THE NEW YORK TIMES, SATURDAY, AUGUST 1, 2020 Y C3
The Amistad Research Center’s holdings on
African-American history, a new biography
of the poet Robert Frost and a traveling ex-
hibition commemorating the 20th anniver-
sary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks are
among the 238 recipients of new grants
from the National Endowment for the Hu-
manities.
The grants, which make up the final
round of funding for the fiscal year, total $30
million, and will support humanities
projects in 45 states, the District of Colum-
bia and Puerto Rico. This year, two new in-
ternational collaborative grants will sup-
port projects based in England and Ger-
many. An additional $50 million was
awarded to the national network of state
and jurisdictional humanities councils for
annual operating support.
In a phone interview, the endowment’s
chairman, Jon Parrish Peede, said that a
number of the grants were for exhibitions
or projects scheduled to open in the spring
of 2021. But because of complications asso-
ciated with the coronavirus pandemic,
many are not likely to open then.
“The N.E.H. decided that we are going to
fund these projects even if we know that
they’ll have to be rescheduled for a different
time,” Mr. Peede said. “I think it’s my re-
sponsibility on behalf of the agency to sup-
port great projects and then to work out
with them how they can come into being
once this pandemic is under control.”
A number of grants were awarded to
summer seminars, institutes and work-
shops at schools, while others went toward
long-term preservation projects, like one
for Preservation Hall’s archives of jazz
memorabilia in New Orleans. Others will
support projects specifically focused on
promoting a deeper understanding of U.S.
history, as part of the agency’s A More Per-
fect Union initiative, in preparation for the
nation’s 250th birthday in 2026.
In New York, the National September 11
Memorial & Museum received $200,000 for
a forthcoming traveling exhibition in part-
nership with 20 libraries across the country,
ahead of the 20th anniversary of the terror-
ist attacks. The Interfaith Center of New
York also secured funding for a teaching in-
stitute focused on American religious diver-
sity through the lens of six religions prac-
ticed in New York.
Elsewhere, the Detroit Historical Society
received funding for an exhibition that ex-
plores the city’s booming automobile indus-
try and illicit alcohol trade in the 1920s. In
Kentucky, a grant will help the arts organi-
zation Appalshop preserve film footage
documenting the people of Appalachia. And
a book project in Germany about Chinese
dissident writers, filmmakers and academ-
ics also received a grant.
The grants announced this week are just
some of the funding the agency has pro-
vided to projects this year. Through the
CARES Act stimulus package, the agency
has been able to award more than $70 mil-
lion to help cultural institutions with emer-
gency funding through the pandemic.Humanities
Grants Funded
$30 million for 238 projects,
many of which will be delayed.By LAUREN MESSMANSince the 1970s, Oslo’s modest government
quarter has been dominated by a huge work
of art: “The Fishermen,” a concrete mural
by Pablo Picasso and the Norwegian artist
Carl Nesjar that overlooks the district’s cen-
tral square.
The mural, on the wall of a government
building known as Y-Block, has long been
one of Norway’s most high-profile pieces of
public art. That is, until this week.
To the outrage of preservationists, art-
world figures and Mr. Nesjar’s daughter, the
Norwegian authorities removed the work
early Thursday as part of plans to demolish
Y-Block, which was damaged in a 2011 ter-
rorist attack.
At noon Thursday, a crane placed “The
Fishermen” onto two trucks which drove it
away for storage. The building’s other Pi-
casso mural, “The Seagull,” was removed
from inside on Tuesday. Both will eventu-
ally be incorporated into a building in a new
government quarter planned for the site.
The mural’s removal was the culmination
of a yearslong fight between the authorities,
who argue the demolition is necessary for
security reasons, and activists, who believe
the decision represents a crime against
Norwegian cultural heritage.
The fate of Picasso’s artworks has been in
limbo since 2011, when the right-wing ter-
rorist Anders Behring Breivik detonated a
car bomb nearby, killing eight people and
damaging the building. Mr. Breivik later
murdered another 69 people, mostly teen-
agers, on an island near Oslo. The attack re-
mains a source of national trauma.
