Immigration Museum’s ‘Joy’ exhibition will boost tourism in Melbourne

 

The Immigration Museum has recently undergone a transformation to host the new multi-sensory and multimedia exhibition titled “Joy,” which commenced this month. This exhibition is a celebration of happiness, brought to life through dynamic designs and compelling storytelling.

Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York gets to show Cycladic treasures

 

Under an unusual deal, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York will display 161 pieces of Cycladic art donated by businessman Leonard Stern – which will be for at least 10 years – but agrees they are owned by the Greek state.

Number of museums and visitors rise in Türkiye

 

The number of museums in Türkiye has increased by 5.1 percent in 2021, compared to 2020, and the number of visitors to the museums and ruins has skyrocketed by 69 percent in a year, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) has announced.

A treasure trove of European Art: Museums you can’t miss

 

Europe has produced some of the greatest minds in history and is a cauldron of artistic treasures. Blessed with magnificent natural scenery, gorgeous seascapes, and breathtaking locations, but beneath that beauty lies so much history and heritage that is maintained in Europe’s top museums. Rembrandt to Renoir, Van Gogh, Da Vinci, Monet to Manet, here is a couple of not-to-be-missed museums:

Academy Museum of Motion Pictures opens doors in Los Angeles

 

The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures has opened its doors in Los Angeles besides Hollywood’s Walk of Fame on September 30, after several delays. Founded by the US film organization of the same name, the museum holds the same name as the renowned Academy Awards.

Museums in Turkey receive almost 9 million visitors despite pandemic

 

The Turkish museums and archaeological sites were still visited by more than 8.91 million people in 2020, even as the coronavirus outbreak was wreaking chaos on the tourism industry worldwide. The sites play an important role in protecting cultural heritage, transferring it to future generations and generating a collective memory.

Boca Raton Museum of Art Commemorates Black History Month

 

The Boca Raton Museum of Art's online initiatives has become a mainstay for art lovers to enjoy from the comfort and safety of their homes during the pandemic.

Planet Word, Washington’s newest museum opens to public

 

Planet Word, a revolutionary museum dedicated to the power, beauty, and fun of language and to showing how words shape the human experience, opened its doors to the public. Housed in Washington, D.C.’s historic Franklin School, Planet Word is the world’s first voice-activated museum, featuring immersive galleries and exhibits that will engage visitors of all ages in experiencing words and language from a wide range of perspectives. General admission is free.

Founded on the belief that literacy is fundamental to the health of democracy, Planet Word aims to inspire and renew a love of words, language, and reading. Appreciation for the power of language fosters empathy and encourages civil discourse. By engaging people of all ages with language, Planet Word encourages visitors to both fall in love with the joy and whimsy of words and understand how vital they are to American society and to our world.

“I am so thrilled to open Planet Word’s doors to the public and cannot imagine a more fitting time for a museum of language to open in our nation’s capital,” said Planet Word founder and CEO Ann Friedman. “Democracy depends on literate citizens. I hope that Planet Word can provide a forum for civil discourse and a place where our community, in all its vibrant diversity, can gather to share the words that bridge differences and forge solutions.”

The museum held a mostly virtual ceremony to commemorate its public opening. This event featured remarks by District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser and Planet Word founder Ann Friedman. It also included remarks by writer and actress Anna Deavere Smith and a performance by spoken word artist Charity Blackwell, as well as a musical performance from Renee Fleming, a freestyle hip hop performance from rapper Christylez Bacon, and a poetic dedication written for the occasion by Naomi Shihab Nye. Planet Word supporters including former President Barack Obama, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the Grammy-winning musician Paul Simon also made surprise virtual appearances.

