Category: visual

“This week, Houston’s art and architectural communities are beginning to take stock of the damage to historic and contemporary structures, as well as cultural projects still under construction.”

The Berkshire Museum wouldn’t need to sell some of its most prized works of art to remain operational if it grew its endowment by $4.5 million, according to an expert on nonprofits. “I continue to believe that they have overstated how much of an emergency they are in,” said Stephen C. Sheppard, “and I think there would exist a clear path to a sustainable, essentially status quo, outcome that would not require deaccession of the 40 artworks.”

“Back in 2008, when Hurricane Ike pummeled Texas, the Galveston Arts Center sustained steep losses. … Art valued at more than $100,000 was ruined, and the storm caused upward of $1 million in damage to the historic, 19th-century bank building that houses the Arts Center. … So this time around, the team was prepared.”

The first non-Italian to head the Uffizi, Eike Schmidt will leave at the end of his four-year tenure, not entering a second mandate as many had expected he would. The 49-year-old director was initially appointed as part of the Italian government’s sweeping overhaul of the leadership positions in Italy’s leading cultural institutions under culture minister Dario Franceschini.

The sculpture, which references the hanging of 38 men during the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862, was greeted with protests when it was installed at the Walker Art Center this summer and was quickly removed. Chief and spiritual leader Arvol Looking Horse dissuaded his fellows from following the original plan to burn the disassembled work.

“This is its most substantial renovation since Chartres was rebuilt between 1194 and 1225. In the intervening 800 years, the building has changed almost beyond recognition, as smoke from burning candles, oil lamps and fires darkened the walls, the statues and the exquisite stained glass. The restoration aims not only to clean and maintain the structure, but also to offer an insight into what the cathedral would have looked like in the 13th century. Its interior was designed to be a radiant vision, as close to heaven on earth as a pilgrim might come, although many modern visitors have responded more with shock than with awe.”

“Mexico has been criticized for failing to register the theft of stolen cultural antiquities and for a lack of coordination among authorities responsible for preserving the items. Many church paintings are replicas of the two- and three-hundred year old paintings that have been stolen. According to official figures last year, 90 percent of stolen cultural objects, including archaeological pieces, liturgical objects and religious art, are never recovered.”

“The proposed project, called the Extreme Model Railroad and Contemporary Architecture Museum, will be a few blocks away from Mass MoCA, which recently completed its third phase of expansion, with large-scale exhibits by Jenny Holzer, Laurie Anderson and Robert Rauschenberg. It will cost an estimated $65 million and cover 83,000 square feet.”

“A lot has happened since Thomas P. Campbell, its director of eight years, resigned under pressure in late February, but it’s not over. The most obvious questions are: Who will be the next director, and when will he — or, better yet, she — be appointed?”

“The free institution is the newest addition to Los Angeles’ rapidly expanding museum landscape. The Broad opened in late 2015 across the street from downtown’s Museum of Contemporary Art. The Main Museum, also downtown, debuted quietly in October. The Marciano Art Foundation opened this May in a former Masonic temple on Wilshire Boulevard near Koreatown. And the future looks even more culturally crowded: In Exposition Park, George Lucas’ $1-billion Museum of Narrative Art is aiming for a 2021 debut. The Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s $600-million makeover is scheduled to break ground next year. And that doesn’t include the relatively new Hauser & Wirth gallery, which is museum-like in its size and ambition, or the Hammer Museum, which this year announced its own expansion on the Westside.”