syrian artist has set a Guinness record for the world’s largest mural made of recycled materials, aiming to inspire hope and creativity in his war-ravaged country.

Guinness World Records announced on its Facebook page that Moaffak Makhoul and his team completed the mural in Damascus in January, two months shy of the third anniversary of the grim conflict in Syria.

“The largest mural from recycled material measures 720 square metres (7,749.98 square feet),” it said on its Facebook page.

Guinness said it was “created from manufactured waste by Moaffak Makhoul and a team of six Syrian artists in Al Mazzeh, Damascus.” (more…)

Will Washington Finally Get a Women’s History Museum?

By Julia Halperin via “The Art Newspaper”

Meryl Streep personally pledged $1m to the planned museum last year. Photo: Annie Liebovitz

A long-stalled campaign to build a national museum for women’s history in Washington, DC, has gained new momentum. Key elected officials, including Eric Cantor, the Republican majority leader of the House of Representatives, and Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic minority leader, pledged their support this week for legislation to help create the museum.

The bill’s list of cosponsors has nearly doubled in the past four months, to 85, and a vote is expected to take place later this year. A record number of women serving in Congress—98, up from 91 last year and 24 in 1983—also gives the legislation’s chances of success a boost. The latest version of the bill is designed to calm the complaints of Republicans, who blocked an earlier proposal in 2010 because they feared a new museum would cost taxpayers too much money. The estimated $500m institution will be financed entirely through private funds; a non-profit organisation started to raise money for the museum has already collected $18m, according to The New York Times, and the actress Meryl Streep personally pledged $1m last year. But the project still needs Congressional approval to be built on federal land in downtown Washington, DC.