Mexico City–based artist Francis Alÿs is skeptical whether democracy—like faith—can be “exported” around the world. It’s one of the themes of his project When Faith Moves Mountains (2002-2003), which is part of the Walker’s permanent collection.

Art “is a universal language in our search for common ground, an expression of our shared humanity,” writes Hillary Clinton in announcing winners of the new State Department Medal of Arts: Cai Guo-Qiang, Jeff Koons, Shahzia Sikander, Kiki Smith, and Carrie Mae Weems.

Agreeing that libraries shouldn’t hide controversial issues, Newark library officials have removed a shroud hiding a Kara Walker drawing that includes a depiction of a slave having sex with a white man. The library has invited the artist to speak about the piece.

Minneapolis-based photographer JoAnn Verburg—who recently discussed her 9/11 photos for our series Lowercase P: Artists & Politics—says much of her art comes out of “the fact that we’re alone and we’re not alone.”

Some 300 drawings from the 1950s have been unearthed in the Warhol Foundation’s storage. To be published for the first time in a book next week, they show “a skilled and sensitive draughtsman producing images that are more Egon Schiele than pop art.”

Barry McGee, whose first US museum solo show was at the Walker in 1998, has created a giant mural on the side of the Mark Morris Dance Center in Brooklyn. Measuring 96 by 67 feet, it includes his signature text, figures, and geometric shapes.

The Newseum in Washington is hosting a free-speech message through Jan. 19. With the Hirshhorn, it’s projecting images of Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei’s work on the 74-foot-tall marble First Amendment tablet on its exterior.

Carmen Herrera, now 98, has been painting daily for 80 years, but of all the work she’s made there are “not too many” she still likes. “Sometimes I’m very pleased, sometimes not so pleased, but it takes me a little while to know that a painting is garbage.”

Fear not, allergy sufferers! Wolfgang Laib’s 18x21 ft. work Pollen from Hazelnut, opening at MoMA Jan. 23, shouldn’t trigger sneezes. There have been “no known incidents” in 36 years of Laib’s use of pollen, according to a report from (fittingly) Hyperallergic.