Arts news

• Medieval Shipwreck Unearthed Beneath Barcelona’s Mercat del Peix

  28-04-2025 17:52 via artnews.com
  Construction work in Barcelona’s Ciutadella district has revealed a remarkably preserved medieval shipwreck, provisionally named Ciutadella I. The vessel, believed to date from the 15th or 16th century, was uncovered five meters below ground during excavations for a new biomedicine center, according to the Jerusalem Post.Measuring ten meters long and three meters wide, the ship was built using skeleton construction typical of late medieval Mediterranean vessels, with curved woode
  
  Read more

• How Artists Responded to 2025’s Surging ICE Raids

  19-12-2025 11:00 via artnews.com
  We often look back on past moral crises and imagine ourselves acting differently: resisting sooner, refusing silence, choosing courage over complicity. It’s a reassuring fiction, but a fiction all the same. Historical records have shown how readily authority can override personal morality, even when the consequences for others are dire. And yet, at a moment when the state is wielding its power with escalating force, punishing all forms of dissent, many artists are refusing that passivity t
  
  Read more

• Courtney McClellan Takes You Inside an Evangelical College’s Supreme Court Simulation

  19-12-2025 11:00 via artnews.com
  When the United States was founded 250 years ago, it was all but for the purpose of protecting religious freedom—or, more candidly, protecting sects of Christianity frowned upon across the pond. The very first amendment established the separation of church and state, and this was about more than simple tolerance, with the founders feeling that government corrupted religion and vice versa. Now, that separation is under threat as in no other time in history.Courtney McClellan’s latest
  
  Read more

• Qatar’s Mathaf Museum Announces Major Expansion, Led by Architect Lina Ghothem

  18-12-2025 23:23 via artnews.com
  Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art in Doha has tapped Lebanese architect Lina Ghothem to lead a major campus expansion. The news arrives as the Qatari institution celebrates its 15th anniversary, and figures into an ambitious phase of cultural development underway in the Arabian Gulf nation. “The Arab Museum of Modern Art is an unrivalled institution,” Ghothem said in a statement. “This expansion will offer a remarkable platform for presenting art and ideas, particularly by
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Rome Has Two New Metro Stations That Offer Underground Mini-Museums, With More On the Way

  18-12-2025 23:15 via artnews.com
  Construction projects in cities that have been inhabited for thousands of years often run into special challenges as work crews come upon ancient artifacts, and suddenly, what was a construction site becomes an archaeological dig. Officials in Rome have been at work for two long decades on a new subway line for just that reason, as workers excavating stations on the new Line C, which will link the city center with distant southern suburbs, have turned up more than 500,000 artifacts. The cit
  
  Read more

• Phillips Records 10% Rise in Global Sales for 2025, Taking $927 M. as Private Sales Surge by 66%

  18-12-2025 22:50 via artnews.com
  Phillips has closed 2025 with global sales of $927 million, marking a 10 percent increase against last year. The result follows impressive projected totals by Sotheby’s and Christie’s in 2025, with the houses registering a 17 percent and 7 percent increase, respectively.The narrative coming from the “big three” is quite rightly upbeat, with their balance sheets showing renewed confidence from collectors. At Phillips, auction sales this year accounted for $725 million, whi
  
  Read more

• David Oyelowo and Ava DuVernay Team Up for New Art Thriller, ‘Heist of Benin’

  18-12-2025 22:41 via artnews.com
  David Oyelowo and Ava DuVernay are reuniting for the new film, “Heist of Benin,” more than a decade after their Academy Award-winning film “Selma.”Oyelowo will star in the film, which is set in modern-day London and described as “a thriller that intertwines art, love and restitution.” DuVernay will direct from a screenplay by Jesse Quiñones, based on an original idea.The project was announced on Tuesday during Canal+’s ORIGINAL+ pre
  
  Read more

• New Report Shows a Rebounding Auction Market in 2025, With Impressionist and Modern Art Most Improved

  18-12-2025 22:21 via artnews.com
  The two biggest auction houses recently released their 2025 numbers, showing a 17 percent sales jump at Sotheby’s and a nearly 7 percent rise at Christie’s. Now, a year-end report from art market research and analysis company ArtTactic delves into the details of the art sales from all the major auction houses. The auction market rebounded to $4.55 billion, up some 11.1 percent from 2024, ArtTactic finds. Among Old Masters, Impressionist and modern art, the strongest historical c
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• New Report Shows a Rebounding Art Auction Market in 2025, With Impressionists and Moderns Most Improved

