smithsonians african american history museum removed objects

Two lenders to the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) reported that their objects were removed from the museum’s galleries earlier than expected, raising concerns about the influence of President Trump’s recent executive order targeting “anti-American content” in Smithsonian museums. Amos C. Brown, a civil rights activist and pastor, lent a 1880 book on Black history and his father’s Bible, which Martin Luther King Jr. carried during protests; the museum cited the loan’s May expiration as the reason for removal. Liz Brazelton, who lent the diary of her great-great-grandfather—a lawyer who worked on behalf of Solomon Northup—said the diary was returned in March, six months before a 10-year loan agreement was set to end in September, with the museum citing an “internal gallery rotation schedule.” At least 32 objects have reportedly been removed, though the museum denied planned removals.

dutch municipality trashes of andy warhol print

The Dutch municipality of Maashorst accidentally threw out a valuable Andy Warhol silk-screen print of former Queen Beatrix, along with nearly 50 other artworks, during a town hall renovation. An independent investigation commissioned by the municipality, first reported by the New York Times, was inconclusive, and officials acknowledged the error in a letter to the council, stating that recovery of the missing works is unlikely. The Warhol print, from the Reigning Queens series (1985), is valued between $40,000 and $50,000.

브루클린뮤지엄: 패션디자이너 아이리스 반 페르펜전 'Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses'(5/16-12/6)

The Brooklyn Museum will present the North American debut of "Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses" from May 16 to December 6, 2026. The exhibition features over 140 haute couture creations by Dutch fashion designer Iris van Herpen, displayed alongside contemporary art, design objects, and scientific artifacts. It explores her fusion of traditional craftsmanship with cutting-edge technology, sustainability, and themes from nature and science. The show first opened at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris in 2023 and has traveled to QAGOMA, ArtScience Museum Singapore, and Kunsthal Rotterdam. The Brooklyn presentation coincides with the museum's annual Brooklyn Artists Ball, where Van Herpen will be honored.

Rediscovered portrait by the Renaissance’s leading woman artist goes on display at the Winter Show

A rediscovered portrait by Sofonisba Anguissola, a pioneering female artist of the Italian Renaissance, has gone on public display for the first time in over a century at the Winter Show in New York. The painting, *Portrait of a Canon Regular* (1552), is Anguissola's earliest signed and dated work and was long considered lost until it was found in a private collection in North Carolina after being referenced in a 2019 monograph. It is being presented by Robert Simon Fine Art.

A Deep Dive Into Westchester’s Arts Scene Right Now

This article surveys the visual arts scene in Westchester County, New York, highlighting museums, galleries, public displays, and artist profiles north of Manhattan. It features institutions such as the Neuberger Museum of Art, ArtsWestchester, Hammond Museum & Japanese Stroll Garden, Hudson River Museum, and Hudson Valley MOCA, noting specific exhibitions like "Smoke in Our Hair: Native Memory and Unsettled Time" and "Bill Viola: Moving Stillness." The piece emphasizes that Westchester offers a vibrant, bucolic alternative to New York City's art scene, with historic estates and contemporary spaces showcasing both established and emerging artists.

Thomas J. Price and Tavares Strachan Make Shortlist for Billie Holiday Monument Designs

The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs has announced a shortlist of six finalists for a public monument honoring jazz singer Billie Holiday, to be installed outside the Jamaica Performing Arts Center in Queens. Among the top contenders are British sculptor Thomas J. Price and Bahamian conceptual artist Tavares Strachan, whose proposals include abstract bronze forms and a mirrored column, respectively. Other finalists are La Vaughn Belle, Nikesha Breeze, Nekisha Durrett, and Tanda Francis, all of whom consulted with Holiday scholars and family members to develop their designs.

Joe Macken Spent 22 Years Building a Miniature New York by Hand

Joe Macken, a truck driver from upstate New York, spent 22 years building a 50-by-27-foot miniature scale model of New York City entirely from balsa wood, cardboard, and glue. The model, which includes all five boroughs and landmarks like the Twin Towers and One World Trade Center, went viral on TikTok after Macken’s daughter encouraged him to post a video. It is now on display at the Museum of the City of New York in an exhibition titled *He Built This City: Joe Macken’s Model*.

