American Museums

Kansas University restores Indigenous exhibition after vandalism

Indigenous people proclaiming their own culture and history "makes some non-Natives nervous", says the artist Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds

Museum championing ‘art of the people’ reopens in San Diego after $55m renovation

The Mingei International Museum, which has been closed for three years, holds a vast collection of folk art and design

San Diego will get an Institute of Contemporary Art in September

An exhibition devoted to the Mexican conceptual artist Gabriel Rico will inaugurate the institute

Oregon museum receives $6m grant to display its vast but largely unseen art collection

The High Desert Museum, which has previously had an emphasis on natural history, holds important works by artists like Rick Bartow and Edward Curtis

Unionsnews

With unemployment at an historic high, America's art workers band together

Labour organising is building across the culture sphere. Could an industry-wide arts union be next?

Shaker artefacts will get a new home in upstate New York

The $15m building project, led by Selldorf Architects, envisions a museum drawing 30,000 visitors a year

Podcastspodcast

Staff cuts: are museums protecting their workers?

Plus, curator Emily Butler on Rhea Storr's video art. Produced in association with Christie's

Hosted by Ben Luke and Margaret Carrigan. with guest speaker Hannah McGivern. Produced by Julia Michalska, David Clack and Aimee Dawson

Reform or reset? How cultural institutions are facing a reckoning over racism

US and UK museums have been accused of tokenism, hypocrisy and fake solidarity for rushing to declare support for Black Lives Matter. Where do they go from here?

America's virtual museums take on new significance as Covid-19 lockdown deepens

Art Institute of Chicago and Smithsonian are among institutions that have embraced technology, and more are set to ramp up their efforts

The Leslie-Lohman Museum announces its first director of curatorial programmes

Stamatina Gregory will take the new position as the LGBTQ art museum undergoes a series of changes

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

Dissecting a gallery in a remade MoMA

Among the most striking examples of the museum's more global and inclusive approach is a gallery with the theme War Within, War Without

Podcastspodcast

MoMA special: our verdict on the museum opening of the year

We speak to two of the museum's curators leading the expansion and our New York team sit down to discuss the highs and lows of the new space. Produced in association with Bonhams, auctioneers since 1793.

Hosted by Ben Luke and Nancy Kenney. with guest speakers Margaret Carrigan, Helen Stoilas and Linda Yablonsky

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

Middle East think-tank opens art gallery in Washington, DC

New space for Modern and contemporary art from the Arab world will put on five exhibitions a year

Oakland’s ‘museum of the people’ launches $85m capital campaign

Renovation aims to reflect the demographic diversity of the birthplace of the Black Panthers

New York leans to the left under mayor’s plans for art

De Blasio focuses on diversity, social value and access for all

Newsarchive

All of Warhol’s films and videos to be digitised

The project will make hundreds of the artists films more accessible

Museumsarchive

Warhol museum expansion gains Lower East Side traction

The institution has formed a partnership with Delancey Street Associates

Married gay couples to get art tax breaks

Museums could benefit, as well as sponsors

Fight for Detroit’s art begins

Director of art museum in bankrupt city steels himself for long battle as price tags are put on greatest works

Comment: The immorality of using Detroit’s art to bail out bankrupt city

Even if it proves legal to sell paintings in the Detroit Institute of Arts, there is a moral case to consider

Chicagoarchive

Possible US sanctions on Iran could create back door for commandeering of museum antiquities as damages

Persepolis tablets on loan to Chicago's Oriental Institute since the 1930s compromised in lawsuit brought by victims of Jerusalem suicide bombing

Museumsarchive

An analysis of the mission statements of leading US art museums exposes collective search for purpose

The words chosen by directors reflect a desire to quash ambiguity and carve out their space in the contemporary art landscape

András Szántó

US museums receive surfeit of patronage for Islamic art collections

But Arab donors are in scarce supply, while Turks, Iranians and others spend freely

Artists boycott Rose Art Museum shows

Ex-director says Brandeis University “doesn’t understand” outrage over plan to sell-off $350m collection

July 2010archive

Eli Broad addresses the American Association of Museums: “Get art out of the basement"

The collector lectures museum professionals at their annual conference in Los Angeles

Diversityarchive

Representation and diversity: America is changing, but are its art museums?

Most major institutions are still run by white people, are supported by them, and tailor their exhibitions to suit them

Whitney’s billionaire chairman of trustees steps down

Leonard Lauder’s decision to leave the institution coincides with launch of $680m fundraising campaign

Comment: The problem with privately-funded museums

There is a danger that the conservatism of the museum sector will be challenged by a new generation of board members who feel that “rules are for other people”