Planet Word is the world’s first major museum taking a high-tech approach to bringing language to life. It features ten immersive learning galleries designed by exhibit design firm Local Projects which use technology in imaginative, ingenious ways to reimagine the modern museum experience. Among the museum’s voice-activated exhibits is “Where Do Words Come From?”,a 22-foot-tall talking word wall that shares the story of the English language through a conversation with visitors and extraordinary light effects. Other highlights include an acoustically-sealed room where visitors use a teleprompter to deliver one of eight historically significant speeches; a karaoke lounge where music lovers will learn secrets of great songwriting; and a secret poetry nook hidden in the stacks of a magical library. In other galleries, visitors can create an advertising campaign, literally paint with words using “smart” paint brushes, and converse with native speakers of widely spoken and endangered languages. The gift shop was designed by Nate Berkus, the well-known interior designer, author, and television personality. In the spring, Planet Word looks forward to welcoming the buzzworthy, cause-casual eatery, Immigrant Food, as its restaurant partner – to be housed at the museum. Immigrant Food, whose values and mission align closely with Planet Word, opened its flagship location right next to the White House in 2019 to rave reviews.

In the newly created courtyard entrance of the museum, Speaking Willow – the first permanent installation in D.C. by renowned contemporary artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer – provides an immersive language experience for visitors upon arrival at Planet Word. The metal sculpture, resembling a weeping willow, plays voice recordings from hundreds of different languages as visitors pass underneath its branches. The interactive sound-and-light sculpture features 364 individual speakers and 3.6 miles of ethernet cable and was commissioned by Ann and Tom Friedman in partnership with New York’s Public Art Fund.

Planet Word builds on the long history of innovation at the Franklin School, a National Historic Landmark building and the site of both one of the city’s first public schools and the world’s first wireless voice transmission, a feat achieved by Alexander Graham Bell in 1880. In the past two years, the building has undergone a major restoration and rehabilitation, funded by Ms. Friedman, and led by the architecture firm Beyer Blinder Belle in partnership with general contractor Whiting-Turner. The project included the restoration of the soaring Great Hall – the building’s architectural centerpiece – and replication of its original frescos; the two grand staircases with ornate railings and original ceramic tile treads have been restored to their former grandeur.

“Planet Word, much like Washington, D.C., is all about celebrating art, creativity, and innovation,” said Mayor Bowser. “This beautiful museum has found the perfect home in Downtown DC at the former Franklin School, where children and families alike will enjoy a one- of-a-kind cultural and educational experience. Thank you to Ann Friedman and my team at the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development for bringing this national historic landmark back to life.”

Planet Word previously announced a multifaceted partnership with Shared Studios, a global collective that creates meaningful human connections between people separated by distance and difference through transformative conversations in both immersive and virtual environments. The museum is home to one of Shared_Studios’ Portals, which is outfitted with immersive AV technology that enables visitors to converse and interact with people from around the world as if in the same room. Visitors to the Planet Word Portal will make live connections with others across the globe – and in doing so discover the richness of languages and how words shape our lives, our decisions, and our relationships.

Planet Word and Shared Studios’ DIVERCITIES initiative – a program that explores the commonalities and the uniqueness of languages in cities and cultures across the world – launched online in September. Each month, through moderated conversations with comedians, poets, artists, journalists, educators, and activists, DIVERCITIES will connect D.C. locals with peers in cities in the Portal network, including Lagos, Erbil, Milwaukee, Mexico City, Berlin, and Dallas.

Since breaking ground in June 2018, Planet Word has met its initial $20 million fundraising goal to cover the creation of the museum’s exhibits, experiences, and start-up operating costs. Planet Word’s generous donors include AT&T, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Carolyn Bucksbaum, the Diller-von Furstenberg Family Foundation, Ann and John Doerr, Microsoft Corporation, and Christine and Stephen A. Schwarzman. The rehabilitation and restoration of the Franklin School as a home for the museum was funded and overseen by Ms. Friedman.

Planet Word will be open Thursday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. General admission is free, with a suggested donation to support the museum’s mission-driven programs, exhibits, and educational outreach. Due to Covid-19, the museum has instated a number of safety procedures, including limiting capacity in the building to support social distancing. Planet Word recommends visitors reserve timed passes online in advance of their visit; a limited number of passes may be available for walk-ups on a first-come, first-served basis. Masks are mandatory for all visitors over the age of two. Stylus pens compatible with the museum’s interactive exhibits will be available to avoid the need for visitors to touch surfaces, and hand sanitizing stations are located throughout the museum.