Exclusive | Met Gala 2026 and ‘Costume Art’ brashly transform flesh, bones and guts into too-cool couture

The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute will debut its spring 2026 exhibition, “Costume Art,” on May 10, preceded by the Met Gala on May 4. The exhibition explores the dressed body in all forms—nude, pregnant, plus-size, disabled, aging, and internal—and features fashion designer Renata Buzzo’s hand-stitched “Corset Anatomia” from her 2024 collection “The Body.” Buzzo was personally selected by curator Andrew Bolton and donated her pieces. The exhibition will be housed in the new Condé M. Nast Galleries, an 11,500-square-foot space that will make fashion galleries the first thing visitors see upon entering the Great Hall. The Met Gala, co-chaired by Beyoncé, Nicole Kidman, Venus Williams, and Anna Wintour, raised a record $31 million in 2025 and will follow the dress code “Fashion is Art.”

Cambodian Artist Sopheap Pich Shares in an Exhibition how He Conceives Sculptures

Cambodian artist Sopheap Pich is presenting an exhibition at Meta House in Phnom Penh that reveals his creative process, showing how he conceives sculptures from initial drawings and woodblock prints to works in bamboo and metal. Born in Battambang, Pich survived the Khmer Rouge regime as a child and later immigrated to the U.S., earning an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago before returning to Cambodia in 2002. The exhibition includes early rattan pieces and recent metal sculptures, reflecting his intuitive, memory-infused approach to making art with a team of ten assistants in his Phnom Penh studio.

‘The Queen of the Ghetto’ Gave New York’s Immigrant Community a Voice. A Century Later, It’s Re-emerging

Anzia Yezierska, a Polish-Jewish immigrant who arrived in New York in 1890, defied traditional gender expectations to become a leading literary voice of the 1920s. Dubbed the 'Queen of the Ghetto,' she documented the raw struggles of immigrant women on the Lower East Side using a unique 'immigrant English' style that captured Yiddish idioms. After escaping a restrictive marriage and pursuing an education at Columbia University, she channeled her personal frustrations into stories of poverty, ambition, and the psychological toll of assimilation.

How Tony Albert’s childhood instinct became a radical art practice

Tony Albert, a Girramay/Yidinji/Kuku-Yalanji artist, has spent his life collecting Aboriginalia—kitsch household items from the mid-20th century that feature naive or racist depictions of Indigenous culture. These objects, including ashtrays, velvet paintings, and figurines, form the basis of his upcoming exhibition *Tony Albert: Not A Souvenir* at the Museum of Contemporary Art, curated by Bruce Johnson McClean. Albert's practice transforms these mass-produced artifacts into a powerful critique of colonization, displacement, and erasure.

Indigenous Artists Infiltrate the Met With a Guerrilla A.R. Project

On Indigenous Peoples' Day, nonprofit media lab Amplifier launched an unsanctioned augmented reality exhibition titled “Encoded” at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. The project features 17 Native artists who have digitally altered 25 iconic American artworks from the Met's collection—such as Thomas Cole's *View on the Catskills – Early Autumn* and Emanuel Leutze's *Washington Crossing the Delaware*—overlaying Indigenous perspectives onto the museum's American Wing. Visitors can view the AR works on smartphones or iPads, and Amplifier representatives are on-site to distribute guides and offer tours through the end of the year.

Cultural Compass: Cello takes centre stage, Antwerp galleries open their doors and wartime art

This week's cultural agenda in Belgium highlights three major events: the 75th anniversary of the Queen Elisabeth Competition, which focuses on cello for only the third time since 2017, featuring 64 young cellists from over 20 countries; the 12th edition of Antwerp Art Weekend, spanning 88 venues with a strong emphasis on emerging talent and politically engaged works; and a new exhibition at the Permekemuseum exploring Constant Permeke's formative years in wartime England. The competition includes a world premiere of 'Caffeine' by Belgian composer Harold Noben, and the winner will receive the use of Pablo Casals' historic 1733 Goffriller cello.

Museum Moves 24 – 30 April 2026

This article is a weekly roundup of museum news from 24–30 April 2026, covering openings, closures, and exhibitions across the UK. Highlights include the permanent closure of Blackpool's Tramtown museum due to structural unsafety, the reopening of Sibsey Trader Windmill after a five-year restoration, and several new exhibitions: 'Vennels: Perth’s Little Streets' at Perth Museum, 'The 90s: Art and Fashion' at Tate Britain, 'Regeneration' at Hull's Streetlife Museum, 'Inspiration' at Stockport Station, 'Our Story with David Attenborough' at Outernet London, and 'Lynn Chadwick at Houghton Hall' in Norfolk.

