Arts news

• Top Posts From AJBlogs 04.18.17

  19-04-2017 10:30 via feedproxy.google.com
  Doin’ It: Performing Arts
  In my last three posts I have been exploring participatory experiences as being an important element in the work of arts organizations. This week I want to talk about participatory experiences in the performing arts. ... read more
  AJBlog: Engaging Matters Published 2017-04-18Butch Morris’s workbook for spontaneous composition published
  The deathbed wish of composer-cornetist Lawrence Douglas “Butch” Morris (1947-2013) was that his detai
  
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• Researchers Have Found the World’s Oldest Known Rock Art in Indonesia, Dating Back 67,800 Years

  22-01-2026 18:07 via artnews.com
  Less than two years after discovering a 51,200-year-old cave painting of a pig on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, in what was then declared the oldest known figurative artwork, the same researchers have discovered an even older work.The newly dated work, located on the southeastern peninsula of Sulawesi, is a hand stencil dating to 67,800 years ago. Little of the work remains: it exists now as “only a 14 × 10 cm patch of faded pigment bearing a portion of the
  
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• The Tate Has a Frida Kahlo Problem

  22-01-2026 17:53 via artnews.com
  Curators at Tate Modern are finding that Frida Kahlo’s global popularity now comes with a practical drawback: it has become harder to borrow her paintings.The museum’s forthcoming exhibition, Frida: The Making of an Icon, opening in June, will include 36 works by the Mexican artist, fewer than the more than the 50 shown during Tate Modern’s last major Kahlo exhibition in 2005, according to reporting by The Independent. The reduced number reflects the growing scar
  
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• Tate Faces Trouble Securing Frida Kahlo Masterpieces for Summer Blockbuster

  22-01-2026 17:53 via artnews.com
  Curators at Tate Modern are finding that Frida Kahlo’s global popularity now comes with a practical drawback: it has become harder to borrow her paintings.The museum’s forthcoming exhibition, Frida: The Making of an Icon, opening in June, will include 36 works by the Mexican artist, fewer than the more than the 50 shown during Tate Modern’s last major Kahlo exhibition in 2005, according to reporting by the Times of London. (The show premieres at the Museum of Fine Art
  
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• Art Gallery of Ontario Nixed Nan Goldin Acquisition Because of Her Comments on Israel’s War in Gaza

  22-01-2026 17:49 via artnews.com
  The Art Gallery of Ontario, one of Canada’s most internationally well-regarded museums, chose not to acquire a piece by Nan Goldin because of the artist’s comments on Israel’s war in Gaza, according to a report published by the Globe and Mail on Wednesday.The work, a 2024 video called Stendhal Syndrome, was to be acquired in partnership with the Vancouver Art Gallery and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. Drawn from 35mm slides that show blurred images of semi-nude figures a
  
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• Short Film by Artist Alexandre Singh and Art Historian Natalie Musteata Nominated for an Oscar

  22-01-2026 17:45 via artnews.com
  Two People Exchanging Saliva, a black-and-white film written and directed by Alexandre Singh and Natalie Musteata, has been nominated for an Academy Award in the live action short film category.The 36-minute film premiered at the Telluride Film Festival earlier this year, and has been making the festival rounds this fall and winter, winning various prizes and honors, including also being shortlisted for a 2026 César Award, often referred to as a “French Oscar.” The film is bei
  
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• Nahmad Contemporary to Stage Picasso Exhibition in Collaboration with Supermodel Naomi Campbell 

  22-01-2026 17:44 via artnews.com
  Nahmad Contemporary will mount an exhibition titled “Picasso | Painter and Model, Reflections by Naomi Campbell” next month at its exhibition space in Gstaad, Switzerland.The exhibition, which runs February 14–March 15, focuses on Pablo Picasso’s late series “Le Peintre et son modèle” (The Painter and his model), and will feature 14 works produced between 1963 and 1965. Several of the works on view have been previously exhibited in Picasso exhibitions a
  
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• How Beverly Buchanan Crafted Her Own Economy of Exchange

  22-01-2026 17:44 via artnews.com
  For the 20-plus years she lived in Athens, Georgia, Beverly Buchanan paid for everyday needs with artworks. Or some of them, at least.A calendar with 12 hand-drawn self-portraits that she traded with her doctor, Dr. Stephen Lucas, opens “Beverly’s Athens,” a show on view at the University of Georgia’s Athenaeum through March 21. After visits, she’d pay him not with cash or co-pays but with art. They made the exchanges in the parking lot, as if illicitly.Dr. Lucas le
  
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• How NADA Is Building the Next Generation of Collectors Through a Series of Salons

  22-01-2026 16:26 via artnews.com
  Editor’s Note: This story originally appeared in On Balance, the ARTnews newsletter about the art market and beyond. Sign up here to receive it every Wednesday.There are obvious hurdles to becoming an art collector, chief among them money and space. But then there are the less obvious ones, and chief among these is the intimidation factor: Contemporary art, and the galleries that show it, can seem scary or snooty or both, and a lot of people just don’t f
  