  18-12-2025 22:21 via artnews.com
  The two biggest auction houses recently released their 2025 numbers, showing a 17 percent sales jump at Sotheby’s and a nearly 7 percent rise at Christie’s. Now, a year-end report from art market research and analysis company ArtTactic delves into the details of the art sales from all the major auction houses. The auction market rebounded to $4.55 billion, up some 11.1 percent from 2024, ArtTactic finds. Among Old Masters, Impressionist and modern art, the strongest historical c
  
  Read more

• Texas State University Cancels Black History 101 Mobile Museum Visit, Prompting ACLU Challenge

  18-12-2025 21:13 via artnews.com
  A decision by the Texas State University (TXST) to cancel an appearance of the Black History 101 Mobile Museum at one of its campuses, scheduled for 2026 Black History Month, has prompted a First Amendment challenge from the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, according to a report by the University Star, TXST’s student-run paper. In a letter sent to TXST president Kelly Damphousse, the ACLU of Texas noted a 2023 Senate bill banning DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) at Texas
  
  Read more

• ‘Victims of Communism’ Memorial in Canada Will Leave Off Names After Findings Link Some to Nazism

  18-12-2025 21:09 via artnews.com
  A memorial to “Victims of Communism” in Ottawa, Canada, that was slated to be inscribed with the names of so-called victims will focus instead on more general thematic content related to its subject, after a government report prompted the Department of Canadian Heritage to change course. The reversal follows claims issued last year that connected more than half of the proposed 550 names to Nazism or fascist groups.As reported by The Art Newspaper, concern over links between the
  
  Read more

• Atlanta’s High Museum Adds 361 Works to Collection, Including Rediscovered Jacob Lawrence Watercolor

  18-12-2025 21:03 via artnews.com
  The High Museum of Art in Atlanta has added 361 artworks and objects to its collection in 2025. The acquisitions are part of a strategic plan to grow its holdings, now numbering over 20,000 objects, ahead of the museum’s centennial next year.“As we look ahead to our centennial in 2026, our curators have strategically acquired artworks that not only support where we’ve traditionally built strengths as an institution but that also signal where we’re heading in the next 100
  
  Read more

• Beyond Bollywood: There’s A New Wave Of “Pan-Indian” Cinema With Hollywood-Style Ambitions (And Problems)

  18-12-2025 21:02 via msn.com
  Bollywood produces films in Hindi, and there have always been “regional” cinema industries making movies in other Indian languages. Recently, following the huge international success of RRR (shot in Telugu), there has developed a Pan-Indian genre: big budgets, high-quality dubbing in multiple languages, no region-specific stories, nationwide and worldwide ambitions. – TheWrap (MSN)
  
  Read more

• Rare, Complete Dinosaur Skull Fossil Acquired by Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History

  18-12-2025 20:48 via artnews.com
  The Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History has added a new, rare fossil to its collection: a dome-shaped skull of a Pachycephalosaurus, a type of dinosaur that lived about 67 million years ago.The fossil was donated to the museum by philanthropists Eric and Wendy Schmidt. (Eric Schmidt was the CEO of Google until 2011.) The Schmidts purchased the skull from Sotheby’s for $1.7 million in July. It was excavated in 2024 from the Hell Creek Formation, an area known for fossil d
  
  Read more

• Louvre Director Grilled in Senate Hearing Over ‘Cult of Secrecy’ Accused of Enabling Theft

  18-12-2025 20:47 via artnews.com
  Louvre president Laurence des Cars faced an fraught Senate hearing on Wednesday as lawmakers pressed her on years of allegedly neglected security warnings preceding the October theft of $102 million in imperial jewels — an interrogation that has intensified calls for her resignation. The session followed revelations that multiple audits conducted in 2017 and 2018 flagged structural vulnerabilities in the Apollo Gallery, where intruders broke in on October 19. Des Cars, who assumed lea
  
  Read more

• How Did US Museum Design Get So Boring?

  18-12-2025 20:35 via theartnewspaper.com
  As trends go, one can only hope the style spreading through US museum design today will eventually fall out of fashion. All forms of creativity could use moments of self-reflection; perhaps it is time some museum architecture has its own. – The Art Newspaper
  
  Read more

• San Antonio Launches New City Arts Funding Program After Canceling Previous One

  18-12-2025 20:05 via msn.com
  “Most nonprofits that lost promised funding after the city of San Antonio ended a grant program to protect federal dollars are getting money back this month through a new, similar initiative. Still, most awards are several thousand dollars less than before, and one organization — the Network for Young Artists — received nothing.” – San Antonio Express-News (MSN)
  
  Read more

• 2025 — The Year AI Slop Crossed The Rubicon

  18-12-2025 19:44 via newyorker.com
  At first, slop was a widely derided format, the kind of clicky nonsense churned out by content farms or trolls. But, in September, with the launch of OpenAI’s Sora app, a social network and feed for A.I.-generated videos, the company set about convincing users that slop was something we should all be making for fun. – The New Yorker
  