2 art exhibits in Woolwich, Portland illuminate in more ways than one - Portland Press Herald

Two solo exhibitions by artists Josefina Auslender and Billy Gerard Frank are on view in Woolwich and Portland, Maine, through mid-May. Auslender's "La Chimera de Oro (The Golden Chimera)" at Sarah Bouchard gallery features new ink-on-paper drawings exploring themes of artistic truth and the seductive danger of commercial success, while Frank's show at the Institute of Contemporary Art at Maine College of Art & Design (ICA at MECA&D) addresses the legacy of slavery through multimedia installations.

Class Notes

Boston University's College of Fine Arts (CFA) published its 2025 alumni class notes, featuring updates from graduates spanning the 1950s to the 1980s. Notable entries include Mark Mobius (’58) releasing a book on wealth, Cynthia Close (’67,’69) completing a memoir about her time in an artists' commune, and Jane O’Hara (’78) exhibiting a 51-painting series on animal rights at the New Bedford Art Museum. Other alumni activities range from radio documentaries and theatrical performances to gallery shows, poetry albums, and consulting work.

National Gallery takes art to town centres

The National Gallery is displaying high-quality reproductions of masterpieces by Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso, J.M.W. Turner, and Vincent van Gogh in town centres across the UK, starting with Croydon. The three-year initiative, called Art on Your Doorstep, places artworks in locations such as Croydon Minster and Queen’s Gardens, and will expand to Torquay, Derry, Birstall, and the Isle of Wight in 2026. Local residents help select the pieces and contribute creative responses, embedding the project within each community.

Glasgow-based artist's explosive work earns place in major UK exhibition

Frank To, an award-winning Glasgow-based artist known for using gunpowder to create explosive artworks, has been selected to exhibit at the Royal Cambrian Academy’s 2026 Annual Exhibition in Conwy, Wales. He is one of only four Scottish artists chosen from 148 applicants. To's recent London exhibitions at the Stafford Gallery, Wimbledon, and the Mall Galleries sold out, and his collectors include actor Sir Patrick Stewart and art patron Michel Witmer, who displays To's work alongside pieces by Picasso and Warhol.

WA’s Maryhill Museum of Art has ties to royalty, celebrates milestone

The Maryhill Museum of Art in Goldendale, Washington, is celebrating the 100th anniversary of its dedication by Queen Marie of Romania. Founded by entrepreneur Samuel Hill in 1907, the museum houses an eclectic collection including over 80 works by Auguste Rodin, French haute couture fashions, and thousands of Indigenous art objects. To mark the centennial, the museum has opened three new exhibitions highlighting Queen Marie's contributions: Russian icons, Romanian embroidery, and folk pottery, alongside her personal items like coronation gowns and gilded furniture.

Inside The Met's New 'Costume Art' Exhibition

The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute has announced a new exhibition titled 'Costume Art,' opening to the public on May 10 and running through January 10, 2027. The show inaugurates the Met's nearly 12,000-square-foot expansion adjacent to the Great Hall, providing a permanent home for the Costume Institute's annual spring exhibitions. Featuring nearly 400 objects—half garments and half traditional art like sculpture and painting—the exhibition explores how clothing alters and enhances the human body, dividing 'the body' into 13 types such as 'The Classical Body' and 'The Corpulent Body.' The show includes works from designers like Coco Chanel, Jean Paul Gaultier, Thom Browne, and Alexander McQueen, paired with historical artifacts and contemporary art. The exhibition follows this year's Met Gala, co-chaired by Beyoncé, Nicole Kidman, Venus Williams, and Anna Wintour, which raised a record $42 million for the Costume Institute.

All the Looks That Made It From the Runway Into the Met’s “Costume Art” Exhibition

Lebanon’s Art Scene Is Living in ‘War Mode’

On April 8, 2025, a wave of Israeli airstrikes across Lebanon killed 357 people and injured over 1,200, a day now known as 'Black Wednesday.' Amid the violence, Lebanese artist Abed Al Kadiri, who grew up during Lebanon's civil war and Israeli occupation, has been working with displaced children in shelters, using art to help them process trauma. He collects their drawings and plans to combine them with sketches by other artists reflecting their own war experiences, creating concertina-style books to be exhibited and sold to raise funds for over 1.1 million displaced people.

