ireland basic income artists program permanent

Ireland is set to make its basic income for artists program permanent starting in 2026, following a successful pilot launched in 2022. The program provides selected artists with approximately $375 per week (about $1,500 monthly), with 2,000 spots available and applications opening in September 2026. The pilot, which involved 2,000 randomly selected recipients from over 9,000 applicants, cost €72 million but generated nearly €80 million in economic benefits, according to an external report by Alma Economics. Recipients saw arts-related income increase by over €500 per month, while reliance on other social programs declined.

fita campaign group threatens leicester university trans inclusive museum guidelines

A campaign group called Freedom in the Arts (FITA) has threatened to sue the University of Leicester in the UK over its “Trans-Inclusive Culture” guidelines for museums and galleries, demanding their removal. The guidelines, published two years ago by the university’s Research Center for Museums and Galleries (RCMG), aim to help cultural institutions create inclusive spaces for transgender people. FITA, co-founded by choreographer Rosie Kay and former Arts Council England staffer Denise Fahmy, argues the guidance misrepresents the legal definition of “sex” under the Equality Act 2010, following a UK Supreme Court ruling that “woman” and “sex” refer only to biological women and biological sex. The group claims the guidelines could encourage unlawful policies, such as allowing toilet access based on gender identity, and discriminate against staff with gender-critical beliefs.

new 2025 survey galleries art fair model first thursday

A new report from First Thursday, a London-based sales intelligence company, reveals widespread frustration among gallerists over the rising costs and high risks of participating in art fairs. Surveying 56 commercial galleries across Europe, Asia, Africa, and North America, the inaugural Art Fair Report found that nearly half of galleries spent over £30,000 ($40,000) per fair, with 24% spending between £50,000 and £100,000. High participation costs were cited by 83% of respondents as the biggest challenge, followed by sales uncertainty (77%). As a result, 31% plan to attend fewer fairs, shifting investment to digital platforms and marketing.

san jose wreck found coins

Researchers have confirmed the identity of the Spanish galleon San José, which sank off the coast of Colombia in 1708 carrying billions of dollars in gold, silver, and gems. Using high-resolution photographs and digital models from remotely operated vehicle surveys, they identified hand-struck coins (cobs) minted in Lima in 1707, along with Chinese porcelain and cannon inscriptions, as key evidence. The findings were published in the journal Antiquity on June 10.

Szentendre’s Old Artists’ Colony Marks 100 Years with Major Exhibition

A major exhibition titled "Artists’ Colony 100" has opened at MűvészetMalom in Szentendre, Hungary, to mark the centenary of the Old Artists’ Colony founded in 1926. The show features hundreds of works by nearly a hundred artists, from founding members such as József Bánáti Sverák, Miklós Bánovszky, and Béla Onódi to contemporary figures including József Baksai and Imre Szakács. It includes iconic pieces, rare works, and recent discoveries, organized thematically with a focus on the garden motif that has long inspired colony artists.

Survey finds town rejects Earth Goddess sculpture

A survey conducted by the St Austell Town Team found that approximately 90% of nearly 500 respondents want the controversial 38-foot-tall ceramic sculpture 'Earth Goddess' removed from the town center of St Austell, Cornwall. Installed in June 2022 as part of a regeneration project celebrating the area's China clay heritage, the £80,000 artwork by Sandy Brown has divided opinion, with local business owner and Town Team chair Jake Richards reporting frequent complaints from customers. Suggested relocation sites include the Eden Project and the Lost Gardens of Heligan, though the artist argues moving the piece is impractical and costly.

SMC’s Museum of Art opens new exhibit featuring three Bay Area artists

The Saint Mary’s College Museum of Art has launched a new exhibition season featuring three distinct Bay Area artists: Hilda Robinson, Zach Clark, and Beth Van Hoesen. The showcase includes a retrospective of Robinson’s vibrant oil pastels documenting Black communal joy, a collaborative landscape project by Clark involving student research, and a survey of Van Hoesen’s minimalist line work and intaglio prints.

Perkins Center in Collingswood Opens Winter Gallery Season With Dual E...