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• UK Government Spends Big on Arts Sector, Creative Time Appoints Jean Cooney As Executive Director: Morning Links for January 22, 2026

  22-01-2026 15:06 via artnews.com
  To receive Morning Links in your inbox every weekday, sign up for our Breakfast with ARTnews newsletter.The Headlines UK ART INJECTION. London-based national museums must do more to serve audiences across the UK, culture secretary Lisa Nandy said on Wednesday as she announced a £1.5 billion funding package for the arts, described as the biggest reset for the sector in a generation. The Guardian reported that while institutions such as the British Museum a
  
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• Creative Time Appoints Jean Cooney As Executive Director

  22-01-2026 15:00 via artnews.com
  Creative Time, a New York-based arts nonprofit known for commissioning and presenting large-scale public art projects, has appointed Jean Cooney as its executive director, the organization announced Thursday.Cooney has served as vice president of arts and culture for the Times Square Alliance, a nonprofit that promotes the major tourist destination, and as director of Times Square Arts since 2019. Prior to that, she spent seven years at Creative Time in various roles, culminating in deputy direc
  
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• Vienna to Temporarily Close Composer Museums Amid Culture Budget Cuts

  22-01-2026 12:39 via artnews.com
  Austria’s capital Vienna will temporarily close several museums dedicated to famous composers this year as part of city-wide budget cuts, officials announced on Wednesday. The closures affect sites including the apartment where Franz Schubert died, the residence of Johann Strauss, and Joseph Haydn’s former home. Schubert’s birthplace will also close for a redesign ahead of the 200th anniversary of his death in 2028.Matti Bunzl, head of the Wien Museum, which oversees several of
  
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• UK Announces £1.5 B. Arts Funding Package to Expand Access Beyond London

  22-01-2026 12:24 via artnews.com
  London museums are being urged to extend their reach across the country, as culture secretary Lisa Nandy announced a landmark £1.5 billion funding package for the arts on Wednesday. National institutions, including the British Museum and the National Portrait Gallery, will receive £600 million, but Nandy emphasized that the investment comes with a responsibility to engage audiences outside the capital.“Almost all of our national institutions are based in London, which means the
  
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• Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra seeks Vice President, Marketing and PR

  21-01-2026 22:26 via artsjournal.com
  Aspen Leadership Group is proud to partner with Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra in the search for a Vice President, Marketing and PR.Reporting to the President & CEO, the Vice President, Marketing and PR will lead the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra’s storytelling and audience-development strategy, with responsibility for marketing and selling approximately $3 million in annual ticket revenue across a broad and dynamic portfolio of programs. This includes the Symphonic and Pops subscripti
  
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• Painter Amy Sherald Signs with Talent Agency CAA

  21-01-2026 22:15 via artnews.com
  Amy Sherald, a painter renowned for her tender portraits of Black American life, has signed with talent agency Creative Artists Agency (CCA), marking the latest high-profile crossover between the art world and Hollywood. Sherald rose to national fame in 2018 after being commissioned by former First Lady Michelle Obama to paint her official portrait for the National Portrait Gallery (NPG) in Washington, D.C. The work depicts Obama in grayscale, posed against a pale blue background with her c
  
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• Bonhams Posts $970 M. in 2025 Sales as It Tries to Turn the Page

  21-01-2026 22:07 via artnews.com
  Bonhams ended 2025 with $970 million in global sales, a headline number that, in another year, might have been received as unambiguously good news. Instead, it arrives trailing a thicket of context: a widely circulated Financial Times report on a £213 million pre-tax loss, a change in ownership, and renewed scrutiny of how auction houses account for downturns during a softening market.Still, the topline result marks one of the strongest sales performances in Bonhams’s
  
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• Frank Lloyd Wright House in Chicago for Sale for $350,000—Or Is It?

  21-01-2026 21:29 via artnews.com
  A Frank Lloyd Wright house in dire need of restoration has been reported to be up for sale with an asking price of $350,000, after the property was supposedly put on the market by the Federal National Mortgage Associate—best known as Fannie Mae—as part of a court ordered-sale following foreclosure in December.As reported by the Chicago Sun-Times, “The development potentially represents the best shot in more than a generation to revive the landmark two-story stucco home at 42 N.
  