Treasures from the worlds of fashion and art collide at an extraordinary new exhibition in Lisbon

A new exhibition titled 'Art & Fashion' has opened at Lisbon's Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, curated by Eloy Martínez de la Pera Celada. It juxtaposes masterpieces from the museum's permanent collection—spanning ancient Egyptian artifacts to Rembrandt and Impressionist works—with historic and contemporary fashion pieces, including garments from Charles Frederick Worth, Yohji Yamamoto, Dries Van Noten, Alexander McQueen, and Sarah Burton's debut at Givenchy. The show is organized by regional provenance and temporarily replaces the museum's usual display while its Brutalist building undergoes renovation.

The new London museum that looks like a ‘reconstructed Toblerone’

The V&A has opened a new outpost in east London's Lower Lea Valley, a former industrial area transformed into a cultural quarter after the 2012 Olympics. The museum, described as looking like a 'reconstructed Toblerone', is the latest addition to the 'Olympicopolis' vision, which aimed to create a cultural legacy akin to west London's Albertopolis. The article, written by Catherine Slessor in The Guardian, offers a mixed review: praising the beauty and craftsmanship of the galleries while criticizing overuse of trendy phrases like 'lived experience' and 'transcultural identities'.

V&A East opens as ‘civic space’ for creativity and community

V&A East Museum, a major new branch of the Victoria and Albert Museum, opened on 18 April in London's Olympic Park as part of the East Bank cultural quarter. The free-entry museum features permanent galleries and temporary exhibitions, launching with a landmark show titled 'The Music is Black: A British Story,' which traces over a century of Black British music through more than 200 objects. Developed with BBC Music, the exhibition includes items from artists like Winifred Atwell, Little Simz, Skepta, and Mis-Teeq. The museum's permanent display, 'Why We Make,' was co-created with the V&A East Youth Collective and explores global creative motivations. The opening was marked by a star-studded event with performances by AJ Tracey, Beverley Knight, and MNEK.

Ackerman Midcentury Art Show at Craft Contemporary

Craft Contemporary in Los Angeles is presenting 'Material Curiosity by Design: Evelyn & Jerome Ackerman,' an exhibition showcasing the mosaics, tapestries, wood carvings, and other works of the late midcentury design duo. The show, which runs through May 10, juxtaposes their vintage pieces with contemporary works by artists Porfirio Gutiérrez, Jolie Ngo, and Vince Skelly.

V&A East Museum: Inside London’s New Venue In Stratford

The V&A East Museum is set to open in Stratford’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park as a major new cultural hub for East London. Housed in a striking five-story building designed by O’Donnell + Tuomey—inspired by the couture tailoring of Cristóbal Balenciaga—the museum features two permanent galleries titled "Why We Make" and a dedicated space for major temporary exhibitions. The site emphasizes accessibility with a barrier-free entrance and a collection of over 500 objects spanning art, design, and performance, curated to highlight themes like social justice and environmental action.

The best fashion exhibitions to see for spring 2026

Major museums across Europe are launching a series of high-profile fashion retrospectives for the Spring 2026 season. Highlights include the first official exhibition dedicated to Helmut Lang at MAK Vienna, a comparative study of Azzedine Alaïa and Christian Dior in Paris, and a comprehensive Vivienne Westwood retrospective at The Bowes Museum. Additionally, the V&A in London is hosting the UK’s first-ever Schiaparelli exhibition, while Charleston explores the literary influence of the Hogarth Press through a collaboration with designer Kim Jones.

17 must-see works of art at LACMA’s new David Geffen Galleries

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) has unveiled a selection of must-see works within its new David Geffen Galleries, marking a radical departure from traditional museum curation. Moving away from rigid chronological and geographic silos, the museum has organized its encyclopedic collection around four major bodies of water—the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans, and the Mediterranean Sea—to highlight the historical movement of resources, ideas, and cultures. The single-level, fluid architectural space encourages visitors to meander through evolving installations that include high-profile acquisitions like Francis Bacon’s "Three Studies of Lucian Freud" alongside intricate Kuba ceremonial textiles.

Everything you need to know about the Met Gala 2026 and ‘Costume Art’ exhibition

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has announced details for its 2026 Costume Institute exhibition, titled 'Costume Art,' which is set to open on May 10, 2026. Curated by Andrew Bolton, the show will explore the 5,000-year history of the 'dressed body' by juxtaposing contemporary and historical fashion with sculpture, antiquities, and portraiture from across the museum’s 17 departments. The exhibition will be preceded by the annual Met Gala on May 4, 2026, serving as the primary fundraiser for the department.