Museums & Heritage

Former factory in Iraqi Kurdistan stirs hope for cultural tourism

From studio spaces to museums, a future complex holds the promise of galvanising artists

The Marciano masquerade is exposed

The art foundation, which has closed its doors, was never more than the shell of a museum

Terra Foundation plans 2024 sequel to Art Design Chicago

Yearlong 2018 effort drew 2.5 million people and brought attention to overlooked artists

German parliament approves institute for photographic legacy based in Dusseldorf

Government says institute is necessary to address “considerable backlog in securing the visual memory of our society”

New Hampshire museum acquires a rare house by Frank Lloyd Wright

The 1957 home, the Currier Museum of Art's second Wright dwelling, is built in the “Usonian Automatic” style, with rectangular concrete blocks

What is art for? Why, to help sell arms, silly!

October saw full deployment of culture in Russian and French political and commercial diplomacy with Saudi Arabia

The French general’s advice to Notre Dame's chief architect: ‘Just shut up!’

A public spat between officials erupted this week in Paris over the reconstruction of the fire-ravaged cathedral and whether its historic spire should be restored as it was or a new spire built in its place

Three ways museums can face up to the climate crisis

No issue is more relevant—and relevance is the cultural sector’s current leitmotif

The Huntington Library acquires two collections of US slavery and abolition records

The historic documents “highlight the complexities of documenting America’s ‘peculiar institution’”

Opening new galleries and showcasing its sphinx, Penn Museum rebrands its image

Museum at the University of Pennsylvania will open 10,000 sq. ft of reimagined spaces

Whitney Museum acquires 88 works by biennial artists

Additions to the collection include a painting by one of the eight artists who threatened to pull their art from display in protest against vice chairman Warren Kanders

Meadows Museum in Dallas teams up with local and Madrid opera companies

Opera sets will evoke the museum’s collection, and soloists will perform at the museum

Jayne Wrightsman leaves over 375 works of art and $80m to the Met

From European paintings to the decorative arts, the patron and her oil tycoon husband, who both served as trustees for decades, gave the New York museum more than 1,275 works in all

Russianews

Moving to the suburbs: vast museum collections centre destined for 'New Moscow'

State Tretyakov Gallery among 23 Russian museums planning to store and show works near former killing field Kommunarka

UK national museums could learn a lot from their regional cousins

When it comes to having a historian rummaging in their stores, smaller institutions tend to be more enthusiastic and accommodating

From the archive | Louvre pyramid architect I.M. Pei on the church-like museum he designed for the Goulandris collection

In this 1994 interview, he reveals how he likes art to be displayed, such as natural lighting for Impressionists

Goulandris collection of Modern masterworks finally revealed in new Athens museum

Dream museum of collectors Basil and Elise Goulandris brought to life almost three decades after original proposal

Interview | Lonnie Bunch on founding the Smithsonian's African American history museum and drawing inspiration from Lincoln

As his new book is released, the new secretary of the Smithsonian Institution talks of extending its reach beyond Washington

London's National Gallery launches public campaign to fund last £2m to buy Orazio Gentileschi masterpiece

The 17th-century painting The Finding of Moses was painted in London for Charles I and represented the birth of Charles II

Google and Lin-Manuel Miranda team up on a project to share Puerto Rican art online

Digitisation effort draws on works from four institutions in a push for cultural preservation

Los Angeles's Marciano Art Foundation lays off staff trying to unionise

The private museum cited low attendance records over the past few weeks in a short letter to nearly six dozen workers who recently announced they voted to join a union

Former Stedelijk director Beatrix Ruf will head to Moscow's Garage Museum

The German curator was previously accused of conflicting interests between the Amsterdam museum and her private consulting work

Chinanews

Museum dedicated to Picasso and Giacometti to launch in Beijing

Paris-based institutions Musée National Picasso and the Fondation Giacometti will open space in 798 district next June

Museums must engage more with Indigenous peoples

There is a direct connection between how predominantly white curators have categorised Indigenous peoples as part of “natural history” and how we are misrepresented in contemporary art spaces

Joseph M Pierce

London’s National Portrait Gallery to close for three years with ‘some job losses’

Museum plans to send 300 portraits a year on tour around the country during £35.5m redevelopment

Women artists take over museum schedules in 2020 to coincide with US presidential election

Coalition of curators organise events and exhibitions of art by women at 50 museums

Castle opening crowns £150m revival of Bishop Auckland

Millionaire Jonathan Ruffer’s ambitious regeneration of a small former mining town in northern England reveals 1,000 years of history and art

Orlando chooses its memorial to Pulse shooting victims

More than three years after the massacre, a winning design has been selected for a $45m museum and memorial campus, but some survivors and victims’ families would rather it stay unbuilt.

A US-China-Arab partnership: Lacma, Yuz Museum and Qatar Museums team up on exhibition projects

The Los Angeles and Shanghai institutions say their joint foundation is still in progress