Despite protests against Y-Block’s
planned demolition, the Norwegian au-
thorities have insisted that a vehicle tunnel
running underneath the building poses a se-
curity risk, and that it is not safe for govern-
ment business to take place inside.
In an email, Nikolai Astrup, Norway’s
minister of local government and modern-
ization, said that the murals would be
prominently displayed in a new, more se-
cure building.
Mr. Astrup said that the Picasso Adminis-
tration, which oversees the artist’s estate,
had given its approval to the project. (The
Picasso Administration did not respond to
emails seeking comment.) “Considerations
of safety, functionality, urban environment,
conservation and costs were taken into ac-
count in an overall assessment,” Mr. Astrup
said.
But such reasoning hasn’t done much to
placate activists. Caroline Stovring, an Oslo
architect and one of the leaders of the move-
ment to preserve Y-Block, said in an inter-
view that the government didn’t sufficiently
explore options for retaining the building,
including leasing it out so that it no longer
housed government offices, or closing the
tunnel underneath it.
Several attempts to reverse the decision
— including a motion by an opposition party
in Norway’s Parliament this June and a law-
suit filed last winter — failed. This spring,
protesters, including a former Oslo city
planner, chained themselves to the building
in protest.
The activists have received international
support for their cause. In May, MoMA cu-
rators sent a letter to Prime Minister Erna
Solberg of Norway arguing that “the demo-
lition of the building complex would not only
constitute a significant loss of Norwegian
architectural heritage.” The Picasso Mu-
seum in Antibes, France, has also written to
Norwegian officials protesting the decision.
Mr. Nesjar’s daughter, Gro Nesjar Greve,
has begun a lawsuit together with the
grandson of Erling Viksjo, Y-Block’s archi-
tect, to stop the government from repurpos-
ing the murals in the new government quar-
ter. She said that her father, who died in
2015, was distraught when he learned of the
plans to relocate the mural. “This was his
main life achievement, and they are just
taking it down,” she said in a telephone in-
terview.
A group of activists have now begun a le-
gal effort to pause the rest of the demolition
until the heirs’ lawsuit is heard, probably
early next year. “The authorities think they
can just relocate a work by Picasso and Nes-
jar, and that it will be the same thing,” she
said. Under the government’s plans, “The
Fishermen” will be installed above a V.I.P.
entrance to the new building, and “The
Seagull” will be in the lobby.
She said that it was dispiriting that such a
decision had been made in Norway, a coun-
try with a limited amount of high-profile
public art. “We don’t have that many things
to take care of, that makes it even sadder
and stranger they are doing it.”Picasso Mural
Taken Down
In Norway
Activists protested the removal
of art from government offices
facing demolition in Oslo.
By THOMAS ROGERSTop, a protest last fall at “The Fishermen, ” a
mural by Pablo Picasso and Carl Nesjar that
was removed Thursday, above, from an Oslo
government building hit in a 2011 car bombing;
another mural, left, was taken down Tuesday.
ANNIKA BYRDE/NTB SCANPIX, VIA ASSOCIATED PRESSOLE BERG-RUSTEN/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE — GETTY IMAGESORN E. BORGEN/NTB SCANPIX, VIA AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE — GETTY IMAGESFill the grid with digits so as not to repeat a digit in any row or column, and so that the digits within each
heavily outlined box will produce the target number shown, by using addition, subtraction, multiplication or
division, as indicated in the box. A 4x4 grid will use the digits 1-4. A 6x6 grid will use 1-6.
For solving tips and more KenKen puzzles: http://www.nytimes.com/kenken. For feedback: [email protected]
KenKen® is a registered trademark of Nextoy, LLC. Copyright © 2020 http://www.KENKEN.com. All rights reserved.
ANSWERS TO
PREVIOUS PUZZLESKenKen
Two Not Touch
Put two stars in each row, column and region of the grid. No two stars may touch, not even diagonally.
