Children in art galleries: an accident waiting to happen?

If you’re taking a small child to an art gallery, what’s the worst that could happen? A two-year-old girl was among those requiring first aid at Tate Modern earlier this year after visiting Robert Morris’s Bodyspacemotionthings, which featured see-saws and a tightrope. But parents and gallery staff are more likely to worry about the risk of damage children can pose to the art. Children like to touch things; they can be clumsy and are prone to sudden movements. “We’ve had a few [...]

Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Awards the Frick Collection a $1 Million Grant

NEW YORK, NY.- The Frick Collection announced that it has been awarded a Joseph Godla, Chief Conservator of The Frick Collection; photo: Michael Bodycomb $1 million challenge grant by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. When matched over the next four years with $3 million in contributions from other sources, the grant will create a $4 million endowment for the position of Chief Conservator, also providing, in perpetuity, funds for research, professional development, and related expenses. Comments Frick Collection Board Chairman [...]

Art Basel Miami Beach Galleries and Organizers Expect Collectors

MIAMI, FL (AP).- The collectors are back. That’s what Art Basel Miami Beach organizers and galleries are expecting. They say recent auctions and art fairs have indicated that collectors are again acquiring high art and that they are not afraid to reach into their pockets and spend money this year during the fair, which opens Thursday. “It was quite clear that the American collectors were back and participating,” Bonnie Clearwater, director of the Museum of Contemporary Art in North Miami, [...]

Large-Scale Sculpture by David Altmejd Acquired by Dallas Museum of Art

DALLAS, TX.- The Dallas Museum of Art today announced the acquisition of a major large-scale sculpture, The Eye, by the celebrated Canadian artist David Altmejd. Among the artist’s most ambitious works to date, The Eye measures approximately 11 by 18 feet and is an imposing and mesmerizing structure of mirrored glass and wooden support that engulfs the viewer in a spectacular environment of fractured light and reflection. Acquired by the DMA through the DMA/amfAR Benefit Auction Fund made possible by [...]

“Synecdoche”, Watershed Work by Byron Kim, Installed at the National Gallery of Art

WASHINGTON, DC.- Synecdoche (1991–present), a recent acquisition by Korean-American artist Byron Kim (b. 1961), has been newly installed in the East Building’s modern and contemporary art galleries. Synecdoche is a continuing project of portraiture now comprising more than 400 panels, each a single hue ranging from light tan or pink to dark brown. Finding sitters among strangers, friends, family, neighbors, and fellow artists, Kim records each person’s skin color in oil paint mixed with wax that he applies with a [...]

Ukrainian Museum Claims It Owns a Portrait of a Venetian Doge by Titian

KIEV.- The director of a Ukrainian museum claimed Tuesday that a portrait of a Venetian Doge in its collection is a work of Titian, even as an expert warned that art historians are best placed to make that call. Vladimir Ostrovsky said the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, conducted chemical and X-ray analyses that prove Titian’s authorship. The portrait is part of a collection at the Museum of Western and Eastern Art in the Black Sea port of [...]

New Medieval and Renaissance Galleries Open at the Victoria & Albert Museum

LONDON.- The V&A’s new Medieval and Renaissance Galleries opened, housing one of the world’s most remarkable collections of treasures from the period, including the Becket Casket, Gothic altarpieces and the notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci. There will also be an outstanding collection of Renaissance sculpture by Italian masters such as Donatello and Giambologna. Ten galleries, occupying an entire wing of the Museum, will for the first time present the collections in continuous displays to tell the story of European art [...]

Miami Art Museum Names John Wetenhall Interim Director

MIAMI, FL.- The Board of Trustees of Miami Art Museum announced the appointment of John Wetenhall as the museum’s interim director while it undertakes a search for the next director of the institution. Wetenhall will officially start on January 4, 2010, and will oversee the day-to-day operations of the museum and planning for its new home in Museum Park. Wetenhall previously served for eight years as executive director of The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, FL [...]

Rhode Island Museums Consider Relocating Sarcophagus

PROVIDENCE, RI (AP).- Gina Borromeo is well-versed in ancient artifacts, but one recent question from a museum curator caught her off-guard: “Do you want a sarcophagus?” And not just any sarcophagus. This was a white coffin with marble dating as far back as the 2nd century that depicted followers of the Greek wine god Dionysus. It was brought back from Europe by a wealthy Rhode Island couple who donated it to the Museum of Natural History and Planetarium in 1904. [...]

Museum Rethinks its Collection and Presents the Museum of the 21st-Century

EINDHOVEN.- From 28 November 2009 the Van Abbemuseum will present ‘Play Van Abbe’. ‘Play Van Abbe’ is the result of a long process of rethinking the collection over the part three years. For the next 18 months, this multifaceted program will take the collection and use it to suggest answers to the questions outlined above. It consists of exhibitions, projects, performances, lectures, discussions, and new techniques for mediating the public’s reactions to art and its contexts. With the social and [...]

Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art Re-Hangs its Collection

EDINBURGH.- For the first time in twenty-five years the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art will be re-hung in its entirety to celebrate the 50th anniversary of its founding. Opening during the Homecoming Scotland Finale Celebrations, the display will reveal the richness and range of the collection in a series of rooms which aim to delight and surprise. Since its opening in Inverleith House in 1960, in Edinburgh’s Royal Botanic Gardens, its move to a larger building on Belford Road [...]

Metropolitan Museum Exhibitions Create $593 Million Economic Impact for NY

NEW YORK, NY.- The Metropolitan Museum‘s summer 2009 opening of its New American Wing, along with the concurrent presentation of three highly acclaimed and widely attended special exhibitions—Roxy Paine on the Roof: Maelstrom; Francis Bacon: A Centenary Retrospective; and The Model as Muse: Embodying Fashion—generated $593 million in spending by regional, national, and foreign tourists to New York, according to a visitor survey the Museum released today. Using the industry standard for calculating tax revenue impact, the study found that [...]

mima Acquires Works by Legendary American Artist Ellsworth Kelly

MIDDLESBROUGH.- Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art has bought two works by Ellsworth Kelly, a seminal figure in modern American art, with funding from the Art Fund International scheme, independent charity The Art Fund announced today. The works, “Untitled”, 1957 and “Untitled”, 1959, have come directly from Ellsworth Kelly’s studio and were selected after extensive conversations between mima and the artist himself. They will go on display as part of the Ellsworth Kelly Drawings 1954-1962 exhibition opening at mima on 11 [...]

Museum of Nature & Science Breaks Ground on $185-Million Museum

DALLAS, TX.- After years of planning and gathering donations ranging from a couple of dollars to millions, the Museum of Nature & Science celebrated “The Ultimate Dig” on Nov. 18 by breaking ground on the $185-million museum to be constructed at Victory Park. Approximately 500 supporters gathered at the construction site ‘with bulldozers ready to go’ to watch as Perot family members, donors and Museum leaders turned cranks, flipped switches, pushed buttons and shoveled dirt, triggering a Rube Goldberg-inspired contraption [...]

UC Berkeley Modifying Museum Building Project; Alternate Plan Due Early Next Year

BERKELEY, CA.- The University of California, Berkeley’s plans for a new Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAM/PFA) are being modified due to lingering economic uncertainty, museum and university officials announced today. Several intriguing concepts for a new BAM/PFA home are under review and a detailed plan is expected to be unveiled early next year, said Lawrence Rinder, the director of BAM/PFA, which is one of the largest university art museums in the United States in both size and [...]