#museums

#museums

When the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, it sealed the fate of East Germany. People wasted no time and started hacking away at the monstrosity with hammers and chisels. Those people chipping away at the former border barricade were known as "Mauerspechte," or wall woodpeckers. By June 1990, most of the Berlin Wall had been taken care of by bulldozers. Only a few sections of it have survived to this day; at the official Berlin Wall Memorial or the East Side Gallery, for example.

Once an independent commune, Montmartre was absorbed into the city limits of Paris in 1860, but the hilltop village has always retained a distinct sense of self. Famed for its religious, artistic, and at times seedy history, the neighborhood has drawn the likes of Picasso, Renoir, and hopelessly devoted Francophiles like myself with its bucolic charm, iconic lampposts, steep steps, and panoramic views.

"The object of the Museum is to acquire power," announces a crusty old archaeologist in Penelope Fitzgerald's 1977 satire, The Golden Child. It isn't a goal he respects. He wants the museum where he's settled into semiretirement to genuinely devote itself to educating its visitors. Instead, he correctly charges, its curators act like a pack of Gollums, hoarding "the art and treasures of the earth" for their own self-aggrandizement and pleasure.

The apartment where the Austrian composer Franz Schubert died, the residence of Blue Danube writer Johann Strauss, as well as the house where Joseph Haydn lived are to be closed temporarily owing to cost-saving measures, the director of Vienna's museums announced on Wednesday. The closures are part of broader austerity measures that will also see the price of public transport in the Austrian capital rise by almost 30% for some tickets. We all have to economise, said Matti Bunzl, the head of public body the Wien Museum that oversees several historical sites in the Austrian capital.

Sitting at the western tip of one of Abu Dhabi's many coastal islands, Saadiyat Cultural District's transformation from an expanse of featureless sand into the home of one of the world's most ambitious cultural projects has taken almost two decades. But, after years of construction shrouded in clouds of windblown dust, the much-anticipated cultural quarter has come into its own almost overnight, earning itself a spot on Condé Nast Traveler's list of The Best Places to Go in 2026.

The alarm was sounded late last year by a survey conducted by the American Alliance of Museums (AAM), which showed institutions facing significant headwinds and a fragile, inconsistent recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic. It revealed some sobering news, which was that recovery from the pandemic wasn't just coming to a stall but actually reversing, says Natanya Khashan, associate vice-president of marketing and digital experience at the AAM. We're seeing declines in attendance, weaker financial performance and growing instability across the museum field thanks to some of the new economic and policy pressures that have emerged.

We're very much in the background, but we're in the background with quite a specific purpose,

Let's face it: we're all pressed for time. One way we economize on our use of that precious resource is acronyms, those handy abbreviations that use the first letters of a multi-word name or phrase. In everyday conversation, for example, when your car breaks down and you need a tow, you call AAA (pronounced triple A), not the American Automobile Association, and it's NASA, not the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, that sends astronauts into space.

Diverse group of Dutch-based players have beaten the odds to make history with Leinster title

So these organizations could be forgiven for being surprised when it emerged this fall that crowdfunding platform GoFundMe, better known for helping individuals and families raise money for medical expenses and other personal causes, booted up some 1.6 million pages benefiting US nonprofits, including dozens of major art museums, without informing the institutions themselves or giving them the opportunity to opt out.

With so many of the exhibitions in Art & Science Collide focused on climate change, environmental justice and Indigenous knowledge systems, much of the initial impetus [for climate action] came from our partners," Joan Weinstein, the director of the Getty Foundation, tells The Art Newspaper. "It also came at a moment when Getty was embracing sustainability as an institutional priority. Once we realised that the appetite was there to address these issues as a larger community, we set about providing some of the infrastructure to make it happen.

One-third of US museums have lost government grants or contracts since Donald Trump took office, according to a new survey. The findings, released by the American Alliance of Museums on Tuesday and based on responses from more than 500 museum directors across the US, shed new light on the challenges cultural institutions are facing under the Trump administration.

President Warren G. Harding was calling for a return to "normalcy"-a word whose resonance in today's political rhetoric suggests a familiar retreat-as the nation grappled with sweeping social, political and cultural shifts. The Harlem Renaissance was flourishing; racial violence, such as the Tulsa Race Massacre, laid bare deep racial divides; and artists like Edward Hopper and Georgia O'Keeffe were redefining American art.

You may be looking for new reasons to reacquaint yourself with big-hitters, such as Udaipur in India's Rajasthan region, where a series of hotel openings - aesthetically poles apart - is driving an exciting sense of renewal. Or perhaps 2026 is the year for seeking out the unknown? The capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, Erbil, known for its 6,000-year-old Citadel, is safeguarding its rich history while determinedly building a peaceful future.

Where to start exploring London for the first time, a city of roughly 10 million people with its endlessly diverse neighborhoods and trendsetting culture? Even if you speak the same language, it's hard to know how to spend those precious vacation days in a metropolis with so much to offer in the realms of history, entertainment and cuisine. Do you focus first on royal landmarks like Buckingham Palace or the Tower of London?

There's a lot going on here. Through this weekend, there is a Behind-the-Screams Tour, where guests will face skeletons, parasites, bloodsuckers, and more from the collection. The newly renovated Wilson Family Nature Lab is opened in mid-October with lots of hands-on learning. Coming up on Nov. 22, there is a one-night only Welcome Winter Night, with two baby reindeer (and a naming contest), magic shows, and lots of other activities.

Well, I'm very concerned. I think that [(501(c)3) status] is the magic wand that allowed this country to develop one of the most robust cultural programmes in the world...I think we are looking at a federal government that is prepared to exert a great deal of power, or authority, in order to achieve a set of ambitions.

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Smithsonian is OUT OF CONTROL

Officially founded in 1821 as the capital of the then-Arkansas Territory, Little Rock gets its name from an actual little rock, which still sits on the riverfront. In 1722, a French exploration party saw the rock on the Arkansas River and dubbed the site and the nearby bluff, " le petite roche " or "the little rock." Originally, the area was Quapaw land, but it slowly became a well-known trading hub in the region for those traveling west.

Discovery Cube Los Angeles - Sylmar: The special exhibit, "Rescue Exhibition," runs through Sept. 1 at the museum ( www.discoverycube.org/los-angeles/exhibits/rescue-exhibition). The museum has ongoing exhibits that aim to make science fun for children. Hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday. Admission $20 ages 15-61; $18 ages 62 and older; $17 ages 3-14. Location, 11800 Foothill Blvd., Sylmar. www.facebook.com/TheDiscoveryCube and www.discoverycube.org Marinelli Bros. Circus - A New Experience: A "sister unit" of Circus Vargas brings the excitement, comedy and magic, 7 p.m. Aug. 28.

Published by the Research Centre for Museums and Galleries (RCMG) in 2023, Trans-inclusive Culture sets out a framework for cultural institutions to "generate inclusive public spaces and workplaces". The document addresses legal and ethical concerns, and asserts that trans inclusion must sit alongside organisations' commitments to combating "all forms of prejudice and discrimination". Supporters of the guidance include the International Council for Museums UK (Icom UK), the Association for Independent Museums (Aim) and 20 other arts, culture and heritage organisations.

The Nature Walk and Bird Count offers the opportunity to connect with nature and engage in a bird counting activity for a fee of $33, with free admission for those unable to pay.

The Museu de l'Art Prohibit housed over 200 works that were censored, including pieces by well-known artists. Its closure was announced due to protests affecting operations.