Tags: USA, Washington,Planet Word,  museum

New Google Arts & Culture Partnership with Boca Raton Museum of Art

The Boca Raton Museum of Art, in partnership with Google Arts & Culture, is presenting over 240 works of art online.

Thanks to this new virtual exhibition, users will be able to see rarely seen Theresa Bernstein paintings, an early sculpture by Michael Heizer, delicate Yoruba textiles, and drawings, gouaches, and photographs by Amedeo Modigliani, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, and Manuel Alvarez Bravo that are light-sensitive and not always on view.  

All of these works are now readily available with just a few clicks online and on its app, available for download on Android and iOS. 

Digital Exhibits

Specially curated virtual exhibits have been developed for online visitors who can discover interactive exhibits curated by curators at the Boca Raton Museum of Art.

At present, with more to come, three digital exhibitions are available. They tell the stories of photographer Sally Gall, Miami self-taught painter Purvis Young, and Depression-era families via WPA photographers.

In these online exhibitions, you will find:

• The exquisite detail evident in the waves in Tanah Lot, gelatin silver print, by Sally Gall, thanks to Google’s immersive viewing feature
• The rich expressionistic symbolism in Purvis Young’s Eye over the City
• The poignant window into Depression-era life in Dorothea Lange’s Lunchtime in Nursery at FSA Migrant Camp at Shafter, California

“By presenting highlights of our collection online, we hope to spawn greater conversations and stay connected with an even larger population of researchers as well as online guests," said Irvin Lippman, Executive Director of the Boca Raton Museum of Art.

"Audio visual access is integral to our Museum’s educational mission; and thanks to Google Arts & Culture, serving as a cultural ambassador, we can digitize our collections and exhibitions and find a bold new platform to reach more 'visitors' to the Museum,” added Lippman.

Google Arts & Culture puts the treasures, stories and knowledge of over 2.000 cultural institutions from 80 countries at your fingertips.

If Google’s mission is to make the world’s information more accessible, then Arts & Culture's mission is to make the world's culture accessible to anyone, anywhere.

It’s your doorway to explore art, history, and wonders of the world. Discover stories about cultural heritage ranging from Van Gogh’s bedroom paintings, Puerto Rico’s heritage, Sports in Australia or the women's right movement to ancient Maya temples, Japanese Food and Indian Railways.

Photo Shows: Girls on Porch  Martins Creek, Pa. from the portfolio Making Out 1957 1980, by Larry Fink (1977, printed in 1980). Gelatin silver print. Gift of Dr. Marvin and Norma Rappaport.

Tags: The Boca Raton Museum of Art, Google Arts & Culture

African Mask-Making Traditions Takes on New Meanings at the Boca Raton Museum of Art

Museumgoers were spellbound when the exhibition Phyllis Galembo: Maske originally opened on January 28 at the Boca Raton Museum of Art.

Shortly after the opening, the Museum temporarily closed due to the pandemic.

As a new wave of mask-making creativity takes hold, the Museum’s education team has created new digital pathways for the public to enjoy online.

These include mask-related online activities for families who are still at home, and video gallery tours for all ages.

“Protective face masks aren’t just medical anymore, we can see on social media how they are becoming a part of fashion, of our cultural landscape. Ways that people can convey messages and reflect their own personality,” said the photographer Phyllis Galembo.

Her exhibition "Maske" has taken on new meanings after the pandemic made face masks part of our culture, and the museum has responded by making her show available online to people in quarantine at home.

“For many people all over the world now, creating and wearing masks feels like a way they can reclaim some personal power,” adds Phyllis Galembo.

The Museum has also extended the show for an additional four months, until September 20, to allow people time to experience these works in person after safe guidelines for re-opening.

The Museum’s YouTube Channel, Instagram and Facebook feature new digital resources related to the exhibition and masks (#BocaMuseumatHome). 

“Viewers can see in this exhibition how the tradition of masquerading has always been universal and timeless,” said Irvin Lippman, the Executive Director of the Museum.