  Read more

• Designs For The Las Vegas Museum Of Art

  18-12-2025 19:31 via dezeen.com
  The newly updated renderings follow news announced last year that the studio led by Pritzker-prize-winning architect Diébédo Francis Kéré is designing the building, which will be located in a former parking lot in the Symphony Park area of Downtown Las Vegas. SOM is the architect of record. – Dezeen
  
  Read more

• Who Went To Movies In 2025? You’d Be Surprised

  18-12-2025 19:15 via indiewire.com
  Gen Z moviegoer attendance grew by 25 percent over the last 12 months — the highest increase of any age group. – IndieWire
  
  Read more

• PEN America Lists The Most Banned Books Of The 2020s (So Far)

  18-12-2025 19:01 via publishersweekly.com
  Many of the titles censored in school districts around the US relate to race, sexual violence or LGBTQ+ issues, but that’s not the case with the top two: John Green’s Looking for Alaska and Jodi Picoult’s Nineteen Minutes. As usual, the list includes classics by Toni Morrison, Margaret Atwood, and Maya Angelou. – Publishers Weekly
  
  Read more

• Musicians Are Wary Of AI. So Why Are Big Music Companies Making AI Deals?

  18-12-2025 18:44 via theguardian.com
  Those worries are being deepened by how the major labels, once fearful of the technology, are now embracing it – and heralding a future in which ordinary listeners have a hand in co-creating music with their favourite musicians. – The Guardian
  
  Read more

• NPR’s Top Music Stories Of 2025

  18-12-2025 18:31 via npr.org
   In an ever-changing and fast-paced attention economy, musicians hustled to put out records, connect with listeners and demand accountability from some of the industry’s biggest power players. – NPR
  
  Read more

• YouTube Pulls Its Music Data Off Billboard Charts Because It Disagrees With How The Data Is Used

  18-12-2025 18:15 via techcrunch.com
  “Billboard uses an outdated formula that weights subscription-supported streams higher than ad-supported. This doesn’t reflect how fans engage with music today and ignores the massive engagement from fans who don’t have a subscription.” – TechCrunch
  
  Read more

• Bonn’s Beethovenhalle Reopens After Decade-Long Renovation

  18-12-2025 18:06 via dw.com
  “The variety of spaces posed major challenges during the renovation. Adapting rooms designed during a different era to meet modern standards took years and cost millions. Ultimately, the total cost rose above €220 million ($258 million).” – Deutsche Welle
  
  Read more

• Guggenheim Bilbao Scraps Biosphere Expansion Amid Local Opposition

  18-12-2025 18:01 via artnews.com
  Plans to build a €100 million satellite of the Guggenheim Bilbao in Spain’s protected Urdaibai biosphere reserve have been abandoned after nearly two decades of legal challenges and escalating local opposition. The museum’s board of trustees — which includes the Basque regional government, the Biscay provincial council, and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation — voted this week to halt the project, citing insufficient public support and scientific objections. Co
  
  Read more

• What It’s Like To Be Performing In The Kennedy Center These Days

  18-12-2025 17:44 via washingtonian.com
  Looking out across the hall’s empty seats, he often thinks of the pandemic—of that dismal year when the orchestra couldn’t perform, when he’d drag himself into his music room to practice and think, What am I doing this for? Without people to listen, what’s the purpose?  – Washingtonian
  
  Read more

• Reading, Literacy, And Brain Rot

  18-12-2025 17:31 via thebaffler.com
  If we consider literacy not as the ability to parse simple sentences but as the capacity to comprehend and enjoy complex texts, and ultimately as a sensibility that approaches the world itself as a text that requires interpretation, it’s obvious we live in an unprecedented decline of what neuroscientist Maryanne Wolf calls “deep literacy.” – Baffler
  
  Read more

• While Many Regional American Theatres Struggle, Some Are Thriving

  18-12-2025 17:15 via nytimes.com
  For a struggling industry, these two theaters — and a handful of others — are models of success: They are producing a healthy menu of shows, drawing large audiences, running budget surpluses and raising money for capital projects. But they are definitely in the minority. – The New York Times
  
  Read more

• Utah Balletgoers Are Getting Scammed With Counterfeit “Nutcracker” Tickets

  18-12-2025 17:03 via sltrib.com
  Ballet West in Salt Lake City reported Monday a “dramatic spike” in people “arriving at performances with fake or invalid tickets purchased from third-party sellers.” – The Salt Lake Tribune
  
  Read more

Follow @ArtsUKnews on Twitter!