News

  • August 13, 2018 at 11:59am

    MacDowell Colony Director Cheryl A. Young to Retire in 2019

    The MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire, announced today that director Cheryl A. Young, who has led the organization for twenty-two years, will step down in early 2019. A search for her successor is currently underway.

    “Not only has MacDowell been a home to me, it has been a great joy to be around such passionate people. . . . Everyone is devoted to helping artists make new work,” said Young. “MacDowell has been an exceptional organization since its pioneering beginning, and each generation has a role to play in safeguarding it.”

    Young originally joined MacDowell in 1988 as its director

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  • August 13, 2018 at 9:04am

    Israeli Military Razes Palestinian Cultural Center in Series of Air Strikes

    The al-Meshal Foundation in the Gaza Strip, one of the few cultural centers in Palestine, has been completely destroyed in a series of air strikes that Israeli military forces launched on Thursday, August 9. Eighteen people suffered minor injuries in the attack.

    The Israeli Defense Forces said that it targeted the five-story building, which housed a theater, a library, an Egyptian community center, and offices for several cultural organizations, because it was allegedly being used as a headquarters for Hamas. Artists and other creatives who regularly worked at and visited the foundation have

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  • August 13, 2018 at 8:36am

    Mika Rottenberg Wins 2019 Kurt Schwitters Prize

    The Argentinian artist Mika Rottenberg has been named the winner of the 2019 Kurt Schwitters Prize, a biennial award that recognizes artists who have made a significant contribution to contemporary art. Founded in 1982 and administered by the Niedersächsische Sparkassenstiftung, the prize honors the legacy of the late German painter Kurt Schwitters, who passed away in 1948. Rottenberg will receive $28,600 and will stage an exhibition at the Sprengel Museum in Hannover, Germany.

    Born in Buenos Aires in 1976 and currently living in New York, Rottenberg is best known for her surreal video installations,

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  • August 13, 2018 at 8:00am

    Liverpool Biennial Restores Work Documenting the Refugee Crisis

    The List, 2018, a massive installation featuring the names of thousands of refugees and migrants who have died trying to reach Europe, has gone back on display in Liverpool after it was destroyed by unknown perpetrators last month.

    The work, which lists the names of 34,361 people and dates back to 1993, is presented by the Liverpool Biennial in collaboration with Turkish artist Banu Cennetoğlu, who, since 2007, has worked to draw attention to the refugee crisis by making The List more visible. Over the years, she has handed out leaflets and published the list of names on billboards. Because of

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  • August 11, 2018 at 8:22am

    Bloomberg Philanthropies Selects Arts Organizations in Atlanta for $43 Million Management Training Program

    Bloomberg Philanthropies announced that forty-five cultural organizations in Atlanta have been selected to participate in a $43 million multiyear initiative, which seeks to strengthen the infrastructure and programming of small and midsize cultural nonprofits within the cities of Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore, Denver, New Orleans, Pittsburgh, and Washington, DC.

    Through the Arts Innovation and Management (AIM) program, Bloomberg Philanthropies will provide general operating support, as well as arts management training, in areas that range from fundraising and strategic planning to marketing and

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  • August 10, 2018 at 1:04pm

    Embattled Stedelijk Museum Selects Truze Lodder to Lead Board Renewal

    Following former director Beatrix Ruf’s exit amid controversy last year, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam announced that Truze Lodder has been appointed the temporary chairman of its supervisory board. The Municipality of Amsterdam is entrusting Lodder with growing the museum’s board after the interim chair and three remaining members stepped down.

    “By selecting Ms. Lodder, the Municipal Executive emphasizes a course of action that focuses on decisiveness, experience, and stability,” Stedelijk interim director Jan Willem Sieburgh said in a statement. “Her appointment marks a new phase for the

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  • August 10, 2018 at 10:37am

    Self Help Graphics & Art Appoints Betty Avila Executive Director

    Self Help Graphics & Art, the community arts nonprofit and printmaking studio based in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles, has announced that Betty Avila has been tapped as its next director. Since 2015, Avila has worked in a number of roles at the organization, including as an administrator and, most recently, the acting director.

    The Los Angeles native previously held positions at other local institutions such as the Getty Research Institute, the Music Center, and the Levitt Pavilion, MacArthur Park. She sits on the boards of the Center for Cultural Innovation and Arts for LA and

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  • August 10, 2018 at 9:45am

    Cranbrook Academy of Art Names Susan R. Ewing Interim Director

    Susan R. Ewing has been named interim director of the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield, Michigan. The arts administrator, professor, and metalsmith succeeds Christopher Scoates, who stepped down as head of the institution after a four-year tenure to lead the Museum of Arts and Design in New York. The academy had previously appointed John Berry as Scoates’s successor in May, but he ended up declining the job, citing a family issue. Ewing will take up the post on August 20.

    “Susan is a perfect fit for Cranbrook Academy of Art at this time,” said Dominic DiMarco, president of the Cranbrook

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  • August 09, 2018 at 4:46pm

    Hirshhorn Museum Acquires Tino Sehgal’s This You, Its First-Ever Performance Work

    The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden announced today that it has acquired its first-ever performance artwork: Tino Sehgal’s This You, the artist’s only outdoor work to date. Debuting Labor Day weekend and running for six weeks, from September 1 to October 14, 2018, the piece will be realized by a group of Washington, DC–based musicians who will foster unique encounters with visitors within the institution’s plaza and sculpture garden.

    “For more than a decade the Hirshhorn has demonstrated a unique commitment to the acquisition and presentation of experimental and new media works,” said

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  • August 09, 2018 at 1:30pm

    NEH Awards $43.1 Million for Humanities Projects and Cultural Infrastructure

    The National Endowment for the Humanities has announced that its awarding $43.1 million in support of 218 humanities projects across the United States. In this last round of funding for the 2018 fiscal year, grants are being provided for research, education, and preservation initiatives, as well as other programming. The agency will distribute $13.2 million of the total amount awarded through the its new Infrastructure and Capacity-Building Challenge Grant program, which will require a match of nonfederal funds.

    The inaugural challenge grants will support construction and renovation projects,

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  • August 09, 2018 at 10:39am

    Director of Florida’s Norton Museum of Art to Retire in March 2019

    Hope Alswang, executive director and CEO of the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach, Florida, has announced that she will step down on March 1, 2019, following the opening of the institution’s new Norman Foster–designed expansion project in February.

    Under Alswang’s leadership, the Norton has successfully raised more than $100 million for its ongoing capital campaign; significantly expanded its collection, acquiring more than 700 works; greatly increased its community outreach programs; and inaugurated the Recognition of Art by Women (RAW) exhibition series, which highlights living women

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  • August 09, 2018 at 10:20am

    Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago Promotes Naomi Beckwith to Senior Curator

    The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago has announced that Naomi Beckwith has been promoted to senior curator. The forty-two-year-old museum professional has served as a curator at the institution since 2011. During her tenure at the museum, she has curated solo exhibitions of work by artists Howardena Pindell, Keren Cytter, and William J. O’Brien, among others, and thematic exhibitions such as “The Freedom Principle: Experiments in Art and Music, 1965 to Now” (2015) and “Color Bind: The MCA Collection in Black and White” (2012). She also recently served as a curatorial adviser for the 2018

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