“The powerful photographs by Galembo that were selected for this exhibition reveal the meticulous detail and creative imagination of mask-making.”

Akata Dance Masquerade, by Phyllis Galembo. Cross River, Nigeria (2004)

The large-scale photographs by Galembo capture the transformative power of the African masquerade.

Her striking photographic series of contemporary mask rituals has drawn national and international critical acclaim.

Galembo's portraits, such as the one below, are nearly life-size and explore spiritual realms of these masquerade cultures with brilliant, mesmerizing colors.

For more than 30 years, Phyllis Galembo has traveled around the world to photograph participants in contemporary mask-making and masquerade events that range from traditional religious ceremonies to secular celebrations.

Galembo's portraits are celebrated by the world’s leading fine art photography editors for their stunning resonance.

Through her lens, the viewer gains special access to these rarely seen other-worlds, she captures the raw and sometimes frightening aspects of ceremonial garb.

She has made over twenty trips to sites of ritual masquerades, capturing cultural performances with a subterranean edge.

The masking seen through her photographs is a complex, mysterious, and profound tradition. The participants transcend the physical world and enter the spiritual realm.

“What could Phyllis Galembo's exhibition images have in common with the face masks people are making for the pandemic? Perhaps their vitality, power, and boldness of humanity,” adds Irvin Lippman.

“Galembo’s portraits underscore cross-cultural complexities of meaning and purpose--as millions are creating their own masks, many with a sense of intention to express special meanings through their designs,” adds Irvin Lippman.

In her vibrant images that are featured in this exhibition, such as the one below, Galembo exposes an ornate code: artistic, theatrical, social, and religious symbolism and commentary.

Galembo's photographs depict the physical character, costumes, and rituals of African religious practices and their diasporic manifestations in the Caribbean and Mexico.

The costumes in Galembo’s photographs are worn in several types of modern-day rituals. They are created to summon ancestral spirits and deities during a range of events, including agricultural hardships, land disputes, rites of passage, funerals, harvests, moments of gratitude and celebration.

Aye Loja (The World is a Market Place that we Visit), Gelede Masquerade, by Phyllis Galembo. Agonli Village, Benin, (2006)

The masks and costumes in these photographs are made from a wide variety of surprising materials ─ leaves, grass, patterned fabrics, burlap sacks, full-bodied crocheted yarns, colored raffia, quills, shells, and even lizard excrement.

The modern world finds its way into these masks with the usage of plastic bags, cardboard, and found objects.

Galembo’s large-scale portraits in this exhibition capture the mask-oriented cultural traditions of Nigeria, Benin, Ghana, and Sierra Leone.

All of her photographs are shot as portraits rather than during the act of ritual. She is allowed to photograph her subjects at the very moment right before their rituals and festivities commence.

Galembo prefers her colors to be brightly saturated, enhancing the spiritual and transformative powers of these garments.

Tags: Boca Raton Museum of Art

France closes world-famous Louvre Museum due to virus outbreak fear

Coronavirus cases surged in Italy, and France closed the world-famous Louvre Museum on Sunday as the deadly outbreak that began in China sent fear rising across Western Europe, threatening its tourism industry. The number of countries hit by the virus climbed past 60, and the death toll worldwide reached at least 3,000.

The new fronts in the battle opened rapidly over the weekend, deepening the sense of crisis that has already sent financial markets plummeting, emptied the streets in many cities and rewritten the routines of millions of people. More than 88,000 around the globe have been infected, with the virus popping up on every continent but Antarctica.

Australia and Thailand reported their first deaths Sunday, while the Dominican Republic and the Czech Republic recorded their first infections. The Italian authorities announced that the number of people infected in the country soared 50% to 1,694 in just 24 hours, and five more had died, bringing the death toll there to 34. France raised its number of reported cases to 130, an increase of 30 from the day before, and said it has seen two deaths.

The U.S. government advised Americans against traveling to the two northern Italian regions hit hardest, among them Lombardy, which includes Milan. Major American airlines began suspending flights to Milan. American Airlines AAL, -7.52%   announced Sunday it will waive fees for changing all flights over the next two weeks.

