Tate Britain is Changing: First Phase of Major Building Project Starts this Autumn

LONDON.- This autumn Tate Britain embarks on a process which takes the gallery into the first phase of a major building project, through a period of transition and into a changed approach to showing the collections in newly refurbished galleries. The two-year period between spring 2011 and spring 2013 will be characterised by new ways of thinking about the Collection in the BP British Art Displays at Tate Britain. There will be two primary approaches, firstly a route for visitors to [...]

Chillida-Leku Museum in Spain Announces It is Forced to Shut Down Due to Economic Crisis

HERNANI.- The Chillida-Leku Museum has requested a temporary labor force adjustment plan and has agreed to close the museum starting on January 1, 2011. This decision is attributed to the recurring deficit that, along with practically all art museums, the museum has had to endure due to the general economic crisis which has risen to a level unsustainable for the private institution. Since their opening in 2000, and after seventeen years of planning, 810,000 people have visited the museum. This [...]

Miami Art Museum Breaks Ground on New Building in Downtown Miami’s Museum Park

MIAMI, FL.- Following years of planning and anticipation, Miami Art Museum has broken ground for its new Herzog & de Meuron-designed facility in Downtown Miami’s Museum Park and next to the future home of the Miami Science Museum. The groundbreaking ceremony was held at the Museum’s new site overlooking Biscayne Bay. The new Miami Art Museum is scheduled to open to the public in 2013. “Today’s groundbreaking is a giant step forward in Miami’s emergence as one of the world’s great cultural [...]

National Portrait Gallery Reveals Secrets Behind Exhibitions in New Teaching Website

LONDON.- The National Portrait Gallery has launched a ground-breaking new online resource which, for the first time, invites students and teachers behind the scenes at a national museum, revealing all the processes in staging an exhibition from start to finish, from concept and curating, to creating a marketing campaign, designing the 3D exhibition space and organising events. The website, which has been developed with Attic Media, has interviews with young people and industry professionals and provides careers advice as well as [...]

Gift from Brody Estate Expected to Yield More than $100 Million for the Huntington

SAN MARINO, CA.- A gift from the estate of Frances Lasker Brody to The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens is expected to yield in excess of $100 million, the largest single cash gift to the institution and one that will go a great distance toward providing much-needed financial stability, says Huntington President Steven S. Koblik. The equivalent of a 40 percent increase of the institution’s endowment, Brody’s gift also will require intense fiscal discipline to ensure it has the [...]

Paris Louvre Asks Public for Help to Buy Lucas Cranach the Elder’s Painting “The Three Graces”

PARIS (REUTERS).- France’s Louvre museum is making an unprecedented appeal to the general public to help it raise the cash to buy a 16th century painting deemed a national treasure by art experts. The Louvre has already scraped together 3 million euros ($4.19 million) for “The Three Graces,” an oil painting of three nudes by German artist Lucas Cranach the Elder, but is a million euros short of the price tag set by the work’s private owners. The 16th century oil [...]

Mark Moore Gallery Announced Its Permanent Relocation from Bergamot Station to Culver City

CULVER CITY, CA.- After twelve successful years in Bergamot Station (Santa Monica, CA), Mark Moore Gallery announced its permanent relocation to Culver City, CA. In conjunction with the grand opening of the new space, the gallery will also debut the much-anticipated solo exhibition for renowned local artist, Mario Ybarra Jr. Originally built in 1925, the building that will soon house Mark Moore Gallery has been deemed a Historic Building by Culver City’s preservation program. Featuring a brick façade, vaulted wood ceilings [...]

Gratz Family Portraits Reunited at Philadelphia’s Rosenbach Museum & Library

PHILADELPHIA, PA.- The Rosenbach Museum & Library in Philadelphia announces the acquisition of two artistically and culturally significant portraits originally belonging to the Gratz Family, a prominent early American Jewish family who lived in Philadelphia. The paintings include a visually stunning portrait of philanthropist, social activist, and Jewish leader Rebecca Gratz painted in 1831 by Thomas Sully, and a portrait of her brother, Joseph Gratz by George Peter Alexander Healy (not dated). Both portraits were originally painted in Philadelphia, and [...]

Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts Unveils New $504 Million Art of the Americas Wing

BOSTON (REUTERS).- When redecorating his home some years ago, financier Henry Kravis sold a painting by John Singer Sargent to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. The painting — “Charles Stewart Sixth Marquess of Londonderry, Carrying the Great Sword of State at the Coronation of King Edward V11 August 1902, and Mr. W.C. Beaumont, his Page on That Occasion” — is one of thousands of works that will now be displayed at the museum’s new Art of the Americas [...]

Nottingham Contemporary’s First Year a Complete Success with Record Visitor Figures

NOTTINGHAM.- Nottingham Contemporary will celebrate its first anniversary on Sunday 14 November 2010. Nottingham Contemporary is widely regarded as one of the most exciting galleries in the country, in or out of London – with a large local audience and a strong involvement with the concerns of its home city. Nearly 300,000 people – 290,000 – have visited the gallery in its first year, a 45% increase on the projected figure of 200,000. There have been over 36,000 participants in [...]

Ground Broken on Frank Gehry’s $81 Million Underground Utility Space at Philadelphia Art Museum

PHILADELPHIA (AP).- It’s not typical for a loading dock to be the celebrated subject of a groundbreaking ceremony, but Frank Gehry is not your typical architect. Gehry joined more than 100 dignitaries, philanthropists and art aficionados Tuesday at the The Philadelphia Museum of Art to mark the start of construction on his 68,000-square-foot, $81 million underground utility space. A vaulted hallway that has been closed to the public is seen after a groundbreaking ceremony at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in [...]

The Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston Announces Two New Curatorial Appointments

BOSTON, MA.- Jill Medvedow, director of the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston (ICA) announced today the appointment of Jenelle Porter as senior curator, effective January 2011, and Pedro Alonzo as adjunct curator, effective immediately. “These appointments come during a period of great energy and growth at the museum as the ICA continues to evolve in its waterfront home and our curatorial ranks expand,” said Medvedow. “Both Jenelle and Pedro share our commitment to connecting audiences with the joy and inspiration that contemporary [...]

SFMOMA Appoints Robert W. Lasher as New Deputy Museum Director, External Relations

SAN FRANCISCO, CA.- The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) announced the appointment of Robert W. Lasher as the museum’s deputy director, external relations, a newly created position. Starting on November 1, 2010, Lasher will supervise a new External Relations division, overseeing the museum’s Development Department and Marketing and Communications Department. He joins SFMOMA’s two current deputy museum directors, of curatorial affairs and of administration and finance, serving under Director Neal Benezra on the museum’s senior leadership team. Lasher [...]

Arthouse at the Jones Center, Austin’s Premier Contemporary Art Center, Reopened to the Public

AUSTIN, TX.- Arthouse at the Jones Center, Austin’s premier contemporary art center, reopened to the public October 24, 2010, after an extensive renovation and expansion project designed by award-winning New York architectural firm Lewis.Tsurumaki.Lewis Architects.  Exhibitions for the reopening include commissions of new work by Jason Middlebrook, Tony Feher, and Ryan Hennessee, along with solo presentations of work by Mequitta Ahuja, Cyprien Gaillard, and James Sham.  Arthouse’s new architecturally significant facility, along with its ambitious exhibitions and programming, position the contemporary art [...]

A New Public Gallery: The Royal Parks and the Serpentine Gallery Agree to New Venue

LONDON.- The Royal Parks, as part of an initiative to make better use of its buildings, has awarded a contract to theSerpentine Gallery to establish a new gallery in The Magazine building in Kensington Gardens. The Grade II listed building is situated on West Carriage Drive, on the north side of the Serpentine Bridge.  The project, to be known as the Serpentine Sackler Gallery, has been made possible by The Dr Mortimer and Theresa Sackler Foundation which has given the largest single [...]