Closures

Plans to close pottery museum in Stoke for five months a year and cut full-time positions spark backlash

Gladstone Pottery Museum to be used as a film location under controversial council proposals

US museums close or reduce capacity as Omicron variant causes surge in Covid-19 cases

The Metropolitan Museum will stay opened at reduced capacity, while others like the Yale University Art Gallery and the Baltimore Museum of Art close temporarily

Closed since early 2020, Puerto Rico’s Museo de Arte de Ponce faces long road to reopening

Despite challenges wrought by the pandemic and earthquake-caused damage to its building, the museum has a new director and new momentum

Museums in London start to shut down as Omicron wave sweeps capital

Natural History Museum closes due to front-of-house staff shortages caused by Covid-19

Mystery surrounds sudden closures of two major Shanghai museums

Long Museum West Bund and Shanghai Minsheng Art Museum both announced they would shut indefinitely for unspecified reasons

Influential Singapore arts centre the Substation closes down permanently after 30 years

Venue's board announced closure "with profound sadness" in March after losing sole tenancy of the theatre and gallery space

After warnings that a third of US museums could close, a survey indicates that just 15% are at significant risk

Poll conducted in April yields optimism that financial fallout from the pandemic will be less severe than feared

After avoiding layoffs, Oakland Museum of California now plans job cuts of 15%

Staff will shrink from 126 to 106 as institution pursues an organisational makeover

Centre Pompidou plans to show 120,000 works 'as much as possible' around France during three-year closure

While Paris museum undergoes renovations, Europe's biggest modern and contemporary art collection will go on tour—keeping curators employed

As state restrictions drag on, pressure grows for more California museums to reopen

With lockdown lifted for nail salons and zoos, anger rises over arts institutions’ continued closure, estimated to cost the sector $22m a day

Culture war erupts over Venice mayor's closure of Doge's Palace and other civic museums until April

Luigi Brugnaro's "entrepreneurial" decision violates Venice's historic agreement with Italian state to keep the landmark open to the public

Closure of London's Florence Nightingale Museum fuels fears that the pandemic will force smaller UK institutions to shut

Williamson Art Gallery & Museum in Birkenhead is also under threat of closure as part of cost-cutting measures by local council

Russia sends Moscow’s museums into second lockdown until mid-January

Cultural workers voice frustration at mixed closure orders, as theatres, concert halls and restaurants are allowed to stay open

German museum chiefs say enforced November closure is 'wrong decision'

More than 40 directors sign an open letter to regional governments saying museums should not be included in month-long coronavirus lockdown

Marian Goodman to close London gallery

The New York-based art dealer will instead launch a project initiative in the city, with no permanent space, starting next autumn

Closurescomment

'Another yawning gap': radical London Print Studio closes its doors

Art world pays tribute to vital public space that served community organisations as well as artists including Lucian Freud, Billy Childish and Shezad Dawood

Singapore art space prepares final show in Gillman Barracks after Covid-19 shortfall

NTU Centre for Contemporary Art to close physical venue in March, casting doubt on future of gallery district

Artist Kader Attia 'heartbroken' as Covid-19 forces closure of his decolonial Paris art hub

The French-Algerian is now looking for a new, smaller space in the city's suburbs

'There is no fast track back to normal': museums confront economic fallout of the pandemic

Closed museums are losing millions in income, ushering in job cuts, appeals for emergency relief and lasting changes in strategy

Here are the museums that have closed (so far) due to coronavirus

Updates on which cultural institutions are temporarily closing to contain the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic

Coronavirus: Louvre closes while Italian museums reopen following government green light

Italian officials say cultural institutions can open to the public so long as they ensure “visitors respect a distance of at least a metre between each other”

Blain Southern goes into administration as artists reveal debts owed by gallery

Abrupt closure of three spaces has prompted criticism from some about the way the business was run

Anny Shaw. with additional reporting by Ben Luke
Museumscomment

Letter to the editor | Necessity, not secrecy, will close NPG’s doors

Nicholas Cullinan, the director of the National Portrait Gallery, responds to criticism about the museum's three-year closure

Why was the National Portrait Gallery so secretive about its closure?

The London museum will close between 2020 and 2023, but the announcement was buried in the fourth paragraph of a press release

Chinanews

Guangzhou museum given three days’ notice to evacuate before demolition

Privately funded Redtory Museum of Contemporary Art says its forced closure follows “a long period of disputation” with the local authorities

Parasol Unit to close east London gallery

From next spring the foundation will hold exhibitions "in whatever part of the world I feel the dialogue is needed”, says founder Ziba Ardalan

Historic Bernheim-Jeune and Fine Art Society galleries shut up shop

A sign of the times, two of London and Paris’s oldest firms closed their premises in the traditional art heartlands of the cities

What's next for the Met after its 2020 Breuer exit?

Sheena Wagstaff says the move is part of a “positive, forward-thinking” new regime under Max Hollein’s directorship

‘Oversaturated’ Berlin loses two more galleries

Exile gallery has moved to Vienna, while Gillmeier Rech closes

London’s National Portrait Gallery to partially close for London Fashion Week event (again)

Decision follows a controversial closure in February for Erdem’s runway show