The travel restrictions against Italy and the rising alarm in France could deal a heavy blow to the countries’ tourism industries. Spring, especially Easter, is a hugely popular time for schoolchildren to visit France and Italy.

Bernabo Bocca said that they have already registered a slowdown of Americans coming to Italy in recent years. Now, the final blow has arrived.

The tourism accounts for 13% of the economy in Italy, with its world-class art museums, archaeological sites and architectural treasures. More than 5.6 million Americans visit Italy every year, representing 9% of foreign tourists.

Iran, Iraq and South Korea, among other places, also saw the number of infections rise. Cases in the U.S. climbed to at least 74 with the first death in the United States reported on Saturday — a man in his 50s in Washington state who had underlying health problems but hadn’t traveled to any affected areas.

The panic-buying of daily necessities emerged in Japan, where professional baseball teams have played spring-training games in deserted stadiums. Tourist attractions across Asia, Europe and the Mideast were deserted. Islam’s holiest sites have been closed to foreign pilgrims. And governments have closed schools and banned big gatherings.

The United Nations said Sunday it is releasing $15 million from an emergency fund to help countries with fragile health systems contain the virus.

Tags: Europe, France, Louvre Museum

2020 Motoring Shows & Events at British Motor Museum

The British Motor Museum has announced a schedule of 18 unique motoring shows for 2020, including the return of its Gaydon Land Rover Show and the National Metro & Mini Show which will be celebrating the 40th Anniversary of the Metro.

There’s also the opportunity to see the popular and thought-provoking exhibition ‘The Car. The Future. Me’ which runs until July 2020.

New for 2020 is the MGF Register 25th Anniversary which takes place on 25 & 26 July. The Gaydon Land Rover Show returns on 9 & 10 May bringing the finest vehicles, owners and historians together for a weekend dedicated to this iconic marque. The National BMW Festival also returns on 16 August and is Europe’s largest gathering of BMW’s.

Other shows include the Historic Car Register Open Day on 11 January, the UK Slot Car Festival on 16 & 17 May and the Vintage Motor Cycle Club Banbury Run on 31 May. The Classic & Vintage Commercial show takes place on 13 & 14 June followed by the National Metro & Mini show on 21 June. The BMC & Leyland show returns on 12 July followed by the Old Ford Rally on 19 July. The Buses Festival is on 23 August, Retro Truck Show on the 12 & 13 September and the Great British Model Railway show on 7 & 8 November.

For any car club looking for a venue for a rally, gathering or marque event, the British Motor Museum is the perfect backdrop. The venue offers two hard standing arena’s as well as indoor meeting space, all with special discounted rates for clubs. To find out more contact the bookings team on 01926 649649.

For more information about any of the upcoming events, please visit www.britishmotormuseum.co.uk/events. The 2020 admission prices are : Adults £14.50, Children £9 (5-16 years), under 5’s free, Concessions £12.50 and a Family ticket £40 (2 adults & up to 3 children) and if you Gift Aid or donate your entrance fee you receive and annual pass at no extra cost.

Tags: British Motor Museum, 2020 Motoring Shows & Events at British Motor Museum

Istanbul Modern to host Canan Tolon: You Tell Me exhibition

Istanbul Modern, Turkey’s first museum of modern and contemporary art that has moved to its temporary space in Beyoğlu, will host Canan Tolon’s exhibition “You Tell Me”. The exhibition will be at Istanbul Modern from September 6, 2019, through February 2, 2020.

“You Tell Me” aims to bring Tolon’s unique expressive and technical pursuit into view through her works, which range from drawings to photographs and paintings to installations. While bringing together notable examples of the transformations and developments in Tolon’s artistic practice, the exhibition also presents re-creations of some of her works that have already secured their place in the history of art.

Canan Tolon’s artistic practice centers on nature's continual renewal and on architecture as a cultural enterprise. Tolon designs an intellectual and visual world around the resistance between nature and architecture, and the contradiction and consequences borne out of their encounter. Her experimental works always remind one of the borders between life and death, as she makes the viewers question whether these images are real or illusion, photographs or paintings.

