Los Angeles wildfires, World Monuments Fund’s watch list, a Hokusai drawing manual—podcast

Firefighters spray water on burning structures to contain the rapid spread of the Palisades fire in Los Angeles on 8 January 2025
Photo: Wildfire Image / Alamy Stock Photo
From breaking news and insider insights to exhibitions and events around the world, the team at The Art Newspaper picks apart the art world’s big stories with the help of special guests. An award-winning podcast hosted by Ben Luke.
This week: the Los Angeles wildfires. The Art Newspaper’s West coast contributing editor in LA, Jori Finkel, tells our associate digital editor, Alexander Morrison, about the devastation in Southern California, and its effect on artists and institutions.
Prayer during Ramadan at the partially destroyed Great Omari Mosque in Gaza City (April 2024). The entire urban fabric of Gaza is on World Monuments Fund’s Watch List
Photo courtesy of Getty/Anadolu
The World Monuments Fund (WMF), the independent organisation devoted to safeguarding global heritage has released its biennial World Monuments Watch, a list of 25 sites that are potentially threatened. The aim of the list is, according to the WMF to “mobilise action, build public awareness, and demonstrate how heritage can help communities confront the crucial issues of our time”.
Ben Luke talks to John Darlington, the director of projects for WMF Britain, who also reflects on the future of the organisation’s project to train Syrian refugees in stonemasonry skills, in the wake of the change in government in Syria.
An extract from Ehon saishiki tsu 絵本彩色通 (Picture Book: The Essence of Colouring), which is one of the manuals included in the new book Hokusai’s Method, published by Thames and Hudson
© The Trustees of the British Museum
And this episode’s Work of the Week is All About Painting in Colour: An Illustrated Book, a portfolio in two volumes made by the leading artist of the late Edo period in Japan, Katsushika Hokusai. The last of his drawing manuals, made by the artist at the very end of his life, it features in a new book, Hokusai’s Method. We talk to Ryoko Matsuba, one of the authors of the new book.
From the devastating war in Gaza to art attacks in museums, our editors analyse the year's biggest stories
From the British Museum thefts to the consequences in art and heritage of the Israel-Hamas war
How can Palestinian artists rebuild after a devastating war? Plus, a discussion about Cimabue’s radical innovations in painting and three works from a family business of printmakers

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