Art Newz

Culture injection: Coronavirus vaccination centres in Germany are giving patients a dose of art

Some German vaccination centres are offering patients an injection of art along with the coronavirus jab. In the Bavarian town of Straubing, 84 works by 42 local artists are on show in a vaccination facility established in a trade exhibition centre. Patients awaiting their turn to be inoculated against the coronavirus can pass the time…

Read More

‘Shameful vandalism and desecration’ : Met leaders condemn right-wing crowd’s assault on US Capitol

As law enforcement authorities across the US brace for the possibility of more violence related to Donald Trump’s defeat in the presidential election, the leaders of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York today denounced the 6 January rampage on the US Capitol as “domestic terrorism” by “treasonous rioters”. “The attack on the United…

Read More

Champs Élysées—one of Paris’s most polluted roads—to be transformed into ‘extraordinary garden’

The Champs-Élysées, a 1.9km-long avenue in central Paris, will undergo a major €250m makeover following the 2024 Summer Olympics. The renovation was announced by the mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo, who said the plans will transform the congested road into an “extraordinary garden”. Designed in 1697 by André Le Nôtre as an extension of the…

Read More

Desert X postpones opening amid Covid-19 surge in California

As California hits a bleak coronavirus milestone this month, with nearly 10% of the population infected, organisers of Desert X in the Coachella Valley have announced that the forthcoming edition of the outdoor sculpture exhibition will be postponed until lockdown restrictions have been lifted in the state. The third edition of the exhibition, which has become…

Read More

US Capitol’s works of art survive amid right-wing rampage in Washington

The US Capitol’s works of art were subjected to tear gas and pepper spray during the intrusion of right-wing marauders incited by President Donald Trump on Wednesday and will require cleaning and conservation, a spokeswoman for the Architect of the Capitol reported today. Yet the works in the 1826 Neo-Classical building appear to have survived…

Read More

Moderna vaccine billionaire Timothy Springer explains his love for Chinese scholar rocks

Traditionally, gongshi, or Chinese scholars’ rocks, have graced the workspaces of great thinkers. But while the rock collection owned by Timothy Springer, an immunologist and Harvard Medical School professor, does not fit on his lab desk, it has influenced his work in other ways. A founding investor in biotech companies such as Moderna, whose Covid-19 vaccine…

Read More

Storming of US Capitol: art world condemns police hypocrisy in pro-Trump riot

In the minutes and hours after a pro-Trump mob stormed the US Capitol in Washington, DC yesterday, leading art world figures took to social media to express their anger and dismay at scenes including videos showing police opening barricades to rioters and posing for selfies with perpetrators. Some commentators stressed the contrast between the law…

Read More

Closure of London’s Florence Nightingale Museum fuels fears that the pandemic will force smaller UK institutions to shut

Hundreds of the UK’s smaller museums are fighting to survive as the country once again enters lockdown. Prolonged closures in 2020 and sporadic reopenings during the coronavirus pandemic—with social distancing measures that have severely limited visitor capacity—have led to unsustainable financial losses for many institutions. Smaller spaces in particular have struggled to accommodate the need…

Read More

Lost art: Measuring COVID-19’s devastating impact on America’s creative economy

The COVID-19 crisis hits hard at arts, culture, and the creative economy. This study estimates the effects of the COVID-19 crisis on the creative economy, which is comprised of industries such as film, advertising, and fashion as well as creative occupations such as musicians, artists, performers, and designers. We estimate losses in sales of goods…

Read More

A ‘milestone’ moment—US National Gallery of Art acquires 40 works by Black Southern artists

The National Gallery of Art in Washington DC (NGA) has acquired 40 works by 21 African American artists from the non-profit organisation Souls Grown Deep Foundation, a move described as a “milestone” by the foundation president Maxwell Anderson. Souls Grown Deep Foundation is dedicated to documenting and promoting the work of African American artists from…

Read More