Incorporating natural materials such as grass seed and water in her paintings, Tolon lets nature come to life by setting metal pieces on her canvases and leaving this outside as a means to let weather transform them. For Tolon, traces of time become an important starting point for the development of her paintings.

The architectural sections that show vast, endless and abandoned geographies in her compositions remind one of the struggle of humans against nature and the processes of destruction, construction, and reconstruction. In these paintings where every little detail is constructed with paint, Tolon depicts the human processes of transforming and reforming nature, and the chaos, conflict, and uncertainty caused by these processes in a distressful atmosphere.

Without a doubt, Canan Tolon is one of the most original and creative artists of her generation in terms of the richness of the variety of her areas of research and her intellectual breadth. Tolon’s works in this exhibition provide us with the opportunity to rethink nature and environment as well as architecture and culture, which impact both the artist and the rest of humanity today.

Curator: Levent Çalıkoğlu

After studying philosophy and literature at the French High School in Istanbul, Canan Tolon graduated from the Edinburgh Napier University with a degree in design in 1976. Tolon went on to study interior design in Germany, completed her interior design degree at the Middlesex University in London, and received her graduate degree in architecture at the University of California, Berkeley in 1983. Tolon’s works are included in various collections and have featured in several exhibitions in Turkey and abroad. Canan Tolon lives and works in Istanbul and San Francisco.

Tags: Istanbul Modern, “You Tell Me”

Salvador Dali Museum gets $38 million plan for expansion

Salvador Dali Museum, an artwork museum in St. Petersburg, Florida is going to expand with $38 million plan would transform the parking lot of the museum. This parking lot will transform into a multilevel structure which would house digital interactions and more parking. This would expand upon a collection of work that’s as impressive as the building it sits in.

Hank Hine, the museum’s director said that this is one of the most important collection of one of the most famous artists of the 20^thcentury.

He says of the $38 million, the museum is asking the county for $17.5 million tourism tax dollars. The rest would be raised through private donations.

Following the 2011 opening of its current hurricane-proof facility, Salvador Dali Museum has become a downtown St. Pete destination, boosting the city’s profile internationally while generating hundreds of millions of dollars for the area. Hine says the expansion will bring even more. The new building would serve as a parking garage, which they desperately need, and will also bring interactive galleries, a Dali IMAX, and hologram experience.

Hine said that Dali himself will welcome the visitor and tell each visitor about his work.

Pinellas County’s Tourism Development Council will take up the issue as to whether the museum should receive public money for the project.

Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on Linkedin

Tags: expansion, Hine, Salvador Dali Museum

Acropolis Museum Director: Greece owns Parthenon Marbles

ATHENS – The British Museum is not the legal owner of the stolen Parthenon Marbles – Greece is – and the belong in the Acropolis Museum built to house and showcase them, the institution’s director Dimitrios Pandermalis reportedly told German public radio.

He said the marbles taken off the frieze some 200 years ago by a Scottish nobleman, Lord Elgin, and later sold to the British Museum must be returned to their real home permanently and not just loaned.“The full return of the Parthenon Marbles is the only solution.

 Everything that is inextricably linked to the monument must be reunited,” he was said to have told Deutschlandfunk, saying the sculptures in London are a critical part of the monument.He also said his museum would gladly offer something to the British Museum in exchange for the marbles’ return, without going into details.

Pantermalis was responding to Hartwig Fischer, the British Museum Director, who said his museum is the rightful owner of the stolen property and said they would never be returned to Greece, nor loaned temporarily without a declaration that the British Museum owns them outright.

“The Trustees of the British Museum feel the obligation to preserve the collection in its entirety, so that things that are part of this collection remain part of this collection,” he was quoted as telling Greek daily Ta Nea.

Asked if that is the reason why the Museum will not permanently return the Sculptures, he replied: “Yes,” without explaining why having part of a collection is  whole collection.

In another part of the same interview he said they are “in the fiduciary ownership of the Trustees of the Museum.”Fischer also said that the removal of the marbles from Greece in the 19th century could be seen as “a creative act,” albeit stolen.

