Believe the National Gallery's hype
PLUS: Turner Prize heading to Bradford
— In partnership with the Museum Data Service
This edition also features: Natural History Museum’s birthday revamp | Wednesday’s dress at the Design Museum | Rome museum has three directors in a week
Happy Friday.
The other week I offered you my highlight exhibitions opening in September. The context was that nothing opens all summer and then — *boom* — we’re in a world of thrice-weekly blockbusters.
What I didn’t say was that it’s exactly the same for museum and art news too. Bugger all is announced from mid July as everyone heads out on their hols and no one is paying attention. (Except the PR teams who spend August prepping for what comes next.) What does come next is an avalanche of art announcements.
And so to this week. I genuinely cannot remember a week with SO. MUCH. NEWS. Even I couldn’t keep track — and I have my own story tracker! There’s been far more than I could ever include here — for both my sanity and yours.
So what’s not made the cut? Well, the MoMA in New York is to get its first new director in 30 years as the current one announces he’s stepping down. Two men have been charged after one of Banksy’s best-known artworks was stolen in a London gallery heist. It comes after a Grade II-listed war memorial was stolen from a South London park. There’s been huge backlash to the BBC story — featured in this newsletter last week — ‘revealing’ the value of Birmingham’s museum collections. A big Picasso print exhibition is coming to the British Museum, and the Horniman has officially handed over sacred objects to Australia. The Brooklyn Museum has rebranded to mark its 200th birthday, the Art Institute of Chicago has received a donation of $75m, among the largest in the museum’s history. Historic England also warned that the much-needed refurb of the Palace of Westminster was going to suck up all of Britain’s craft workers for nearly 40 years, meaning they can’t work on anything else.
And just to prove my point of news overload, in the literal seconds before I hit send on this, the Art Newspaper exclusively announced that Dulwich Picture Gallery has made its first acquisition in 12 years.
But if this is everything I couldn’t fit in, then imagine what’s made the cut! It’s time to dive in to find out.
— maxwell
— In partnership with the Museum Data Service
Huge "leap forward" for museums begins TODAY
Today's an unprecedented day for Britain's museums.
Until now, it's not been possible to search the millions of objects in the UK's collections in one place.
But the solution to that problem has begun, as the Museum Data Service (MDS) is now live. Through a single platform, 3 million objects can now be searched. 2 million will be added imminently.
Art UK is the first institutional user of the service, allowing it to double the number of artworks on their platform by the year end. Its Director Andrew Ellis says this "will revolutionise our ability to research our museums." He wants museums across the country to "embrace this new frontier."
A key feature of MDS is that it's as easy for small collections to upload data as for large.
Dame Mary Beard thinks "we will look back and wonder how on earth we managed without it.”
The service is a collaboration between Art UK, Collections Trust, and the University of Leicester, with funding from Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Arts & Humanities Research Council.
Now it's over to museums themselves to embrace this digital revolution — and to add their collections.
Need To Know
Five star(ry) exhibition
The National Gallery’s Van Gogh exhibition has been unanimously hailed by art critics who have awarded it five stars across the board.
A “dazzling exhibition” was the Guardian’s verdict. "Mesmerising" said Time Out. The Times’ Laura Freeman said that this time you must “believe the hype…this is a five-star firecracker.” The show’s unveiling made it onto the front page of three national newspapers — unheard of for an arts story.
The exhibition was officially opened by Labour arts minister Chris Bryant who called it “one of the most amazing exhibitions you will ever see.”
And yet….there are PLENTY of tickets still available on the eve of the public opening. This is despite the gallery only putting the first month of the four-month run on sale. While the first week has just sold out, even weekends have lots of availability. Is that £28 ticket price keeping sales sluggish, or is it just taking a little longer to get audiences warmed up? (Read more)
Natural History Museum’s overhaul
The Natural History Museum has announced a major overhaul of its South Kensington home.
Four existing galleries will be totally revamped — including the popular dinosaur gallery — and two long-closed Victorian exhibition spaces will reopen. The aim is to welcome an additional 1m visitors a year. Works are expected to be completed in time for the museum’s 150th anniversary in 2031. Announcing the project, the museum revealed it plans to fundraise £150m to ‘celebrate’ that birthday year.
The exclusive news story on this in the Financial Times announced a “£550m expansion” of which the UK government is giving “most” of the £400m already pledged. It seems it’s more nuanced than that.
The government are giving £201m to the already-announced new storage facility being built in Berkshire (that admittedly will free up the space in London to reopen), plus £155m to a collection digitisation project. But there’s no suggestion yet that they’re funding any of the capital works in South Kensington. I asked the museum how much the London refurb would actually cost — was it that £150m figure? — and was told this info is not available. My next question should be what about the £44m unaccounted for? (Read more)
Hew Locke at revamped British Academy
A £10m overhaul of the British Academy headquarters in central London has been unveiled. The public will be able to see the transformed Grade-I listed townhouse and its redisplayed art collection from this weekend.
Architects Wright and Wright have spent two years revamping much of the John Nash-designed historic home of the UK’s national academy for the humanities and social sciences, with the aim to make it more accessible, more flexible and more welcoming.
Coinciding with the work is the newest addition to the Academy’s art collection: a major 2m-tall collage by British-Guyanese artist Hew Locke. It’s a very rare commission from the institution.
