Update Regarding Detained Chinese Artist Ai Weiwei

We are pleased to report that Ai Weiwei has been allowed to see his wife, the artist Lu Qing, for the first time since his detainment on April 3.

Go here to read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/detained-china-artist-ai-weiwei-allowed-to-see-wife/2011/05/16/AFDGzk4G_story.html

SIGN THIS PETITION TO CALL FOR THE RELEASE OF AI WEIWEI

If you have not done so already, please consider signing the petition calling for his release.

http://www.change.org/petitions/call-for-the-release-of-ai-weiwei

On April 3, internationally acclaimed Chinese artist Ai Weiwei was detained at the Beijing airport while en route to Hong Kong, and his papers and computers were seized from his studio compound.

We members of the international arts community express our concern for Ai’s freedom and disappointment in China’s reluctance to live up to its promise to nurture creativity and independent thought, the keys to “soft power” and cultural influence.

Our institutions have some of the largest online museum communities in the world and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation launched this online petition to our collective millions of Facebook fans and Twitter followers. By using Ai Weiwei’s favored medium of “social sculpture,” we hope to hasten the release of our visionary friend.