The sculptures are the work of great Athenian sculptor Phidias who added them to the Parthenon in the fifth century BC. In the early 19th century, men working for the 7th Earl of Elgin dismantled a large part of the frieze and shipped the sculptures back to London.

Brazil’s National Museum hit by massive fire, destroyed artifacts

There are fears a massive fire has destroyed Brazil’s 200-year-old National Museum in Rio de Janeiro and its collection of more than 20 million items.

Brazil’s 200-year-old National Museum in Rio de Janeiro is engulfed under massive fire, destroying more than 20 million items that houses artefacts from Egypt, Greco-Roman art and Brazil’s ancient fossils.

However, there were no reported injuries and the museum caught fire after it was closed to the public.

An 11,500-year-old skeleton of a woman named ‘Luzia’ was housed here along with items belonging to the Italian explorer Giovanni Battista Belzoni.

Michel Temer, President said that the Brazil’s imperial family had fallen into disrepair as the building was once  a place for the Portugal’s royal family. This was an incalculable loss for Brazil.

Around 80 fires were battling the blaze but by midnight it was under control and was almost fully extinguished according to the Roberto Robadey, a spokesman for the fire department.

Luiz Fernando Dias Duarte, vice director of the museum mentioned that the museum was suffering from chronic underfunding. The Federal Government did not give them anything and recently an agreement was finalized BNDES for investment for the restoration of the palace and the new fire prevention system.

Rio de Janerio has been hit hard in recent years due to the falling oil prices, management and corruption. Brazil  recently emerged from its worst hit recession.

Rio Mayor Marcelo Crivella called on the country to unite for the country’s reconstruction, recompose every details of paintings and photos. He said that even if they were not original the artefacts is a reminder of the royal family that gave them independence, the Portuguese empire and the first constitution and national unity.

Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on Google+

Tags: brazil, Michel Temer, National Museum, Rio de Janeiro

San Marino has a new National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art

The Logge dei Volontari (Volunteers’ Loggias), a wonderful building erected at the end of the 1930s and recently restored and now housing the new National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art.

It is inaugurated on July 7, on the 10th anniversary of the Inscription of San Marino on UNESCO’s World Heritage List.

A new collection and services (such as the area to consult archives, books, photos, and newspapers), which will make the Gallery attractive and in line with the offer of other great Italian and international museums.

This museum is a project developed by San Marino’s Istituti Culturali (Cultural Institutes) and supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of San Marino in collaboration with MA*GA (Gallarate - VA). The Gallery was organised by Emma Zanella and Alessandro Castiglioni, respectively the Manager and Curator of special projects at MA*GA and it hosts a selection of works of art coming from the Collection of Contemporary Art of San Marino, which includes more than 1,000 pieces by some of the most renowned Italian artists of the 20th century: Renato Guttuso, Emilio Vedova, Sandro Chia, Enzo Cucchi, Corrado Cagli, Giuseppe Spagnulo, Enzo Mari, Luigi Ontani and others, together with the most distinguished local painters and sculptors such as: Marina Busignani Reffi, Walter Gasperoni, Gilberto Giovagnoli and Patrizia Taddei.
The Museum is divided into four areas corresponding to four historical-theme spheres. Each of them focuses on a specific event in the art history of San Marino in the 20th century including International Biennials, Spagnulo/Manzoni’s Project, the Scala Santa by Enzo Cucchi and Maurizio Cattelan’s work of art.

