In a traditional museum, art is presented in the context of singular art history, says the Van Abbemuseum’s Steven ten Thije. But “if you start to see works themselves as contexts, then each work starts to be not just a story of itself, but to offer a perspective on the world—a different background against which things can be ordered.” Here he discusses the museum’s evolving thinking on curation.

To commemorate the year that was, we invited artists and designers to take part in an open-ended exercise: share with us 2012’s best “things”—artworks, books, albums, political moments, memories, spectacles, failures, etc. The first to take us up on the offer was photographer Alec Soth, who weighs in with the “10 things that gave me pleasure in 2012.”

“[I]f we spend less time dismissing non-experts and more time listening, we can learn something,” writes MoMA’s Desi Gonzalez. “I dream of a world of grassroots art interpretations, that values the perceptions of a novice as much as a Ph.D.”

In 2012, Walker executive director Olga Viso traveled across the state and around the world, from Minneapolis, New York, and Kassel to Gwangju and Beijing. Reflecting here, she shares her highlights from the year that was. The Merce Cunningham Dance Company’s final performance at the New York Armory, with set designs by Daniel Arsham, launched my […] In 2012, Walker executive director Olga Viso traveled…

Marking the 100th anniversary of the seminal 1913 Armory Show, the US Postal Service is issuing a set of 12 modern art “Forever” stamps. Available for preorder now, they feature Man Ray, Marcel Duchamp, Georgia O’Keeffe, and others.

When the chairs were removed after Marina Abramović’s MoMA show The Artist Is Present closed, NYC artist Man Bartlett took home the tape on the floor indicating placement of the work’s chairs. One is now part of a collage for sale on eBay.

Assessing the best of 2012, Modern Art Notes gives top-10 props to Zoe Strauss’ survey in Philadelphia, Richard Serra’s drawing retrospective at the Menil Collection, and our own “killer website,” to name a few. Thanks, MAN’s Tyler Green!

Interested in US drones, Israeli-born artist Omer Fast took out a Craigslist ad seeking a drone operator. Enter the FBI. He tells Eyal Weizman, “We were told to stop what we were doing and threatened in suggestive, spy-movie language.”