Copyright © 2020 http://www.krazydad.com
Wit Twister
He much _ _ _ _ _ _ _ the colonel, so, with zest,Attends her “Murder Game.” But he’s _ _ _ _ _ _ _The invite: Why is he the only guest?And why’s her _ _ _ _ _ _ _ pointed at his head?ANSWERS TO
PREVIOUS PUZZLESComplete the verse with words
that are anagrams of each other.
Each underline represents a letter.
PUZZLE BY NANCY COUGHLINYESTERDAY’S ANSWER School (Stallion ends in
“lion”; its group is a pride. A group of fish is a school.)ACROSS
1 “Coach K” of
N.C.A.A. men’s
basketball fame
11 “Somewhat”
14 Immaculate
15 Info compiled
for a debate,
metaphorically
16 “Say again,
please”
18 Stole something?
19 Traditional source
of material for a
sherpa’s coat
20 Noted couple on
the Titanic
21 People whom
you might try to
forget
23 Tough-to-sculpt
part of some
Roman statues
26 Like the last
complete
symphony of
Gustav Mahler
27 Words from a
quitter
30 Sockeye relative
31 Hangs loose?
34 Series of posts
on social media
36 Knock-down-
drag-out
37 Ad ___
39 “Comin’
through!”
41 Grant, for
example42 Target of
products from
Bio-Groom and
Wondercide
44 Page turner
45 Sound heard in a
delivery room
47 Sushi with unagi
49 Glitz up
51 Crew
52 Modern
corporate dept.
56 Streaker
58 Certain red ...
or, in another
context,
something
associated with
the color yellow
60 Org. in
Showtime’s
“Homeland”
61 Shakespeare’s
“The Murder of
Gonzago” is one
65 200 in a 500
66 It might say “Pay
poor tax of $15”
67 Designer’s asset
68 Landlocked land
along the Silk
RoadDOWN
1 Chopper
2 Brought back
3 Former name
of sub-Saharan
Africa’s largest
country4 Since January 1:
Abbr.
5 Eccentric
6 Mandate in some
wills
7 Eccentrics, in
slang
8 Facial joint
9 Word after press
or mess
10 Worshiper of the
goddess Mama
Quilla (“mother
moon”)
11 Award show
sentiment
12 Residence with
lots of remotely
controlled
systems
13 Way to wind
down after a
workout
15 Top story17 TV inits. hidden
backward in
“television
shopping”
22 Tries, maybe
24 Often-animated
picture file
25 So long
28 Natural
feature near
Queensland
29 Dead reckoning?
31 Spit take,
perhaps?
32 Apt occurrence
during the game
that ended the
Cubs’ 108-year
World Series
drought
33 Smoking gun of
Watergate
35 Go one on one
38 Intersect
40 Put (away)43 Many a
microbrew
46 Hunts, with “on”
48 Very, very fast
50 Partner of here
53 Sparkle
54 One-named
singer with
the 2004 #1 hit
“Goodies”
55 So-called “Father
of the String
Quartet”
57 Stack of hay or
straw
59 She performed
while six months
pregnant at
Woodstock
62 Psalm possessive
63 When repeated,
“So-o-o funny”
64 Windows might
be on themANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLEPUZZLE BY ADAM AARONSON AND PAOLO PASCO8/1/20PROM BF FS MAL TA
AERO ELAST I G I RL
NCAA L AYERCAKES
DONT CARE AR I E S
ANG RYE L I ON
CEL I E BULB PGA
HISANDHIS LALAW
ALONG AL T ABASE
LEDGE RES IDENTS
FDA WADS C I DER
POL Y HEN TOS
ALERT REDG I ANT
AMENTOTHAT TROU
D I NAHSHORE L IMB
ODD L Y USDA L AY S12345678910 11121314 1516 1718 19 2021 22 23 24 25 2627 28 29 3031 32 33 34 35 3637 38 39 4041 42 43 4445 46 47 4849 50 51 52 53 54 5556 57 58 59 6061 62 63 6465 6667 68Online subscriptions: Today’s puzzle and more than 9,000 past puzzles,
nytimes.com/crosswords ($39.95 a year).
Read about and comment on each puzzle: nytimes.com/wordplay.Crossword Edited by Will Shortz