ICYMI: Highlights from the week that was August 26 – September 1, 2018

We know plastics are as plentiful in parts of the open ocean as they are in our everyday lives. But, until recently, scientists didn’t consider that such debris could also be carrying a new wave of invasive species to the shores of the United States. Now they’re finding that not only is that happening, but they suspect that some of the species will thrive.

Not long after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami that ravaged the east coast of Japan, a surge of floating trash—shellfish cages, portions of piers, entire fishing vessels—started washing onto the West Coast of North America and Hawaii. The tsunami had dragged Japan’s plastic infrastructure out to sea, where it bobbed toward North America. (Related: Japan Tsunami: 20 Unforgettable Pictures)

Scientists largely expected the debris to land, knowing the pace and direction of ocean currents. But they didn’t know that Japanese mussels, barnacles, and sea squirtscould survive for six years on a trek across the Pacific Ocean and arrive not only alive, but ready to reproduce. Read more from Whitney Pipkin for National Geographic.

The National Gallery’s next leader will have a chance to reshape the museum. If the museum allows it.

The Washington Post, August 29

Earl “Rusty” Powell will retire after 25 years at the Gallery of Art. (Bill O’Leary)

The search for the next director of the National Gallery of Art has revealed deep divisions within the federally funded institution, a palace of high art that is dogged by old-fashioned ideas about museum operations and staff claims of widespread mismanagement.

The leader chosen to succeed retiring Director Earl “Rusty” Powell III could signal a new chapter for one of the country’s premier art institutions. Established by Congress from a gift from Andrew W. Mellon, the National Gallery of Art has a patriotic heart that chooses consistency over flash and scholarship over blockbusters. With its federal charter — and sizable federal subsidy — the gallery is a Brooks Brothers suit in an Alexander McQueen world.

But with Powell’s 26-year tenure coming to an end, the museum has the opportunity to revitalize its programs and modernize its operation, according to interviews with 22 current and former employees and industry experts. The selection of its next leader — expected to be made next month — could determine whether it continues to hew to the past or emerges at the forefront of a quickly evolving museum industry. Read more from Peggy McGlone for The Washington Post.

Climate change could render many of Earth’s ecosystems unrecognizable

The Washington Post, August 30

The Thomas Fire, shown here advancing toward La Conchita, Calif., in December, burned more than 250,000 acres in Southern California. More severe wildfires are among the ways climate change will alter Earth’s ecosystems, scientists say. (Stuart Palley for The Washington Post)

After the end of the last ice age — as sea levels rose, glaciers receded and global average temperatures soared as much as seven degrees Celsius — the Earth’s ecosystems were utterly transformed.

Forests grew up out of what was once barren, ice-covered ground. Dark, cool stands of pine were replaced by thickets of hickory and oak. Woodlands gave way to scrub, and savanna turned to desert. The more temperatures increased in a particular landscape, the more dramatic the ecological shifts.

It’s about to happen again, researchers are reporting Thursday in the journal Science. A sweeping survey of global fossil and temperature records from the past 20,000 years suggests that Earth’s terrestrial ecosystems are at risk of another, even faster transformation unless aggressive action is taken against climate change. Read more from Sarah Kaplan for The Washington Post.

Step aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery with Google’s 8K virtual tour

Check out the spacecraft in a 360-degree video.

CNet, August 30

Now’s your chance to (virtually) step inside the Space Shuttle Discovery.

To commemorate the 34th anniversary of the shuttle’s first launch on Thursday, the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum and Google Arts & Culture released a 360-degree video that lets viewers peer inside Discovery, alongside the astronauts who helped deploy the Hubble Space Telescope. You can adjust the video resolution up to 8K. Read more from Abrar Al-Heeti for CNet.

This new museum doesn’t want Instagram or crowds. Does that make it elitist?

The Washington Post, August 30

This time-lapse video shows the development of the Pavilions, a 204,000 square foot art gallery in Potomac, Md. that is scheduled to open on Oct. 4. (Courtesy of Glenstone Museum)

There are contemporary museums harder to get to and more isolated than Glenstone, including one on a lonely island in Japan and another in a remote town in Texas. Some museums are invitation-only and function almost like private clubs. And there are several prominent institutions that focus on integrating culture with nature, inviting visitors not just to look at art, but luxuriate in landscape. But when Glenstone opens its new facility to the public next month in Potomac, Md., the art museum will do so at a moment when something new is stirring in the art world: a powerful sense that too many museums have become a victim of their own success, and a new paradigm for experiencing art is desperately needed.

Glenstone is the creation of Mitch and Emily Rales, wealthy art collectors who opened a gallery on the grounds of their Maryland estate in 2006. On Oct. 4, the couple will inaugurate a greatly expanded arts campus, with more than five times the exhibition space in a building called the Pavilions, a gathering of interconnected galleries built around a pool, set into a gentle hill. Made from gray, cast concrete and full of natural light, the Pavilions feels minimalist, monastic and somehow ancient at the same time. Read more from Phillip Kennicott for The Washington Post