Category: visual

Three prominent Madrid museums are upgrading their fracilities in a long-awaited move. “The Prado, Reina Sofia, and Thyssen-Bornemisza museums have each embarked on ambitious renovation and expansion that, along with improved pedestrian access, promise to raise the Spanish capital’s cultural profile.”

“The Italian, US-based collector Carlo Bilotti is in discussions with Rome City Council to convert a former chapel in the north of the city into a centre for contemporary art which will display works by Damien Hirst and other artists from his collection… Mr Bilotti says he aims to create a ‘modern meditative environment’ in the chapel which will be modelled on the Rothko chapel in Houston, Texas.”

The UK’s National Trust is lashing out at the government for what it says is “an ominous silence” surrounding the Trust’s plan to preserve Stonehenge by diverting auto traffic away from the historic site. The government has been considering such proposals for half a century, and the Trust fears that what appeared to be an impending agreement has been moved to the back burner yet again.

Certainly, the Tate Modern has earned the right to expand its gallery space with five years of tremendous success as London’s hottest contemporary art museum. But will there really be enough art to fill all that additional space? “Of immediate and growing concern is the oft-repeated criticism that Tate Modern’s collection looks thin and impoverished compared with the scale and grandeur of its monolithic home, [and the museum’s director] has in the past lamented the virtual non-existence of an acquisitions budget for the institution.”

Philadelphia’s Franklin Institute has been chosen as the fourth and final stop of the blockbuster King Tut show touring America starting this summer in Los Angeles. “A consortium of three companies – National Geographic; AEG Live Exhibitions of Los Angeles; and Arts & Entertainment International of Aurora, Ohio – is organizing and touring the show for the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities. The Egyptian government hopes to raise at least $10 million from each venue to pay for restoration of ancient monuments and to build a new museum in Cairo.”

The Tate Modern is only five years old, but already there are plans to expand it. “The gallery’s electricity sub-station is being upgraded freeing up more space behind the Turbine Hall. Tate Modern’s outside area will also be redesigned and a new learning and extra viewing space will be created inside. Plans will be submitted in the summer.”

A man was caught trying to pry open a display case in a Greek and Roman gallery at the British museum Wednesday. “He was foiled by a sharp-eyed attendant just before closing time yesterday afternoon, the museum said. The man ran off when he was approached by the attendant, but security guards later apprehended a suspect who was turned over to police.”

An ambitious new £25.7 million ‘super’ museum in northern UK which would be home to more than 500,000 artefacts is gathering support and funding. “On Wednesday the Heritage Lottery Fund announced it was donating more than £9.2m to the Great North Museum scheme. It is due to be completed in 2009.”

“Poland is putting new pressure on the Cleveland Museum of Art and other major museums to return a widely dispersed collection of Albrecht Durer drawings looted by the Nazis during World War II. The 27 drawings, three of which are owned by the Cleveland museum, were removed by Nazi officers in 1941 from the Ossolinski Institute in the city of Lviv, which was then in Poland.”

Attendance at three blockbuster shows at Toronto museums was respectable but not great. “The numbers, while respectable, weren’t record-smashers, and remain an indication that the city is still trying to shake off the effects of the SARS crisis of 2003 and the reluctance of tourists, especially those in the United States, to travel in the wake of the terror attacks of 2001 and the 2003 invasion of Iraq.”