Perkins Center for the Arts in Collingswood, New Jersey, opens its winter gallery season with a joint artists' reception on January 10, 2026, featuring two exhibitions. In the Main Gallery, 'Room For My Lens' surveys the first 20 years of photographer Liz Wuillermin's career, pairing images with personal stories. Upstairs in the Loft Gallery, 'The Untitled Art Exhibition' presents oil, acrylic, and mixed-media works by Anthony Charles Christopher Johnson and special guest artist Jamil Ameer Cobb, exploring freedom of expression, transformation, and truth through layered surfaces and reimagined found objects. Both shows run from January 5 through February 27, 2026.

These exhibits spotlight 600 female artists in DC area

Curator and blogger Florencio “Lenny” Campello has organized a series of 18 exhibits featuring 600 female artists from the Washington, D.C. region under the project Women Artists of the DMV. The main exhibition is at American University’s Katzen Arts Center, displaying 63 pieces, with additional shows at venues like Strathmore Galleries in Bethesda and Montpelier Arts Center in Laurel. Campello hand-selected each work, receiving nearly 4,000 inquiries from local artists, and structures the shows in a three-tier pyramid from well-known to emerging artists.

Must-see exhibitions and must-read books on Korean art

The article highlights two must-see exhibitions and two must-read books on Korean art. The exhibition "Scent of Korea in Silla" (June 27–November 30) at Solgeo Art Museum in Gyeongju features four contemporary artists—Park Dae-sung, Songcheon, Park Sun-min, and Kim Min—coinciding with the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in October. The books include "Modern and Contemporary Korean Art in Context (1950–Now)" by Jung-Sil Lee and Dong-Yeon Koh (Bloomsbury Academic), which surveys postwar Korean art from ink painting to digital art, and "Art, War, and Exile in Modern Korea: Rethinking the Life and Work of Lee Qoede" by Jinyoung Anna Jin (Amsterdam University Press), which reexamines the life of a Korean painter long misunderstood due to political circumstances.

Study highlights link between cultural engagement and workforce levels

A new study from the Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre (Creative PEC) reveals a strong correlation between the number of people working in arts, culture, and heritage occupations in English local authorities and the rates of public participation in cultural activities. Analyzing data from DCMS's Participation Survey 2023–24 and the Office of National Statistics Labour Force Survey, the report found the strongest link between cultural employment and art gallery attendance, followed by literary events and live dance. London boroughs dominated the top rankings, with Cambridge, Brighton and Hove, Oxford, Bristol, and Waverley also showing high correlations, though exceptions like Stoke-on-Trent and York highlighted local variations in specific art forms.

A Panorama of Design during the NYCxDesign Festival

The article provides a broad overview of the NYCxDesign Festival, highlighting notable news, product launches, and events taking place across New York City during the design festival. It covers a range of design-related activities, from exhibitions and product debuts to talks and installations, capturing the vibrant atmosphere of the citywide celebration of design.

At the 34th Outsider Art Fair, Still Genuine Surprises

The 34th Outsider Art Fair in New York showcased a diverse range of compelling works, including cosmic explosion paintings, proto-Surrealist pieces, and standout artists like D.J. Raul Hardie and Anne Brown. A critic's survey highlighted these discoveries as genuine surprises, emphasizing the fair's continued role in presenting fresh, unmediated artistic voices.

How Immersive Digital Exhibitions Reshape Art Viewing

The article examines how immersive digital exhibitions have transformed art viewing by the late 2020s, focusing on the Smithsonian Hirshhorn Museum's late-2025 survey "Big Things for Big Rooms" and the touring show "Picasso: Art in Motion" at the Museum of Art and Light. It notes that immersive exhibitions now encompass 360-degree projection mapping, AR overlays, and generative AI installations, and that they consistently outperform traditional exhibitions in attendance, especially among visitors under 35.

Review: The 82nd Whitney Biennial is weird, provocative, and leaves viewers wanting more

The 82nd Whitney Biennial has opened, drawing attention for its weird, provocative nature that leaves viewers wanting more. The exhibition, held at the Whitney Museum of American Art, features a range of contemporary works that challenge conventional boundaries and spark dialogue.

