The LA Times has an exposé on the stalled funding for LACMA’s new expansion, noting ballooning costs and a drop off in donation pledges following an impressive start to its fundraising campaign. “I can’t say it strongly enough: It’s not a question of whether there’s money in L.A for such a project: There is,” says director Michael Govan. “The question is, will people decide that’s what they want to do with it.”
Read More »

George Soros’s Open Society Foundations has pledged $15 million towards cultural repatriation efforts.  “The legacy of colonial violence has deep implications for the ways that racism and imbalances of power are perpetuated today,” says Patrick Gaspard, the president of the Open Society. “This isn’t just about returning pieces of art, but about restoring the very essence of these cultures.”
Read More »

The Rio Art Museum may close after delays in funding by the city’s prefecture for payroll. The prefecture “has been working incessantly to circumvent Brazil’s crisis,” the Rio de Janeiro municipal secretariat of culture said in a statement, “which affected economic activities, and thus the collection for the municipal coffers, and resulted in high unemployment rates”.
Read More »