The New Britain Museum of American Art (NBMAA) has appointed Lydia Holleck as its first Hamm Family Curatorial Fellow. This new full-time position is dedicated to researching, exhibiting, and engaging the public with artwork from the museum’s permanent collection that is currently in storage and rarely seen by visitors.
The Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh have launched a $500 million comprehensive campaign, the largest in their history, to fund capital projects across all four of their institutions: the Carnegie Museum of Art, Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Carnegie Science Center, and The Andy Warhol Museum. The campaign, which has already raised $325 million, will support renovations, new exhibitions, and expanded educational programming, including a major overhaul of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History's dinosaur hall and a new wing for the Carnegie Museum of Art.
The Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition, now in its 61st year, has returned to Brighton Museum and Art Gallery on loan from the Natural History Museum. The exhibition runs from 9 May to 6 September and features over 60,000 entries from photographers across 113 countries and territories, judged anonymously on creativity, originality, and technical excellence.
Dr. Eric Singleton has been appointed as the new director of the Booth Western Art Museum, set to assume the role in mid-July. He was selected after a nationwide search led by Georgia Museums President and Board Chair Lorri McClain, who praised his extensive experience, creativity, and collaborative leadership style. Singleton currently serves as the McCasland Chair of Cowboy Culture and Curator of Native American Art and Ethnology at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, bringing over 25 years of museum experience to the Booth. He has previously worked at the Gilcrease Institute of American History & Art and the Philbrook Museum of Art, and holds a Ph.D. from Oklahoma State University.
Aldine Independent School District (ISD) student artists from Hall Success Academy and Eisenhower High School will have their work featured in an exhibition titled "The Sequence Is Yours," hosted by the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston. The opening reception is scheduled for May 8, 2025, at ARTECHOUSE Houston, and the promotional image features a photograph by an Eisenhower High School artist. The students were guided by art educators Ketsia Hamilton of Hall Success Academy and Óscar Medina of Eisenhower High School, with Hamilton also serving on the museum's Teacher Advisory Group.
The Brandywine Conservancy in Chadds Ford, Delaware County, has announced a $100 million expansion plan aimed at transforming the visitor experience. The project will increase exhibition capacity by 80% and open 10 miles of new trails on the campus, significantly expanding the institution's footprint and public offerings.
The National Centre for Contemporary Arts (NCCA) in Minsk, Belarus, has announced that its venue on Niakrasava Street will cease exhibition activities from June 22, 2026. The institution is set to be liquidated, with its premises and collections transferred to the National Art Museum, while the Niakrasava Street space will be taken over by the Belarusian State Academy of Arts. The closure is linked to the newly appointed chairman of the Union of Artists, Andrei Vasileuski, and reportedly supported by the Culture Ministry.
The Grohmann Museum in Milwaukee has opened a new exhibition pairing two shows by contemporary American artists focusing on military service. Ohio-born Mary Whyte's "We the People: Portraits of Veterans in America" features 50 large-scale watercolor portraits of veterans from various wars and backgrounds. Milwaukee photographer Dennis Darmek's "Boots and Sand: The Marines of 29 Palms" presents two dozen color photographs taken at the Marine Corps base in California's Mojave Desert, where Darmek himself trained in 1969. The photos capture both posed and candid moments, highlighting diversity within the modern Marine Corps, including women in combat roles.
This May, Chiang Mai's art scene offers a diverse lineup of exhibitions across galleries, museums, and independent spaces. Highlights include a group show on regional identity at Chiang Mai Art Museum, a calligraphy-focused solo exhibition by Jin Li at Makok Art Space, and 'Class 2 Canvas' at Fãr Studios featuring artist-educators. Mid-month brings two openings: Chitti Kasemkitvatana's 'Epilogue: A Diffraction Grating' at Gallery Seescape, exploring time and light, and Kailash Mani's solo show of outsider art at Head High Second Floor.
The 81st May Show has opened at the Mansfield Art Center in Ohio, featuring over 100 works selected from nearly 600 submissions by guest juror Wendy Earle, curator of the Akron Art Museum. The exhibition, which runs through the end of May, showcases a diverse range of mediums from Ohio artists aged 16 to their late 80s. Awards include the Fred "Fritz" Culler Award for Best of Show to Bradley Wallace for "Venus 1K Views," the Mechanics Bank Award of Excellence to Barbara Morejon and Luanne Bole-Becker, and the Jeff McBride & Maura Teynor Emerging Artist Award to high school senior Katerina Prykodko.
Amsterdam is tackling overtourism by embedding art, culture, and history directly into its public spaces, streets, and transit systems, transforming the city into an open-air museum. Led by amsterdam&partners, the initiative uses digital screens, art installations, and interactive urban furniture to guide visitors toward hidden cultural gems, encouraging spontaneous engagement with local heritage. Major institutions like the Rijksmuseum, Stedelijk Museum, and Eye Filmmuseum, along with smaller venues such as Foam Museum and STRAAT Museum, are part of a network designed to distribute cultural attention more evenly across the city.