59th Carnegie International, titled ‘if the word we,’ set to open Saturday

The 59th Carnegie International, titled 'if the word we,' is set to open this Saturday at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh. The exhibition, one of the oldest and most prestigious surveys of contemporary art in North America, will feature works by a diverse group of international artists, curated around themes of collective identity and language.

Art of Manga Exhibition Heads to Brooklyn Museum in October

The "Art of Manga" exhibition, organized by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, will make its East Coast debut at the Brooklyn Museum in New York from October 3, 2026, to January 31, 2027. Featuring over 600 pieces of art, the show highlights works from renowned manga artists including Hirohiko Araki, Rumiko Takahashi, Gengoroh Tagame, Jiro Taniguchi, Kazumi Yamashita, and Fumi Yoshinaga. The exhibition previously ran at the de Young Museum in San Francisco from September 2025 to January 2026.

You told us want you want to see in our arts coverage. We heard you

During the Milwaukee Art Museum’s annual Art in Bloom event, the Journal Sentinel gathered feedback from hundreds of attendees and digital survey respondents about what they want from arts coverage. The new arts and culture reporter, who wrote the article, outlines the key requests: more advance event coverage (especially free, family-friendly, and hands-on activities), support for smaller and underground art scenes, profiles of local artists including youth, coverage of overlooked art forms like graffiti and fabric arts, and diverse representation of Latino, women, LGBTQ+, and immigrant artists.

DIA's first major Anishinaabe art exhibit in 30 years ends this weekend

The Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) is closing its major exhibition, "Anishinaabe Art: Honoring Tradition, Inspiring Innovation," this weekend. The show, which opened in October, is the museum's first significant survey of Anishinaabe art in three decades, featuring over 80 works from the 19th century to the present.

Older women artists go it alone as new report reveals how the traditional art world is failing them

A new report commissioned by the grant-giving body Anonymous Was A Woman and authored by journalists Charlotte Burns and Julia Halperin reveals that museums and galleries are failing women artists, particularly those over 65. Based on a survey of 1,263 female artists (91% based in the US), the report finds that 63% cite a lack of museum backing and 59% cite a lack of gallery support as hindering their careers. As a result, 55% of all respondents are selling work independently, with women over 65 leading the way—59% have sold directly to collectors in the past five years. The report also highlights that female artists work 49 hours per week but spend only 38% of that time making art, with the rest consumed by administrative tasks and other paid work, and that art sales provide only 16-18% of household income.

Looking Back to Look Forward

Blick zurück nach vorn

The Museum Rietberg in Zürich is hosting an exhibition that examines the intersection of photography and colonialism. The show highlights how early photographic techniques, introduced to Africa shortly after their invention in 1839, were historically used as tools of power, surveillance, and scientific categorization. By juxtaposing historical archives with contemporary works, the exhibition demonstrates how modern artists are reclaiming and transforming these violent visual legacies.

High School Art Exhibition Begins at City Hall

The High School Art Exhibition has opened at Irvine City Hall, showcasing works by student artists from the greater Irvine area. The annual survey includes pieces in digital media, drawing, mixed media, painting, photography, and sculpture, with awards for categories such as best original design and innovative use of materials. This year’s guest juror is Patrick Ballesteros, a San Diego-based artist and illustrator whose clients include Netflix and DisneyTV.

Solo art exhibition, Rudy Ramirez: A retrospective, 1969-present

The San Bernardino County Museum (SBCM) presents "Rudy C. Ramirez: A Retrospective, 1969–The Present," the first comprehensive survey of local Latino artist Rudy C. Ramirez, a Vietnam veteran. Running from January 17 to April 12, 2026, the exhibition features over 70 works spanning more than 50 years, showcasing his diverse styles and media, including influences from his time as a sign painter for the U.S. Air Force and his leadership in the Inland Empire Latino Art Association. The show was curated with his daughter Annette Ramirez, granddaughter Carina Lizarde, and museum educator Erica Watkins.

GALLERY: Wondai Regional Art Gallery’s October 2025 Open Art Competition

The Wondai Regional Art Gallery hosted its October 2025 Open Art Competition on Friday, 3 October, drawing artists, art lovers, and community members. Katrina O'Shanassey won the $3,000 Mayor’s Acquisitive Art Prize for her work 'Free Spirit', with Mayor Kathy Duff, Deputy Mayor Ros Heit, and gallery president Elaine Maddill present at the announcement.

