AnalysisSaudi Arabia
Are Saudi Arabia's big culture plans turning to dust?
As oil prices slump and the pandemic continues to spread, the kingdom's ambitious initiatives are being scaled back
Analysiscoronavirus
Russian museums in crisis: State Hermitage loses almost half its annual revenue after closing for two months
Loss of tourism and oil market crash because of coronavirus pandemic wreak havoc as institutions seek state help
NewsPrizes
Los Angeles Times art critic Christopher Knight wins Pulitzer prize
Writer was recognised for his criticism of Lacma’s controversial expansion plan
Newscoronavirus
Patrick Devedjian—French politician and driving force behind new museum dedicated to the Sun King—has died of coronavirus
Devedjian was leading plans for a museum project in Saint-Cloud, west of Paris, about the reign of Louis XIV
NewsMusee d'Orsay
Anonymous €20m donation kickstarts Musée d’Orsay transformation
Radical revelopment of former train station building will make way for more Impressionist works and visitors
NewsNational Portrait Gallery
Not bigger, but better: behind the scenes of the £35.5m revamp at London's National Portrait Gallery
Director Nicholas Cullinan and architect Jamie Fobert reveal how the gallery’s controversial three-year closure will transform its 600-year collection of portraits
NewsMuseums & Heritage
EMST—National Museum of Contemporary Art in Athens finally opens its doors
The institution welcomes the first visitors to its renovated home in the former Fix brewery this week, after years of delays
NewsMuseums
Superman, Beatrix Potter and Virgil Abloh: London’s V&A reveals plans for revamped Museum of Childhood
Museum will reopen in 2022 with new focus on empowering children’s creativity
NewsMuseums
Tadao Ando-designed He Art Museum postponed because of coronavirus
The X Museum in Beijing has also delayed its opening show
NewsOpenings
Revamped, renamed, reopened: Musée Ingres Bourdelle honours Montauban's masters
After €13m expansion, French museum brings together works by painter Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres and sculptor Emile-Antoine Bourdelle
NewsHungary
Budapest’s green mayor puts brakes on €250m New National Gallery
Local politicians block construction on cultural quarter backed by right-wing government, citing “enormous impact on environment”
NewsHong Kong
Hong Kong Museum of Art to reopen in spite of escalating violence of pro-democracy protests
Launch of revamped government-run museum to go ahead as planned following $119m facelift
NewsMuseums
Togo opens ground-breaking arts centre in former colonial palace
Palais de Lomé is the west African country's first major contemporary art centre and is unique on the continent for being financed by the state
NewsMuseums
German parliament approves extra costs for Berlin Museum of the 20th Century
The €364m budget is “a real pain threshold,” culture minister says
NewsRussia
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
NewsMuseums
Gus Casely-Hayford, director of Smithsonian’s African art museum, to lead V&A East
The British cultural historian will take up his role at the Victoria and Albert Museum’s new branch in the spring
NewsNew York
Brooklyn Academy of Music opens its first gallery for visual art
The exhibition space, named after trustee and art collector Beth Rudin DeWoody, launches during annual New Wave Festival with works by Glenn Kaino
NewsOpenings
UCCA Center for Contemporary Art to open space in Shanghai
New outpost of the Beijing-based institution is due to open in 2021
NewsMonuments
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.