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• Sally Tallant Departs Queens Museum to Lead London’s Hayward Gallery

  21-01-2026 21:26 via artnews.com
  The Southbank Centre has named Sally Tallant the new director of the Hayward Gallery, a role she will begin in July. She is replacing the Hayward’s longtime director Ralph Rugoff, who recently announced his resignation after 20 years at the helm.As part of her new position, Tallant will also oversee visual art installations at other institutions that make up the Southbank Centre, a cultural hub along the Thames River in London. In additional to the Hayward Gallery, which focuses on contemp
  
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• A Labor Economist Looks At Opera And Says It Isn’t Dying (But Its Business Model Might Be)

  21-01-2026 21:02 via theconversation.com
  Christos Makridis of Arizona State University: “I found the public’s demand for meaningful, live cultural experiences — including opera — remains strong. … (But) few opera companies have embraced strategies the rest of the entertainment industry regularly uses: audience data analysis, experimentation with digital content and streaming, engagement through online platforms rather than brochures.” – The Conversation
  
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• San Francisco Ballet And “Anticipatory Obedience”

  21-01-2026 20:31 via sfchronicle.com
  Trot out the national anthem, the flag or a John Philip Sousa march, they believe, and it’s like a free exclamation mark to whatever point they’re trying to make: “Ha! See? The stars and stripes are on my side!” – San Francisco Chronicle
  
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• There’s More Footage Of The Jewelry Robbery At The Louvre — And It Looks Pretty Bad

  21-01-2026 20:05 via news.artnet.com
  “The two perpetrators can be seen wearing balaclavas and using disc cutters to slice open display cases. The theft takes place under the watch of staff members who were not able to intervene.” – Artnet
  
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• Author and Alter Ego Cruise a River Called America

  21-01-2026 19:56 via artsjournal.com
  <a href="https://www.artsjournal.com/herman/2026/01/author-and-alter-ego-cruise-a-river-called-america.html" title="Author and Alter Ego Cruise a River Called America” rel=”nofollow”>For readers familiar with his work, it will come as no surprise that Swiss novelist Christoph Keller’s prose in English, an adopted language, has the idiomatic flare of a native speaker. Nor is it a surprise that much of his latest novel is again set in downtown Manhattan, where he
  
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• Mexico City’s Zona Maco to Bring Together 241 Exhibitors Next Month

  21-01-2026 19:51 via artnews.com
  Next month, Zona Maco, one of Latin America’s top fairs, will alight in Mexico City, bringing together droves of collectors to Centro Banamex, on the outskirts of the capital city for the fair along will several satellites.The fair will take place during the same time as the inaugural edition of Art Basel Qatar, but the conflict doesn’t seem to have impacted Zona Maco, which said it has 50 museum board groups confirmed to attend during the event running from February 4–8.The up
  
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• Women-Centered Fantasy Is Fueling The Publishing Industry

  21-01-2026 19:44 via theconversation.com
  Women are rewriting the rules of sword-and-sorcery, trading testosterone-fueled quests for romance-driven adventures. Publishers are discovering that dragons plus dating equals dollars—who knew female readers wanted both magic and meaningful relationships? — The Conversation
  
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• SFMOMA Adds 85 Modern and Contemporary Artworks to Its Holdings

  21-01-2026 19:38 via artnews.com
  The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art has announced the acquisition of some 85 modern and contemporary artworks, from painting and sculpture to new media and photography. Some of the most notable names include Ruth Asawa (whose retrospective, currently at the Museum of Modern Art, debuted at SFMOMA last spring), Nan Goldin, Kay WalkingStick, Yoshitomo Nara, Dorothea Lange, and Eugène Atget.In a statement, SFMOMA director Christopher Bedford noted that all the additions, “whether ph
  
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• 52 Walker Quietly Becomes a David Zwirner Gallery as Ebony L. Haynes Shifts to a Global Role

  21-01-2026 19:36 via artnews.com
  When 52 Walker opened in Tribeca in 2021, it did so with unusual fanfare. The space, founded by Ebony L. Haynes under the umbrella of David Zwirner, was widely framed as a corrective gesture within the commercial gallery system: a Kunsthalle-style venue with an all-Black staff, full curatorial autonomy, and a mandate untethered from the usual pressures of artist representation. The New York Times hailed it as a rare experiment inside a mega-gallery structure, emphasizing both its symbo
  
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• Philly Art Museum’s Rebrand Needs a Rebrand (And Might Get It)

  21-01-2026 19:31 via hyperallergic.com
  Nothing says “we nailed it” quite like forming a task force to fix your fresh new identity while quietly showing your chief marketing officer the door. Sometimes the most authentic brand move is admitting you got it spectacularly wrong. — Hyperallergic
  
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• Trump Takes Aim at New Deal Murals

  21-01-2026 19:15 via hyperallergic.com
  Because nothing says ‘making America great again’ like erasing the last time we actually invested in artists. Depression-era public art programs apparently too woke for 2025. Grandma Moses weeps. — Hyperallergic
  
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• A Look At Opera’s Sexiest Tune, With Its Reigning Singer

  21-01-2026 19:01 via nytimes.com
  Mezzo Aigul Akhmetshina on the Habanera from Bizet’s Carmen. – The New York Times
  
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• Writers vs. Machines: The John Henry Complex Returns

  21-01-2026 18:44 via lithub.com
  ChatGPT has writers channeling their inner folk hero, hammer in hand. But as Stephen Marche notes, we’ve been dancing with technological muses long before algorithms—typewriters, anyone? — LitHub
  
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