1) Pantone's New App Makes it Easy to Find Colors in the Wild

A new app from Pantone is like Pokemon Go for artists and designers! The app, called Pantone Studio, scans objects and scenes viewed through a smartphone’s camera lens, and creates accurate color matches to existing Pantone swatches. With a monthly subscription fee of $8, the app is significantly more accessible than the company’s analog color guides, which can run for over $600. Along with its color-matching capabilities, the app also offers visualization tools that allow users to see how colors look in relation to each other, and in rooms.

2) Damage to 16th Century Masterpieces Stokes Growing Security Concerns for National Gallery

Amid concerns about excessive cost-cutting at Britain’s National Gallery, scratches were recently found on two 16th century Italian artworks in the gallery’s collection. The discovery leads more and more critics to believe that the gallery’s efforts to save money by hiring a private security firm are putting precious artworks at undue risk. Saints Sebastian, Roch, and Demetrius, painted by Ortolano in the 1520s, and Canon Ludovico di Terzi by Giovanni Battista Moroni in the 1560s, were both found to have visible scratch marks that may have been caused by fingernails or jewelry. Staff at the gallery returned to work in October after several months on strike, following the outsourcing of their jobs to Securitas, the security firm now in charge of the gallery’s safety.

3) USC Roski Makes "Transformative" New Hires

The saga of USC Roski School of Art and Design continues, with the school making some new hires to its faculty a few months after its last remaining MFA student dropped out of the program. According to the school, the new hires are “transformative,” and will include artists Patty Chang, Suzanne Lacy, Keith Mayerson, Kori Newkirk and Edgar Arceneaux. A statement from the school dean, Erica Muhl, is vague but notes that the school wishes to prepare its students for increasing complexity in the art world. While the school will reportedly be welcoming eight new MFA students this fall, only time will tell if these new hires have any effect on its tarnished reputation.

4) MoMA Releases Gilbert & George Vinyl

MoMA’s record label, MoMA/MoMA PS1 records, has released 2,000 vinyl copies of The Thoughts of Gilbert and George, a recording that the artists made of themselves discussing The Singing Sculpture. Editions of the record are available for $50 through the label’s website. This is only the second album to be released on the Museum of Modern Art’s record label. The first was There Will Never be Silence, a collection of artists’ and musicians’ responses to the practice of John Cage. Recorded at MoMA Studios, a recording hub inside the museum itself, these records represent an interesting evolution in museum materials.