NewsIraq
As protests rage in Iraq, experts say culture is key to long-term reconstruction
Iraqi culture ministry announces new national museum in Baghdad as Mosul restoration plan is extended to historic churches
NewsContemporary art
Ragnar Kjartansson re-creates US soap opera for vast GES-2 culture complex opening in Moscow
GES-2 complex is located in a former power plant, built in 1907, located near the Kremlin
NewsCentre Pompidou
Centre Pompidou to expand and move collections to new satellite venue in southern Paris
The “art factory” will be a conservation, exhibition and storage space and is expected to open in 2025
NewsOpenings
Paris Museum of Modern Art unveils €10m revamp of Art Deco home
Redesign by h2o architectes opens up 1930s building—with monumental murals by Matisse and Dufy—to disabled visitors
NewsRedevelopment
Cultural figures rally to save Reading Prison—where Oscar Wilde was once incarcerated—as it goes up for sale
Locals hope to prevent historic site "being gutted and turned into luxury flats" as building is put on the market
NewsOpenings
Centre Pompidou’s satellite space in Shanghai to open early November
New offshoot joins Málaga and Brussels in French museum’s burgeoning international network
NewsMuseums
Peabody Essex Museum's $125m expansion includes new displays shaped by its neuroscience research
Institution in Salem, Massachusetts, opens new wing to display maritime and Asian art collection
CommentMuseums & Heritage
Making the Art Institute of Chicago a more inclusive place is about more than just architecture
The museum’s director James Rondeau on why the institution is bringing Barcelona architects Barozzi Veiga on board to rethink the whole campus
NewsBuilding projects
Oakland’s ‘museum of the people’ launches $85m capital campaign
Renovation aims to reflect the demographic diversity of the birthplace of the Black Panthers
NewsCathedral of Notre Dame
Construction on Notre Dame pushed back to 19 August as steps taken to decontaminate site from lead
Construction had been expected to start a week earlier, but new safety measures for the protection of workers are still being tested
NewsMuseums & Heritage
Hungary presses ahead with sprawling culture hub in Budapest city park
Vast collections centre for 300,000 objects inaugurated as construction continues on ambitious museums quarter for Hungarian capital
NewsOpenings
Bordeaux gets €60m Meca for creative industries
Bjarke Ingels-designed culture hub will be the new home of the Frac regional contemporary art centre
NewsBuilding projects
New Museum unveils Rem Koolhaas design for addition
Building to rise next door that will double the museum’s exhibition space
CommentLacma
LACMA is building an institution for the 21st century
Museums were never “encyclopaedic”—nor should they be, Michael Conforti says
NewsState Russian Museum
State Russian Museum refurbishment cancelled amid protests
The renovation threatened the museum's architecture and collection, plaintiffs argued
NewsBuilding projects
Could a parking garage hold up Lacma’s new Zumthor building?
A local group has sued Los Angeles County over the plan’s environmental impact report
CommentLacma
Lacma’s $650m plan won’t wash
Community lawsuit brings welcome last stand against museum’s alarmingly secretive building project
NewsDia Art Foundation
Dia:Chelsea to begin revamp this month for fall 2020 reopening
The project, announced this year, is part of the Dia Art Foundation’s $90m multi-venue initiative
NewsBuilding projects
London’s Warburg Institute launches £14.5m expansion to revive the 'science of culture'
Research centre based on the library of German art historian Aby Warburg plans to open new public spaces in 2022
CommentMuseums & Heritage
A train wreck in slow motion? Why Lacma’s new building is an impending disaster
County officials prepare to vote on the $650m project this week, but the museum’s next incarnation could come at too high a cost for culture
InterviewNational Museum of Qatar
Jean Nouvel: 'desert rose' Qatar museum blooms against the odds
We speak to the French architect about the search for a national landmark and the hurdles that faced the mammoth project
NewsMuseum of Modern Art New York
Ninety years on, MoMA rediscovers its radical soul
New York museum's rotating rehang will emphasise diverse permanent collection to celebrate the “pluriverse” of art
NewsOpenings
Milton Keynes gallery expansion wants to ‘make people think again’
MK Gallery's new £12m building is inspired by utopian 1970s heyday of England’s maligned New Town
NewsBuilding projects
Miami’s Art Center/South Florida gets a new facility—and a new name
Oolite Arts is due to move from Miami Beach to a purpose-built space on the mainland
NewsMuseums & Heritage
National Museum of Scotland completes 15-year makeover revealing 'whole world under one roof'
The £80m masterplan has created 50% more public space and unveiled 6,500 forgotten objects
NewsMuseum of Modern Art New York
New York's MoMA to close for four months for renovation
Rethinking the Modernist canon, New York museum is changing the presentation of its permanent collection
NewsPrivate Museums
Grand opening of Russian billionaire’s power-plant museum is postponed to 2020
GES-2 will be part of Moscow's Museum Mile, linked to Garage, the Tretyakov and the Pushkin
NewsBeirut
Beirut Museum of Art vows to carry on as honorary chairman Carlos Ghosn remains in jail
