Category: visual

“British photographer David Yarrow booked a two-day photo shoot at [the famously ruined venue]. Only problem was, he apparently didn’t tell anyone at the plant that he was bringing a tiger, two wolves and a bobcat with him. … The animals, trainers and photographers were given the boot about an hour later. But not before the tiger got loose and holed itself up on a fourth-story staircase.” (includes video)

Schmidt, a 47-year-old art historian who is currently a curator for decorative arts at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, said he would first focus on the visitor experience at Uffizi and on developing programs for children and teenagers. “If someone from America and China comes to the Uffizi and starts the visit by standing in line for two to three hours, that is not the ideal way to begin,” Schmidt told The Associated Press over the telephone.

In recent months, more than a dozen employees have left the museum, which currently has 58 administrative workers with another 79 in customer-service positions ranging from retail to security guards.

“Many have challenged the logic of a Swiss building in Los Angeles, asking whether his revered precision will translate given the economics of American construction. Others ask whether his monastic aesthetic will make sense in the image-driven landscape of Los Angeles and, more specifically, whether his architectural language of sublime asceticism will respond to the city’s very diverse urban context. Even more inflammatory critics have suggested that he lacks adequate experience in buildings of this scale. In a sense, all of the criticisms can be boiled down to a single accusation: quality architecture does not belong in Los Angeles.”

“Fourteen art historians, four archaeologists, one cultural manager and a museum specialist make up the new directors, who will be at the forefront of cultural reform in Italy. The majority have international backgrounds and half are women, although the culture minister, Dario Franceschini, said nationality and gender had no influence on Tuesday’s appointments.”

“Thomas Krens, the man with the original concept for the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art 30 years ago, has proposed building a new 160,000-square-foot art gallery on North Adams’ Harriman-West Airport grounds. … It would be named the Global Contemporary Collection and Museum and contain a collection of about 400 works of art.”

“The pressure to keep on building on the National Mall will not go away. But the recent evolution brings a human scale and an appealing American idealism to spaces where self-conscious and overbearing grandeur have held sway for too long.”

“The Museum itself is the main generator of income to support the Vatican City State itself. How did art become the funder for a government? How has this altered how the art is treated, if the Vatican is only able to run based on how many visitors they can get to walk through the doors? Ticket sales for 2014 totaled around $87 million, from which the State took half for its operations.”

“On the northern edge of L.A.’s vast Griffith Park, tucked inside a bend of the 1/8th scale railroad track that carries visitors around a bucolic stretch of Southern California chaparral, stands a humble, saggy-roofed barn that contains a multitude of treasures.”