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  • E. Carmen Ramos. Photo: National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
    May 14, 2021 at 5:38pm

    Carmen Ramos Appointed Chief Curator of National Gallery of Art

    The National Gallery of Art (NGA) in Washington, DC, has named E. Carmen Ramos—currently acting chief curator and curator of Latinx art at the Smithsonian American Art Museum—as its chief curatorial and conservation officer. Ramos, who will assume her new role in August, will be the first person of color and the first woman to occupy the position.

    “E. Carmen Ramos brings two decades of experience as a museum curator and leader, a record of significant award-winning projects, and a deep commitment to scholarship,” said NGA director Kaywin Feldman, in a statement. “She is widely admired in the

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  • Katerina Gregos. Photo: Panos Kokkinias.
    May 14, 2021 at 4:42pm

    Katerina Gregos Named Artistic Director of National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens

    Greek-born curator, writer, and art historian Katerina Gregos has been announced as the new artistic director of the National Museum of Contemporary Art (EMST) in Athens. The twenty-year-old institution reopened to visitors today following a closure lasting several weeks and forced by the continuing Covid-19 crisis.

    “With her international experience, her rich exhibition and publishing history and her numerous collaborations with international institutions, Katerina Gregos is the person who can lead EMST to its new era: towards a museum of contemporary art that is welcoming to the public, active,

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  • A rendering of the Central Vista project. Image: HCP Designs.
    May 13, 2021 at 2:10pm

    Citing Pandemic, Artists Call for India to Halt Redevelopment of New Delhi

    An international group of artists, curators, scholars, and historians signed a statement calling for the government of India to put an immediate halt to its Central Vista redevelopment plan in New Delhi in light of the public health emergency the nation faces as Covid-19 surges there a second time, The Hindu reports. Of particular concern to the signatories is the scheduled demolition of the National Museum, the National Archives, and the Indira Gandhi National Center for the Arts, and the attendant relocation of the treasures contained therein in a responsible fashion.

    “There was a clear logic

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  • The new plaque installed on the Met’s façade. Photo by Bruce Schwarz/the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
    May 13, 2021 at 11:45am

    Met Installs Plaque Honoring Lenape People, on Whose Land It Sits

    New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art on Tuesday installed a plaque at its main entrance acknowledging that it is sited on the homeland of the Indigenous Lenape people.

    “The Metropolitan Museum of Art is situated in Lenapehoking, homeland of the Lenape diaspora, and historically a gathering and trading place for many diverse Native peoples, who continue to live and work on this island,” reads the plaque. “We respectfully acknowledge and honor all Indigenous communities—past, present, and future—for their ongoing and fundamental relationships to the region.”

    The Lenape, who follow a matrilineal

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  • Richard Nonas in 2010. Photo: Jan Meissner.
    May 12, 2021 at 5:43pm

    Richard Nonas (1936–2021)

    Post-Minimalist sculptor Richard Nonas died in New York May 11 at the age of eighty-five. The news was announced by his gallery, Fergus McCaffrey. Trained as an anthropologist, Nonas was known for his spare modular sculptures, usually of wood, stone, or unglamorous industrial materials, often placed in natural settings, but almost invariably characterized by a unique, thoughtful relationship to their surrounds. Writing in 2018 on a work by Nonas installed outdoors, Carter Ratcliff noted that the artist did not transform the landscape “so much as inflect it with a remarkably restrained sign of

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  • Benin Bronzes on display at the British Museum. Photo: Rtype909/Flickr.
    May 12, 2021 at 2:13pm

    German Museums to Receive Funding for Research into Benin Bronzes Ahead of Repatriation

    The German Lost Art Foundation is offering grants of up to €25,000 ($30,000) apiece to the country’s museums to be used for research into the provenance of the Benin bronzes currently in their possession, The Art Newspaper reports. Citing the brief time remaining before the objects, looted over a century ago by British soldiers from what was then called the Republic of Benin, are returned to Nigeria next year, as was recently promised by the German government, the foundation is characterizing the money as emergency funding. The grants are aimed at smaller institutions and are intended for research

