Displaying items by tag: cultural institutions

Museums in Philadelphia are bracing themselves for the arrival of Pope Francis, who is scheduled to visit the city for the World Meeting of Families (September 22-27), a triennial Catholic event. Cultural institutions around the city are hoping to draw some of the meeting’s estimated 1.5 to 2 million attendees with themed displays.

The Rosenbach Museum and Library will present Catholic texts printed in the New World from the 16th to 18th centuries (September 1-January 30, 2016), while the Free Library of Philadelphia’s rare book department will showcase historical texts from multiple faiths (August 31-January 30, 2016).

Lark Mason has been designated the new Chairman of Asia Week New York—the collaboration of over 40 top-tier international Asian art specialists, five major auction houses, and numerous museums and Asian cultural institutions.

“I am honored to follow Carol Conover as the new Chairman of Asia Week New York, and look forward to continuing the successful paths forged by her and her predecessors,” says Mr. Mason, founding director of iGavel, the online international network of independently owned regional auction salesrooms, specializing in the sale of fine and decorative arts.

A mecca for the arts, New York City has also become one of the most multicultural cities in the country, with no single dominant racial or ethnic group and residents who speak more than 200 languages, according to the Department of City Planning.

Whether its cultural institutions reflect those demographics is another issue.

To find out, the city’s Department of Cultural Affairs is embarking on its first effort to measure diversity at the city’s many museums and performing arts groups. The aim is to help cultural organizations connect with New York’s increasingly polyglot population.

Masterpieces by Vincent Van Gogh, Andy Warhol, Claude Monet and Henri Matisse will be among the 300 artworks to be loaned from French museums to the Louvre Abu Dhabi for its December 2015 opening.

The £400m museum will feature paintings and sculptures from 13 French cultural institutions, including Leonardo da Vinci’s "Portrait of an Unknown Woman," Claude Monet’s "Saint Lazare Station" and Andy Warhol’s "Big Electric Chair" as well as ancient statues, vases and masks from across Asia and Africa.

The loaned works will join the permanent collection of Louvre Abu Dhabi, which will be the first universal museum to open in the Arab world.

Starting January of next year, Mayor Bill de Blasio’s new municipal identification cards will not only help undocumented immigrants sign leases and meet photo ID requirements, but the cards will also be golden tickets into many of the city’s finest cultural institutions. 33 institutions belonging to the CIG (Cultural Institutions Group) will honor the Municipal ID as a one-year membership with benefits ranging from free admission to museum shop discounts. The 33 CIG members —all private nonprofit institutions on city property — include the Museum of Natural History, the New York Botanical Garden, the Brooklyn Academy of Music and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, among others.

Bloomberg Philanthropies, the nonprofit founded by former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, announced that it is expanding its funding for cultural institutions’ digital projects. The foundation is committing $17 million to six museums to help increase visitor engagement and education through innovative technology tools. The recipients of the expanded grant program are the American Museum of Natural History (New York), the Brooklyn Museum (New York), the Cooper-Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum (New York), the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Gardens by the Bay (Singapore), and the Science Museum (London).   

The latest round of funding will support a spate of new technologies.

Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a new initiative in New York City this month, proposing a municipal identification card that could be available to all city inhabitants next year. The card would be beneficial to New Yorkers who don't have a driver's license or other form of official ID. In particular, undocumented individuals.

Well, according to The New York Times, another subset of the population may find the municipal IDs appealing: the art world. The Times reports that the card may come with free membership and discounted tickets to cultural institutions in NYC, namely the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, Lincoln Center and other well known culture havens.

Three Texas museums -- the Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Fort Worth, the Dallas Museum of Art, and the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas -- are adding more than a combined 1,700 high-resolution works of art to the Google Art Project. The Art Project, which is part of the Google Cultural Institute, allows users to virtually explore works of art from international museums, institutions, and archives. Currently, there more than 57,000 high-resolution images of works ranging from oil on canvas paintings to sculpture and furniture.

The Amon Carter Museum has submitted 1,200 images to the Google Art Project, showcasing works by American artists such as Mary Cassatt, John Singer Sargent, and James McNeill Whistler. The museum also contributed 200 photographs from its collection. The Dallas Museum of Art submitted around 500 works from its collection including “Sheaves of Wheat” by Vincent van Gogh. The Nasher Sculpture Center, which houses a collection of modern and contemporary sculpture, submitted images of works by Auguste Rodin and Mark di Suvero.

The exceptional quality of the images coupled with the Google Art Project’s custom-built zoom view, allows users to explore the finest details of  each object. Visitors can browse works by artist, title, medium, museum, country, time period, or collection. Virtual guided tours by experts are available on the site so that users can learn more about a particular work or topic.

To view works from the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, the Dallas Museum of Art, and the Nasher Sculpture Center, visit the Google Art Project.

As part of a yearlong celebration of Italian culture hosted by Italy’s foreign minister, Michelangelo’s (1475-1564) iconic work, David-Apollo, will be go on view today at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Minister Giulio Terzi di Sant’Agata unveiled the sculpture yesterday, December 12. David-Apollo will be on view in the West Building’s Italian galleries through March 3, 2013.

Michelangelo carved David-Apollo in 1530 for Baccio Valori, who served as the interim governor of Florence per the Medici pope Clement VII’s appointment. Michelangelo and the pope were at political odds, but the artist wished to make peace with the Medici through his work. Michelangelo never finished David-Apollo as he left Italy and never returned after Clement VII’s death.

Part of the Museo Nazionale del Barello’s collection in Florence, David-Apollo traveled to the National Gallery once before in 1949. The masterpiece’s installation in Washington over sixty years ago coincided with former president Harry Truman’s inaugural reception and attracted more than 791,000 visitors. In 2013, David-Apollo’s presentation will coincide with President Barack Obama’s inauguration.

The Year of Italian Culture, launched by Sant’Agata under the auspices of the President of the Italian Republic, Giorgio Napolitano, will bring a range of Italian masterpieces to nearly 70 cultural institutions across the United States. Works range from classical and Renaissance to baroque and contemporary and cover the realms of art, music, theater, cinema, literature, science, design, fashion, and cuisine.