Critic and Educator Nicolas Bourriaud has been dismissed from his post as the director of the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts by Fleur Pellerin, French minister of culture, following a lengthy exchange over the direction of the school.  “Dear friends, the Minister [of Culture] has just fired me ‘for reasons related to a change of direction’ of her politics,” Bourriaud wrote on Facebook.  “Not a single factual argument in the course of a forty-five-minute discussion.” (more…)

Amid a New York State Attorney’s investigation and the resignation of five board of trustee members at Cooper Union, the University’s embattled President Jamshed Bharucha has resigned.  Bharucha headed Cooper during its controversial decision to begin charging tuition, and has been the subject of numerous protest actions since.  He will take a position as visiting scholar at Harvard. (more…)

Fotografica, all photos via Sabrina Wirth for Art Observed

Every two years during the first week of May, Bogotá, Colombia launches its Fotografica Bogotá, the biennial photography exhibition now in its 10th edition. “Bogotá is photographic,” says Gilma Suarez, the powerhouse curator and photographer who founded the event.  Indeed, from May 2nd to June 15th, the city turns itself into a public museum, with images of the artwork on display for anyone to enjoy, while hosting concurrent events at universities, galleries, museums, and foundations, also open to the public.  The event gives photography enthusiasts the chance to meet with the exhibiting photographers from around the world to either listen to their lectures or participate in portfolio reviews.  (more…)

A pair of bills introduced in Congress this week will look to improve artist rights and benefits regarding their works, The Art Newspaper reports.  One bill will look to push for an artist’s resale royalty in the US, bringing the country up to par with current measures being undertaken in Europe, while the second offers a tax deduction of fair market value for artists donating works to museums. Both bills have been proposed before, but have yet to be passed. (more…)

The Guardian looks at the current labor struggles at London’s National Gallery, as the museum transfers staff management over to a private company, leaving little in terms of real job protection.  “I came to work at the National Gallery, but I could be transferred to a supermarket car park,” says one assistant. (more…)

A new study released by the National Endowment for the Arts notes that attendance of art events has been on a steady decline over the past two decades, with only 33.4% of US adults attending some sort of cultural event during a calendar year. (more…)

Hannah Höch, Staatshäupter (Heads of State) (1930), all images courtesy Whitechapel Gallery

Over 100 works from major international collections by Dada artist Hannah Höch have been compiled for the first major exhibition of her work in Britain, on view at Whitechapel Gallery through March 23, 2014.  Best known for helping originate 20th century photomontage, Höch first gained attention during the Berlin Dada movement of the 1920s in Weimar Germany, cutting out images from fashion magazines and placing them together to create comical social commentaries. Athough many of her colleagues have been given more attention in traditional written art history, Höch was recognized – albeit reluctantly – by better known artists such as George Grosz, Theo van Doesburg, Piet Mondrian, and Kurt Schwitters.

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In what may be the final piece of the puzzle to rescue the Detroit Institute of Arts collection from a potential auction by the city, the museum has made the commitment to raise $100 million in additional funds over the next 20 years.  The donation would secure city pension funds, and in turn, hold the city to an agreement to transfer the legal title of ownership to the museum, effectively preserving it from any future sale.  “Clearly this is going to be a challenge,” COO Annmarie Erickson said. “It’s an enormous amount of money, but we’ve proven over and over again that we are good at raising money. We’ll have to balance this effort with our need to raise endowment dollars and operational funding. But given that this will help move the bankruptcy along quickly, that it will help the pensioners (and) ensure that the DIA collection is safeguarded for the public, we have compelling arguments to take to donors.” (more…)

The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation has announced its 2013 SEED Grant recipients, a selection of 16 developing non-profit arts organizations in Boise, Idaho; Buffalo, New York; Cleveland, Ohio; Kansas City, Missouri; and Phoenix, Arizona, among others.  Each will receive $10,000 in support each year for three years.  “Young institutions have a whole host of hurdles to clear simply to begin the process of raising money,” says executive director Christy MacLear. “We hope to reach promising start-ups earlier than that, both to acknowledge their initial accomplishments and to ensure their longevity.”   (more…)

The Michigan county of Oakland, one of three that approved property tax increases to help bankroll the Detroit Institute of the Arts operating budget last year, has unanimously approved a resolution stating that any attempt to sell works from the DIA Collection to benefit the city’s creditors would “terminate any obligation” of the county to continue support.  Oakland, along with Wayne and Macomb counties, is projected to contribute $250 million to the museum over 10years, and stated that it “continues to believe that the museum and its collections are important, irreplaceable and indivisible parts of the cultural fiber of the state and region.” (more…)

Part of this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, artist Marcel Dzama is preparing to premiere a new film at the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art.  The film is part of a series of works exploring the wide-ranging impact of filmmaker David Cronenberg, and his particular school of thought and practice. Dzama’s film, A Jester’s Dance, features a newly awakened awakened Maria Martins (played by Kim Gordon and Hannelore Knuts), and her attempts to rescue her lover, Marcel Duchamp, from a fate reciting chess moves to an unseen game. (more…)