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  • B.O.S.S. artists portrait. Photo: Theodorah Ndovlu.
    May 11, 2021 at 6:37pm

    Turner Prize–Nominated Collective Criticizes Tate’s “Exploitative Practices”

    Black Obsidian Sound Collective (B.O.S.S.), one of the five artist collectives shortlisted for the Turner Prize earlier this month, has declared the prestigious award “exploitative.” The eighteen-member London-based collective, founded in 2018 to convene a QTIBPOC (queer, trans and intersex black and people of color) community centered around art, sound, and activism, said in a statement, originally posted to their Instagram, that they were grateful to have been nominated for the prize and pleased that their work had been recognized, but condemned organizer Tate regarding a number of issues

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  • Christopher K. Ho in 2013. Photo: Davidroesing 033/Wikipedia Commons.
    May 11, 2021 at 3:08pm

    Asia Art Archive Names Christopher K. Ho Executive Director

    The Hong Kong–based Asia Art Archive (AAA) has named Christopher K. Ho as its new executive director, ArtAsiaPacific reports. Ho, an artist, curator, and educator, will take up his post at the research and cultural organization in September, succeeding cofounder Claire Hsu, who is retiring from the role. Hsu will move to cochair the nonprofit's board with Benjamin Cha, while current co-chair DeBevoise will remain on AAA's board as a member. DeBevoise will retain her position as board chair of the New York–based Art Asia in America.

    “I relish the opportunity to work alongside the team, and to

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  • New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio. Photo: Gage Skidmore/Wikipedia Commons.
    May 10, 2021 at 6:21pm

    New York City Launches $25 Million Effort to Put Artists Back to Work

    New York City officials on May 6 announced the $25 million City Artist Corps, which will create jobs for 1,500 artists and is inspired by the Works Progress Administration effort that characterized Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal administration during the Great Depression. The city’s arts and recreation sector were hard hit by the crushing Covid-19 pandemic, sustaining a 60 percent drop in employment between February and April of last year alone, according to a recent report from the state comptroller’s office, which additionally showed that immigrant artists were disproportionately affected.

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  • A rendering of the museum to be built at Pennsylvania State University. Image: Allied Works Architecture.
    May 10, 2021 at 5:40pm

    Penn State Board Gives New $85 Million Art Museum the Go-Ahead

    The board of the Pennsylvania State University on Friday voted 26–7 to approve plans for a new $85 million art museum meant to replace a crumbling 1972 structure, The Philadelphia Inquirer reports. Comprising some 70,000 square feet, the new State College, Pennsylvania, museum will be the largest between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, and will house the largest collection to be found between the two cities, which sit at the western and eastern ends of the state, respectively.

    The new building, to be erected alongside the botanic gardens at the university’s arboretum, will be about 40 percent larger

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  • The Williams Forum at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Photo: Elizabeth Leitzell.
    May 07, 2021 at 6:44pm

    Frank Gehry Renovation of Philadelphia Museum of Art Debuts

    The four-year renovation and expansion of the Philadelphia Museum of Art undertaken by renowned architect Frank Gehry has been completed, and the museum today showed off the results to the public for the first time. Designed by Horace Trumbauer and Julian Abele in 1928, the museum sits atop a hill and, with its massive Ionic columns, resembles a Greek temple. Though Gehry is widely known for his boundary-pushing work, he left the façade of the landmark Beaux Arts structure largely untouched, instead concentrating his efforts instead at the building’s center.

    The $233 million renovation, approved

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  • Members of the Belfast-based Array Collective at a 2019 Pride event. Photo: Laura O’Connor.
    May 07, 2021 at 3:06pm

    Turner Prize 2021 Shortlists Five Artist Collectives

    For the first time since the award’s inception in 1984, the organizers of the Turner Prize have announced that the five finalists under consideration are all artist collectives, with no individual artist being nominated. The prize, considered one of the world’s most prestigious, is named for nineteenth-century painter British J. M. W. Turner and awarded annually to a UK visual artist. This year’s prize has been eagerly anticipated, as last year’s was canceled owing to the Covid-19 pandemic.

    “One of the great joys of the Turner Prize is the way it captures and reflects the mood of the moment in

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