Raw Materials 27 references slavery and Guyana, and the opportunity to create it specially for a building once owned by prime minister William Gladstone was too good to refuse according to Locke. “You can’t say no to that” he said. Other works on display — which the public are free to access — include pieces by Paula Rego and Yinka Shonibare. (Read more)
News from the UK
Bradford beckons ✏️ | The Turner Prize is to be hosted in Bradford as part of their 2025 City of Culture celebrations. It’ll be shown at Cartwright Hall Art Gallery, on the 250th anniversary of JMW Turner’s birth. Other highlights of Bradford’s year-long cultural programme are a nationwide drawing project backed by David Hockney, and installations across the moorlands that inspired Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights. (Read more)
Charity withdraws ❌ | Save the Children pulled out of an event at the Science Museum after coming under pressure from its supporters over the institution’s sponsors. The charity said it had decided to withdraw “following concerns from supporters about one of the museum’s sponsors, in the context of current public campaigns”. The sponsor wasn’t named, but the museum has been repeatedly criticised over its partnership with Adani Green Energy. (Read more)
Bloody Mary 🖤 | A-lister Jenna Ortega’s viral dress from Netflix’s Wednesday is going on display for the first time anywhere in the world at the Design Museum. It went viral as part of a scene where she dances at her prom, and which inspired a huge Lady Gaga-assisted TikTok trend. It’s one of the major highlights of the museum’s Tim Burton exhibition opening next month. Michele Pfeiffer’s Catwoman suit will also be shown. (Read more)
Fundraising race 🖼 | Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum is racing against the clock to save a 600-year-old painting from leaving the UK. They need to raise nearly £5m in just over a month to buy a crucifixion scene by the Renaissance Master Fra Angelico. So far £3m has been secured for the work which has been in a private British collection for more than 200 years. The museum’s Director Dr Xa Sturgis said this was “an unrepeatable chance.” (Read more)
News from around the world
Finland 🇫🇮 | A staggering 623 design proposals have been submitted for the new national museum of architecture and design in Helsinki. Yet srchitecture writer Will Jennings of
is sceptical of the open call. His verdict is that there are “promising approaches“ among the entries, but also plenty of “unworkable repeats of trendy tropes.” Only 3 to 5 entries will be selected to progress. “I feel for the judges” Jennings tells me. (Read more)Norway 🇳🇴 | The inaugural MUNCH Award for artistic freedom has been awarded to Brazilian artist Rosana Paulino. Given by Oslo’s MUNCH museum, it aims to celebrate artists that show courage and integrity throughout their career. The judges said Paulino has been “a leading voice of Black feminism… and the on-going fight against racism.” She’ll be honoured with a £20,000 prize and with a ceremony next month. (Read more)
Unites States 🇺🇸 | Washington state’s Bellevue Arts Museum has closed, and laid of its staff. The museum’s board have all resigned too. The venue had struggled for years to remain financially sustainable, including through raising $350,000 in an emergency funding campaign this summer. The only remaining hope for the organisation — which was established in the 1940s — is a merger with a larger partner. Director Kate Casprowiak Scher will stay on part time to explore this option. (Read more)
Australia 🇦🇺 | Masterpieces from Germany’s Berggruen Museum and Nationalgalerie will head to Canberra on the latest stop of their world tour while their Berlin home is renovated. Works by Cézanne, Giacometti, Picasso, and Matisse will be displayed at the National Gallery of Australia in a highlight of their 2025 programme. There’ll also be retrospectives of Australian artists Ethel Carrick and Anne Dangar. (Read more)
Italy 🇮🇹 | Culture minister Gennaro Sangiuliano has been forced to resign after it was revealed he was having an affair with an influencer who’d been recording his sensitive government business on her smart glasses. His replacement was the head of Rome’s MAXXI museum. A dentistry teacher on the MAXXI board then took the museum’s top job, triggering ridicule in the press and parliament. Just two days later, they were ousted and a new interim director was appointed. Who at least is an art historian. (Read more)
Best of the rest
Strikes loom | Security guards at London’s Science and Natural History museums are balloting for strike action over what they describe as a “disrespectful and demoralising” pay offer from the outsourced company that employs them. (More)
Apollo acquired | The co-owner of Britain’s GB News channel has bought the art magazine Apollo. Paul Marshall takes the publication as part of his £100m takeover of the Spectator magazine. (More)
Lacking majesty | A new statue of the late Queen Elizabeth II has been mocked around the world — and likened to Mrs Doubtfire. The work’s been unveiled in Antrim and the local council acknowledged “art can sometimes spark diverse opinions.” (More)
Freud’s women | The Freud Museum will be taken over by some huge female artists — including Sarah Lucas and Tracey Emin — as part of a new exhibition looking at the impactful women in Freud’s life. (More)
Seen these? | London is full of blue plaques, which honour great Britons across the Capital. Except English Heritage has now revealed that dozens of them are missing, including those dedicated to William Hogath and Lord Byron. (More)
"Landmark achievement" | The Museum Data Service is now live. Millions of UK museum objects can be searched in one place — and Art UK is leading the way in using the "transformative" new platform.* (More)
*This is sponsored content
👀 Last week’s most clicked news story | Calling all Noughties Emo kids: this London museum wants your MySpace pics for a Barbican exhibition
— Today’s edition took 7 hours to write. Donate so I can treat myself to a pint 🍻