In an unprecedented move, the final tally of Christie’s Detroit Institute of Arts appraisal later this fall will offer a rare look into the true market value of a major museum’s art collection.  Expected to reach into the billions, the valuation of the museum’s collection will add a new sense of urgency to the current budgetary crisis in Detroit, and its effects on DIA.  “This is like the weighing of souls,” says Maxwell Anderson, director of the Dallas Museum of Art. “This is biblical stuff, not the approximations that insurance companies look for. It’s extremely problematic for all museums, because it alters the public’s perception of artworks from being ciphers of public heritage of transcendent value, to objects for sale to pay other people’s debts.” (more…)

Despite the city’s economic woes, The New York Times reports that Detroit’s art scene is thriving, with a number of galleries returning to locations within city limits, and a number of arts hubs have already developed, alongside a popular art open with over 60 participating galleries.  “I think we’ll have a little cloud for a while, but I don’t think it’s going to be long-lasting,” said George N’Namdi, founder of the N’Namdi Center for Contemporary Art. (more…)

Taking a cue from the community sponsored agriculture programs, a number of U.S. cities are embracing a similar approach to contemporary art, enabling residents to purchase shares in contemporary artists as a way to encourage arts patronage.  “I think it has worked in part because lots of places are already familiar with farm C.S.A.’s,” said Dennis Scholl, who oversees the national arts program for the Knight Foundation, an early supporter. “Here, instead of getting a basket of carrots or zucchini, you get a basket of artworks.”  (more…)

The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation is leading a push to bring the Marfa Dialogues, a series of discussions and art events combining the arts and sciences in the small Texas arts community, to New York City, with the help of Cooper Union, the Brooklyn Academy of Music and Columbia University.  The first edition of Marfa Dialogues/NY will focus on climate change and the environment.  “When a number of different organizations align on a topic, it elevates the visibility,” says director of the Rauschenberg Foundation Christy MacLear. (more…)

The Wall Street Journal reports on Oslo’s burgeoning art scene, which is taking major strides to become a global capital for contemporary art.  Combining a relatively small and close knit community with major efforts to increase the Norwegian city’s cultural offering, the city is already attracting major attention.  “It’s because Oslo’s small. In New York, if you want certain kinds of materials, there are so many rules, and it’s so difficult to get things done sometimes,” says painter Ida Ekblad. (more…)

In response to a city proposal to sell off work from the Detroit Institute of Art’s collection to cover a city debt of $15 billion, the Detroit Institute’s director has stated that the work is held “in the public trust,” and cannot be bought or sold. “They’re interested in making a healthy and viable Detroit,” the director, Graham W. J. Beal, said on Friday in a telephone interview. “We believe that that kind of action — diminishing our collection, the cultural value — would not be in the long-term interest.”

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Despite widespread austerity measures across the Eurozone, many European nations are still heavily investing in national pavilions at this year’s prestigious Venice Biennale.  Countries like Greece, the UK and Germany have earmarked comparable funds to their respective 2011 pavilions, despite budgetary constraints.  “The participating countries will always put resources towards the realisation of their exhibitions in the national pavilions, or find other sources to cover the costs.”  Says Jewish Museum deputy director Jens Hoffmann. (more…)

A leaked letter from Sheikh Sultan bin Tahnoun Al Nahyan, the chairman of the Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority, to the then director of the Louvre, Henri Loyrette has revealed frustrations between the Middle Eastern state and the French museum, which is currently planning for its new museum in the Gulf state.  Written last year, the letter takes the Louvre to task for failing to spend a â‚¬25 Million gift from the country, and criticizes the Louvre for not minimizing the role of the Emeratis in the acquisition of works for the new museum.   (more…)

Following the departure of Frank Gehry, and an installation project currently running behind schedule, MOCA Guest Curator Christopher Mount has speculated that the museum may have to cancel its planned exhibition for the Getty Museum’s Pacific Standard Time show on Modern Architecture.  Titled A New Sculpturalism, the exhibition ran into delays when architects (including Gehry) began expressing concern over how Mount was choosing to display and explain their work.  “I didn’t feel comfortable in it,” Gehry said. “It didn’t seem to be a scholarly, well-organized show.” (more…)

Daugavpils, the Latvian birthplace of artist Mark Rothko, opened a new museum dedicated to the artist yesterday.  The Mark Rothko Arts Center is the first permanent collection of the artist’s work in Eastern Europe, and includes six works from the collection of the artist’s son and daughter.  “This centre, I think, is going to become an important archive, an important resource for Rothko scholars to draw on, and also for Rothko’s public.” said Rothko’s son Christopher. (more…)

92YTribeca, a downtown arts and cultural space operated by the 92nd St. Y, will close this summer.  The decision was made by the 92nd St. Y board on Wednesday night, in order to focus operations on the primary location.  “We believe 92Y can best serve the community now and in the future by investing our resources into our flagship location uptown on Lexington Avenue.”  Says executive director Sol Adler. (more…)

The Tacheles arts squat, a former hotspot for creatives in Berlin, has been closed by city police. The former warehouse, located in the city’s former Eastern district, became a well known hub for members of the arts scene after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Its owner, HSN Nordbank, decided to demolish the site as it was hindering the progress of area development. The building, covering 1,250 square meters, had previously served as a shopping center, a corporation headquarters and a Nazi Party office.

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