Amid a cost of living crisis for London’s artists, a charity has secured dozens of affordable studio spaces

Bow Arts, a UK charity founded in 1994, has acquired two buildings in east London to create permanently affordable studio spaces for artists. The purchases include a site in the Hackney Yards development, developed in partnership with housing association Notting Hill Genesis and supported by Arts Council England and the London Legacy Development Corporation, which will provide 38 studios by 2026, and the Brutalist Lakeside Centre in Thamesmead, already housing over 40 artist studios. This follows Bow Arts’ first owned building, Three Waters, acquired in 2022 on a 999-year lease with 70 studios. The charity now owns three of the 28 buildings it manages across London, with an annual turnover of £5.1 million, most of which is reinvested into the creative community.

Ofelia Esparza: Mexican Traditions in California Since 1945

OFELIA ESPARZA SINCE 1945 MEXICAN TRADITIONS IN CALIFORNIA

The Vincent Price Art Museum at East Los Angeles College is presenting 'Ofelia Esparza: A Retrospective' until May 2026. This first major museum survey for the Chicana artist and altarista features 85 works, including recreations of her iconic altars and examples of her drawing, painting, and printmaking, tracing her artistic evolution from 1945 to the present.

Near Florence there is a castle that recalls the Orient. The rebirth of the gardens begins with architect Tommaso del Buono

Vicino Firenze c’è un castello che ricorda l’Oriente. Al via la rinascita dei giardini con l’architetto Tommaso del Buono

The Castello di Sammezzano, a Moorish-style castle near Florence, Italy, is set for a major revival. Built in the 19th century by the Marquis Ferdinando Panciatichi Ximenes d'Aragona, the castle is one of Italy's most important examples of Orientalist architecture, featuring over sixty uniquely decorated rooms, a monumental park, and rare botanical species. After decades of neglect, auctions, and sporadic openings, the property was purchased in 2025 by the family of entrepreneur Giorgio Moretti, who plans a €50 million restoration. The first phase will focus on rehabilitating the historic gardens, with work beginning in June 2026.

Cultural Observatories: Dinosaurs or Subjects Capable of Interpreting the Present?

Osservatori culturali. Dinosauri o soggetti in grado di interpretare il presente?

The Cultural Observatory of Canton Ticino has published a study on cultural observatories worldwide, including a map and list of surveyed organizations. The analysis reveals that cultural observatories are not a global phenomenon but are concentrated mainly in Europe and South America, with occasional presence in North America (especially Canada and Hispanic-oriented organizations in the US). Africa, Asia, and Oceania are almost entirely absent from the map. The study also highlights a high rate of inactive observatories: among the top 10 countries by active observatories, only Germany shows an effective activity ratio. Spain has 26 active observatories out of about 45 total, while Italy has 11 active out of over 20 inactive. The research defines observatories as non-profit organizations that combine cultural and statistical expertise to deepen and transfer knowledge about the cultural sector, and classifies as inactive those with no recent activity on web or social channels.

Sign Language to Bring Art Exhibitions Closer... Ministry Invites Applications for Sign Language Video Production Institutions

South Korea's Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism is accepting applications from ten institutions—including museums and art galleries—for its "2026 Exhibition Information Sign Language Video Production Support Project." Applications run from May 21 to June 12, with priority given to institutions offering permanent or long-term exhibitions. The ministry will evaluate regional balance, facility accessibility, video utilization potential, and exhibition suitability, and will survey the deaf community's viewing needs. The final list of selected institutions will be announced on June 22.

Comrades in Art: Artists Against Fascism review — eye-opening show sets the record straight

The article reviews the exhibition "Comrades in Art: Artists Against Fascism," which presents a historical survey of artists who actively resisted fascist regimes through their work. The show features a range of pieces from the early 20th century to the present, highlighting lesser-known figures and movements that opposed authoritarianism. It aims to correct oversimplified narratives about art and politics during periods of fascist rule.