Unfortunately, I will not see Germany: Memories of a Nation at the British Museum because it closes this weekend – and I live in Perth, Australia. As a result, I am unable to speak about my personal response…
In 1989, I was a conservation student at the Courtauld Institute in London. During a class on varnish removal, my professor, Gerry Hedley, demonstrated how shining blue light on a picture with yellowed…
Rising costs, the growing difficulty of securing loans, and a lack of curating talent have made the blockbuster exhibition a hazardous enterprise.
Barney Livingston/Flickr
A blockbuster art exhibition can double the annual attendance of an art museum and pull in significant amounts of money. Bring Vermeer’s The Girl with a Pearl Earring to the Frick Collection in New York…
Gaultier’s clothes adopt elements of satire, visual puns and the ridiculous to critique what we wear.
NGV, Brooke Holm
French fashion designer Jean Paul Gaultier – whose designs are featured at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) until February 2015 – has always had an unsettling relationship with museum fashion exhibitions…
Nola Farman’s The Lift is a key piece of Australian media art history. Photograph: Richard Woldendorp.
Nola Farman
Western Australian artist Nola Farman’s practice has never followed a predictable trajectory. Her major work, The Lift Project (1979-82), is an important and influential contribution to Australia’s new…
A view of the atrium from the Calderwood Courtyard.
Zak Jensen
After ten years of planning and six years of construction the Harvard Art Museums opens its doors to the public on November 16. The $350 million renovation combines the collections of three distinct museums…
The Sheaf (La Gerbe), 1953. Maquette for ceramic (realized 1953).
MoMA
On October 12, New York City’s Museum of Modern Art unveiled its exhibition of Henri Matisse’s cut-outs. This came on the heels an exhibition of the cut-outs at the Tate Modern in London, which displayed…
Immigrant faces from the early 1900s watch Ellis Island visitors pick their way through a crumbling hospital.
Aimee VonBokel
This fall, French street artist JR and American cinematographer Bradford Young each installed a series of portraits in crumbling New York buildings. The two projects were not coordinated, but together…
Spotswood primary school students build their future city using touch screen technology in Scienceworks’ Think Ahead exhibition.
Museum Victoria
Visits to websites of Australia’s museums now exceed the number of visitors attending exhibitions, events or programs at actual bricks and mortar museums. Across the 62 museums that make up the Council…
Sol LeWitt left behind detailed instructions that today enable galleries to realise his art for exhibition.
Chris Beckett
Just as we have become accustomed to two worlds of consumption – online and “location-based” retail (what we used to call “shops”) – the concept of museums and galleries as solely physical repositories…
An image of Australian shearers taken on glass plate negative is now preserved in a digital collection.
Powerhouse Museum Collection/Flickr
Australian’s museums, galleries and other cultural institutions must adopt more of a digital strategy with their collections if they are to remain relevant with audiences. Only about a quarter of the collections…
Does the movement of art diminish its cult status?
Laurence OP/Flickr
Among the millions of works of art that are being transported around the world, one that is currently doing its promotional tour is Jack Kerouac’s famous manuscript for On the Road, written entirely on…
For the ancients, statues held power and inspired awe. They symbolised the presence of the gods, epitomised ideal forms and represented cultural supremacy. But like all ancient artefacts revered today…
Grandpa, I want to touch the Dalek!
Danny Lawson/PA Archive
As the school summer holidays beckon, families will be seeking out places to visit with their children, including museums, art galleries and science centres. It may be a way of keeping older children occupied…
Spit and polish: upkeep at the prize-winning Yorkshire Sculpture Garden.
Lynne Cameron/PA
On July 9, the annual Museum of the Year Prize, run by the Museum Prize Trust and sponsored since 2008 by the Art Fund, awarded £100,000 to the winner: the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, which shone in a shortlist…
The samurai is the focus of a major exhibition on display at Melbourne’s NGV. Utagawa Yoshitsuya, The death of Kusunoki Masatsura (19th century) colour woodblock (triptych) (a-c) 35.9x74.0 cm (image) (overall) (a-c) 36.4x74.0 cm (sheet) (overall).
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
A new exhibition has opened at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) on the figure of the Japanese samurai. Bushido: Way of the Samurai explores popular conceptions of the samurai – as well as their lesser…
Technology is broadening the ways researchers interact with artefacts.
VentureBeat
3D technologies have been around for years – but it’s only now that 3D scanning and printing devices have become both accessible and affordable for many users. The result? New uses are blossoming in every…
The Australian Museum has received new funding in a difficult time for the sector.
Paul Hocksenar
The Australian Museum has joined the chorus of cultural institutions that have recently announced major renovation projects on the back of new funding from the NSW Government. Big announcements such as…
Alexander McQueen’s savage version of beauty.
Paul Vicente/ AFP/ Alexander McQueen RTW A/W 1998/ Getty Images
Savage Beauty – New York’s Metropolitian Museum’s wildly popular 2011 Alexander McQueen exhibition – is coming to London’s V&A in 2015. Excited? Bought your ticket already? Well you should, because…
The National Museum of Australia is one of several organisations whose back-room operations will be merged.
Lukas Coch/AAP IMAGE
After a sustained period of slimming down under the previous Labor government it looks like the GLAM sector (Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums) has still not achieved its target weight. Even before…