Christopher Bedford, the 35-year-old chief curator of exhibitions at the Wexner Center for the Arts at Ohio State University, has been named the next director of the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University. He will be the museum's first director since then school president Jehuda Reinharz and other Brandeis leaders threatened to close the Rose and sell off its fabulous collection in January 2009 and pushed out then director Michael Rush that summer.

Last weekend marked the opening of the Pre-Vinylite Society's hand-painted sign art exhibit in the Extension Gallery above Orchard Skate Shop in Allston. And if you're familiar with the gallery's previous shows, you know they're good for some pretty amazing feats of art-ness.

The Pre-Vinylite group show, up now through December 9, showcases some seriously rad signs and truly masterful hand-lettering.

Back in 2009, we wrote about how, due to a projected $80 million deficit, Brandeis University was poised to sell off the artwork in its famed Rose Museum, a collection including works by Lichtenstein, Jasper Johns, de Kooning, and Warhol.

After two years of speculating, PR nightmares, and conflicting statements, we now have a definitive update.

In 1971, Boston After Dark (the alt-weekly that would eventually become the Boston Phoenix) investigated a particularly whimsical outburst of art activism: Way before the days of Banksy, six rogue Boston artists invaded the MFA's men's room, transforming it into a makeshift gallery. They smuggled in their own work -- via the "Is that a painting in your pants or are you just happy to see me?" method -- and converted the lavatory walls into "the only place in the Museum that exhibits contemporary local art."

Everybody wants more art, right? But building an art collection can be an arduous, expensive endeavor. Then again, we used to say the same thing about getting a steady supply of organic, locally grown heirloom tomatoes, too -- and then along came community-supported agriculture, and changed everything. So who says that model couldn't work for art, too?

A few weeks ago we published an update on the story of Myles J. Connor, the art thief who once claimed to have been the mastermind of the (still unsolved) art-heist of the 20th century: the theft of $300 million in paintings -- including Vermeer's The Concert -- from Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in 1990.

We're popping bottles up in here for KARL STEVENS, who has been named a finalist for the prestigious Los Angles Times Book Prize, in the graphic novel category. Stevens, whose weekly strip Failure can be found weekly in the Phoenix (and is archived right here), was nominated for his 2010 book The Lodger, which was also the subject of an exhibit at Carroll and Sons over the summer.

^{PHOTOS: Iansanity and others at Guerilla Gallery's Take It Outside exhibit}

This past Saturday, June 26th, Iansanity (imightbeinsane.com) and Madness 2012 (myspace.com/themouthofmadness2012) organized an art show with their new project, the Guerilla Gallery. This event -- called "Take It Outside" -- is part of their initiative to up the ante with Allston's art scene.

Match made in heaven: JOHN WATERS, he the maker of Pink Flamingos, and RONI HORN, she the maker of such inscrutibly beautiful but maddeningly evasive Objects as Pink Tons.

Even Waters has a hard time getting what Horn is after at first look -- and, as he pointed out last week, that's the damn point. We thank our stars that the ICA BOSTON picked Waters as Horn's interlocutor -- we doubt anyone less flamboyant, off-the-dome amusing, unabashedly curious, and ultimately fearless could have done as impressive a job.