The five-member international jury of the 61st Venice Biennale, led by Brazilian curator Solange Farkas, has resigned effective April 30, 2026. The jury—comprising Solange Oliveira Farkas, Zoe Butt, Elvira Dyangani Ose, Marta Kuzma, and Giovanna Zapperi—announced their resignation in a written statement, referencing a prior Statement of Intention issued on April 22. In response, La Biennale di Venezia postponed the Awards Ceremony from May 9 to November 22, the final public day, and introduced two new "Visitors' Lions" awards—one for the Best Participant in the main exhibition "In Minor Keys" by Koyo Kouoh, and one for the Best National Participation—to be decided by ticket-holder vote.
Nearly 70 student artists are featured in SUNY Oneonta’s 2026 Juried Student Show, now on display at the Martin-Mullen Art Gallery through May 2. The exhibition includes over 90 works in media such as painting, sculpture, ceramics, photography, digital art, and mixed media, selected by faculty from more than 100 submissions. A public reception with 17 awards will be held on April 30.
South Korea's Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism announced a monthlong celebration called "2026 Museum Week," running from late April to May 31, 2026, to coincide with International Museum Day on May 18. A total of 310 museums will participate under the theme "Museums uniting a divided world," with programs divided into three sections: Museum X Encounter (highlighting stories behind artifacts), Museum X Enjoy (special exhibitions and performances), and Museum X Stroll (expanding cultural access beyond Seoul). The event is hosted by the ministry and ICOM Korea, organized by the Korean Museum Association.
Art Liard presents a new exhibition in London exploring nature's fragile equilibrium, featuring works that examine the delicate balance of natural ecosystems. The show includes a series of paintings and installations that respond to environmental themes, highlighting the tension between growth and decay in the natural world.
Brea Gallery in Brea, California, opened its 41st annual "Made in California" juried art exhibition on Saturday, featuring over 90 artists from across the state. The show includes a range of mediums such as oil paintings, sculptures, and mixed media, with jurors selecting works from roughly 5,000 submissions. This year's exhibition explores themes of identity and social justice, with pieces like Angel Lesnikowski's "Othered Existence" addressing Arab identity and conflict, and Adam Singer's "Big Feelings" reflecting on aging and mortality in Los Angeles. A solo installation by Lorena Molina, "This must be the place," draws on her Salvadoran heritage and the immigrant experience.
In spring 1975, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City hosted the second American stop of "The Exhibition of Archaeological Finds of the People's Republic of China," a landmark traveling show of ancient Chinese artifacts including jade, silk, and bronze sculptures. The author, then a University of Missouri-Kansas City economics student, worked behind the scenes at the museum, describing an unusual interview conducted while gardening and his task of touch-painting gallery walls with a dry brush to cover visitor smudges before opening.
This article from Artribune compiles five current job and opportunity listings in the Italian art and cultural sector. It announces open admissions for the 2026-27 academic year at Milan's Civiche Scuole (including schools of cinema, interpreting, music, and theater), a call for artists under 35 by Extragarbo to create a permanent public artwork at the former Centrale del Latte in Vicenza, an open call for artists for the sixth edition of Bolzano Art Weeks (BAW25) focusing on climate awareness and urban regeneration, and a job opening for a visitor services assistant at FAI's Villa del Balbianello on Lake Como. Each listing includes deadlines, contact details, and application links.
Between the night of May 23 and the early hours of May 24, 2026, Russia launched a massive attack on Kyiv and other areas of Ukraine using 600 drones and 90 missiles. The National Art Museum of Ukraine (NAMU) in Kyiv suffered severe structural damage, along with government buildings. The attack was reportedly a response to a Ukrainian bombing of a dormitory in Russian-occupied Starobilsk. The museum, founded in the late 19th century and housed in a neoclassical building opened in 1904, holds nearly 40,000 works spanning over a thousand years of Ukrainian art, including medieval icons, Baroque masterpieces, and avant-garde pieces.
This article from Artribune presents seven new art book releases in Italy, all united by a common theme of bringing marginalized subjects back into focus. Featured titles include Johnny L. Bertolio's "L'ha scritto lei, ma…" which examines why female authors are excluded from Italian school curricula, and Carla Rossi's "Oltre i margini," a rigorous study of European female miniaturists from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. Other works address queer representation in museums, children's voices on Gaza, photographic portraiture by Lorenzo Cicconi Massi, a collective volume on the Bertolucci family, and a theatrical project by Kepler-452 set in the central Mediterranean.
The Boothbay Region Art Foundation (BRAF) has opened three new exhibitions for summer, running through June 21. The shows include the Spring Members' Show featuring a wide range of media from regional artists, a solo exhibition of Maine landscape oil paintings by local artist Charles Nowell, and an Eco-Art exhibition curated by the Boothbay Region Climate Action Team that addresses environmental stewardship and climate resilience. An opening reception is scheduled for June 5.