Museum board says fundraising campaign to build delayed private museum is not dependent on the scandal-hit auto executive
PreviewThe Year Ahead 2019
Top ten new museums and major extensions due to open in 2019
A MoMA expansion, the opening of the Humboldt Forum, the unveiling of the National Museum of Qatar and a new Bauhaus Museum are just some of the highlights of the year ahead
NewsExhibitions
Berlin's 200-year-old replica workshop finds a niche at new Museum Island hub
First-ever exhibition on the Gipsformerei, which copies works for museums and Jeff Koons, will open the James Simon Gallery next summer
NewsMuseums & Heritage
Staff at State Russian Museum take legal action to halt renovation
Senior employees claim the $17m project threatens the Mikhailovsky Palace building and its collections
Feature
You have to renovate to accumulate: three South Florida museums expand in very different ways
The Norton Museum of Art, the Boca Raton Museum of Art and the Museum of Art and Design at Miami Dade College show that museum expansions can take different sizes and forms
NewsArt Basel in Miami Beach
Art Basel looks to the future as ‘campus’ around the Miami Beach Convention Center grows
Fair organisers are "focusing on developing a new concept" after discontinuing the Film and Public sectors
NewsBuilding projects
Couple donates $40m for MoMA's renovation and expansion
Acknowledging gift, museum names a film center after Debra and Leon Black
NewsMuseums & Heritage
The Met looks back at Max Hollein’s first 100 days as director—and forward to its 150th birthday
The museum will mark its anniversary in 2020 by launching a renovation of the Rockefeller Wing and celebrating its permanent collection
NewsBuilding projects
Cost of Manchester arts centre The Factory jumps due to 'construction inflation'
City council will cover extra £20m costs for the Rem-Koolhaas designed venue
NewsNational Museum of Qatar
Jean Nouvel-designed National Museum of Qatar announces opening date
Architect, who also designed the Louvre Abu Dhabi, drew inspiration from the crystalline forms that emerge in the desert
NewsAcquisitions
Dallas school given largest collection of Swiss art outside of Switzerland
The University of Texas at Dallas is building its first museum to house the gift
InterviewMuseums & Heritage
Tristram Hunt unveils plans for V&A East—the Victoria & Albert Museum's satellite London location
Museum will receive the buildings in former Olympic park for free, director says
NewsBuilding projects
Houston's museum building boom continues with opening of Menil Drawing Institute
Campus expansions at three museums in Texas's biggest city focus on creating civic spaces as well as on showing art
NewsBrazil
‘Brazil’s Donald Trump’ Jair Bolsonaro may thwart efforts to rebuild Rio museum destroyed in fire
New far-right president wants to remove the country’s ministry of culture
News
Sweden's Nationalmuseum reopens—and goes free
Government waives charges after funding five-year, £100m refurbishment
News
Deutsche Bank opens Berlin palace fit for its vast art collection
The Palais Populaire will be a permanent exhibition space for the bank's 55,000 works
NewsConservation & Preservation
Turin’s Chapel of the Holy Shroud—almost entirely destroyed by fire—reopens after €30m restoration
State-of-the-art conservation project that took 21 years brings masterpiece of Baroque architecture back to its former glory
NewsConservation & Preservation
Chicago resurrects its master craftsman
Edgar Miller finally gets his due as the city prepares to celebrate the overlooked designer’s eclectic work
News
Met plans to leave Breuer building, making way for the Frick
The Brutalist structure will house Frick’s historic collection during expansion of its 70th Street home
NewsPrivate Museums
Glenstone’s giant $200m expansion is ready, but will visitors come?
Collectors’ private museum, scrutinised by US Senate for limited access, could draw 100,000 people a year
NewsOpenings
Bloomsbury group’s country home to open all year round
New shows at Charleston will celebrate the liberal legacy of the artists and intellectuals who gathered there
News
Beijing's Ullens Center for Contemporary Art to open 'Guggenheimian' second museum
New space, with portions burrowed under the sand, will be located by the Bohai Sea shoreline
NewsBuilding projects
Tadao Ando designs Chicago art space dedicated to architecture and socially engaged work
The inaugural show at Wrightwood 659 will focus on Ando and Le Corbusier
ReviewBooks
Henry I of Haiti: the little-known story of a king and his amazing building spree
A short but fascinating book about a man immortalised through architecture
News
Chengdu MoCA quashes rumours of demise but its problems are endemic in China’s art museums
Institution’s difficulties echo experiences of other new Chinese cultural spaces linked to property developments
NewsArtists
Jasper Johns show and catalogue raisonné open Menil Collection’s new Drawing Institute
The 88-year-old artist, who gets the institute’s inaugural show, was deeply involved in the drawings catalogue project
NewsPrivate Museums
Glenstone Museum reveals the art in store for vast Pavilions expansion
Long-awaited showcase spaces for collection founded by Mitchell and Emily Rales to open in October
CommentMuseums
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
Nicholas Cullinan