The first section – Post-WWII period between reality and abstraction – introduces some essential authors to trace back the debate developed about reality and abstraction by Italian artists during the period immediately after the end of the Second World War: from the Social Realism of Renato Guttuso (La Resa -1945), a representative piece to explain political commitment and aesthetic research in the cultural and artistic context of Italy just after the end of war and fascism, to the Abstract Art of Emilio Vedova (Foresta Vergine - Dal Diario del Brasile - 1954), whose style based on sign, gesture and strong expressive power breaks all schemes and embraces the most current urges of European and American Informal Art. Between these two poles are the works by Renato Birolli and Corrado Cagli, in constant search for a style suspended between abstraction and figuration. With Vigna (1952), Birolli adopts a concise and non-naturalistic figurative language by which he sees poetry in little things, such as leaves and branches, in all their essence and immediateness. In the same way, Cagli, with his The Arunta Boat (1951), proposes a figurative composition where oneiric-fantastic elements effectively merge with primitive signs. Achille Perilli’s Diagramma della realtà umana (1958) is also part of the Informal Art context of the second half of the 1950s.
Vita embrionale (1960), a painting by San Marino’s artist Marina Busignani Reffi makes reference to Informal Art through its concise, animated and free non-descriptive formal expression revealing the delicate and deep feeling of motherhood.

The second section – Contemporary Art and experimental languages – covers a wide time span between the 1970s and the 1990s. It focuses on experimental languages developed from Conceptual Art to contemporary photography and highlights the existence of a common thread which keeps together a group of extremely different artists yet sharing the same experimental attitude towards visual arts.
A fundamental exponent of this school is Patrizia Taddei, the first San Marino artist among those of the National Gallery who, in 1973, designed and realized a conceptual work documented by photographs. Parallel with coeval Italian experiences in Conceptual Art and Poverism, the artist meditates on the idea of borders and limitation related to her condition as a citizen of a Small State.
The works of two masters of Italian art, Giuseppe Spagnulo, and Mimmo Jodice, also focus on San Marino. Jodice worked on a photography project dedicated to Città and Mount Titano in 1990, while Spagnulo made some sculptures, drawings and sketches for the scenery of a musical composition by Giacomo Manzoni staged at the Teatro Titano in 1991 and published in its entirety at the Gallery for the very first time.

The third section – New classicism between tradition and innovation – describes the return to painting, which is typical of European art in the 80s, from Chia’s and Cucchi’s Transavanguardia to Ontani’s Appropriation Art up to more independent attitudes such as Enzo Mari’s style.
Transavanguardia is represented by Prima Bella Mostra Italiana (1995), a work by Sandro Chia and Enzo Cucchi, which summarises the basic idea of the movement theorised by Achille Bonito Oliva as an expressive framework where classical and childlike figuration, a descriptive and essential style, references to ancestral figures and a non-academic use of materials and techniques result in a free language supported by powerful creative energy.

Placed in a different location from the National Gallery but intimately linked to it owing to its history and language is the La Scala Santa by Enzo Cucchi, a permanent work realised in 1987 on the walls of the “Scala Santa” at the former Monastery of Saint Clare, which now hosts the University of San Marino.

Gilberto Giovagnoli’s Lingua di un ½ giapponese dates back to 1987 as well. This San Marino’s painter works in a close relationship with the artists of the Italian Transavanguardia together with Walter Gasperoni, who with is a piece titled B – 1° (1973) exhibits an entirely personal world of signs, spaces, and colors.

Finally, there are the works of Luigi Ontani and Enzo Mari, which are different in terms of technique and purposes, yet similar because of their irreverent spirit, which makes them extremely significant for the National Gallery.
On the one side, Luigi Ontani’s L’uccello all’appello del cappello (1995-1997) represents the dialogue between an imaginary medieval joker/jester, telling numberless wonderful stories and a professional in the art of music and entertainment, and a little bird, the symbol of supernatural forces, which will accompany and amplify the jester’s voice with its singing.

On the other side, Enzo Mari’s Dialogo tra Fidia, Galileo, Duchamp, i sette nani, l’Idiota, is a refined philosophical project characterized by deep irony and freedom in the use of materials. It is an allegory formed by 23 pieces made of gypsum, wood, ceramic, iron, paper, fabric, glass, bronze, brass and concrete designed and realized by Mari for the 42nd Biennial of Venice in 1986 and displayed in San Marino in 1988.

The National Gallery includes also Archives of Performative Arts dedicated to recent and contemporary projects. This area is part of the activity of protection, conservation and promotion of San Marino’s World Heritage and it will be constantly updated with the addition of new works.

The catalog of the collection is published by the San Marino’s State Library

Tags: National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art   San Marino