French-Mexican artist Hugo Toro is debuting his first solo art exhibition in the United States at Perrotin New York on May 20, 2026. The show features over a dozen paintings and sculptures that explore themes of origin, belonging, and identity, with water serving as a recurring metaphor for memory. Toro, who also works in architecture and interior design, describes his creative process as instinctive, starting from emotional impulses and moving from abstraction toward figuration.
A group of nine young artists, all alumni of the Government College of Fine Arts in Chennai, have formed a collective called Continuum and will present their first exhibition, 'Between Becoming & Being,' starting May 15 at Lalit Kala Akademi. Initiated by artist couple Preethi Umapathy and Prithiviraj, the show features works in painting, printmaking, sculpture, and ceramics by Deepika, Ganesh, Jagath Ravi, Padmapriya, Prithiviraj, Preethi, Ramesh, Saran Mathi, and Sarath Kumar, exploring themes of identity, aspiration, human existence, and lived experiences.
The Indah Gallery, located within the Roblar Winery complex near Santa Ynez, is hosting a solo exhibition titled "Many Roads" by Native American artist Mitchell Robles. The show features works such as the large triptych "Thunder Mountain," along with pieces like "Little Thunder Horse," "Leaping Brown Horse," and "Sitting Bull," which blend ancient indigenous iconography with contemporary neo-Expressionist techniques. Gallerist and founder Max Gleason, himself an artist, has transformed a former barn into a dedicated art space that provides a serene setting for Robles's culturally resonant work.
The Joshua Tree Art Walk returns this Saturday in downtown Joshua Tree, featuring the grand opening of a new store and gallery called Walker’s Wipeout by local artist Walker Mettling. Mettling, a comic, woodcut, and risograph artist originally from Providence, RI, will exhibit his own absurdist neon comic dread multimedia works and plans to host other artists in the future. Other participating galleries include Hey There Projects with “Sous les etoiles” featuring Sofia Badaoui and Laura Cooper; La Matadora with “Fairytales & Fanciful Creatures”; Coyote Little with “Don’t Get It Twisted” showcasing fifteen desert-based textile artists; and The Beatnik Lounge with “Like A Dog: A Look at Selective Compassion” curated by Janice Taitel. Live music will be provided by Lee Scott and Joe Garcia on the Art Queen stage.
The Neosho Valley Spring Art Exhibit has opened at the Chanute Art Gallery in Chanute, Kansas, showcasing original works by artists from the Four-State area. The exhibition features a variety of mediums including paintings, photography, sculpture, and ceramics, and will run through the end of the month. A reception is scheduled for May 23, with awards including a $200 best of show prize, first- and second-place prizes in each category, and a people’s choice award.
Ardest Gallery in The Woodlands, Texas, is presenting "Thresholds," a juried exhibition curated by Austin-based glass artist Malina Cipleu, running through May 30. The show features kiln-formed glass works from Texas artists, with first place awarded to Deborah Ellington for "Encased in Time III," second place to Mary Torres for "Polka Dot Jungle," and third place to Sandi Neiman for "River Dreams." Gallery owner Julie Verville hosted the opening and awarded ribbons, while Cipleu's curatorial statement explores glass as a material of transition and connection.
Several Carson High School art students earned top honors at the Nevada Artists Association Student Art Show. Senior Serenity Rodriguez placed first in the 3D category for her piece “Buried in Flowers,” while freshman Abbey Ortega earned third place for “Comic Book Art” and an honorable mention for “Cat Caught Fish.” Other students received honorable mentions across 2D and 3D categories. The Spring 2026 High School Art Exhibition features 69 entries from Carson, Dayton, Douglas, and Whittell high schools, on view at the Nevada Artists Association Gallery in Carson City through May 8.
Funun Arts Group, in collaboration with Novotel Sharjah Expo Center, launched the fourth chapter of its Epochs of Art series titled 'Light in Motion: Impressionism to Post-Impressionism' at the hotel in Sharjah, UAE. The exhibition runs from April 24 to June 24 and was inaugurated by artist-guests including Ahmed Al Awadhi, Abdul Jabbar Weiss, Majd Faraj, and Anjini Prakash Laitu, alongside Robin Solomon, General Manager of Novotel Sharjah Expo Center. The event featured an immersive meditative painting session and direct artist-visitor interactions, showcasing works by international artists exploring the interplay of light, movement, and emotion.
Chinese artist Shaohua Nong (b. 1960, Linfen, Shanxi) is offering an original oil on canvas titled "Twain II" (2015) for sale at US$1,300 through the gallery Sojourner in New York. The 25 × 37 inch painting is hand-signed, includes a certificate of authenticity, and is listed on Artsy with a money-back and authenticity guarantee. Nong, a member of the Shanxi Branch of Chinese Artists Association, has exhibited widely in China and internationally, including at Hong Kong ART CENTRAL Art Fair, Shangshang Art Museum in Beijing, and the Nanjing International Art Exhibition.