Victoria Helena, an artist and former CFO, is launching Artist Money Matters, a financial consultancy designed specifically for artists. The service aims to provide independent, informed support to artists navigating a volatile and opaque art economy, addressing common issues like contract clarity, payment terms, and intellectual property.
A derelict mansion called Parndon Hall, located within the grounds of Princess Alexandra Hospital in Harlow, Essex, has been named to the Victorian Society’s annual list of the top ten at-risk buildings in England and Wales. The house, built in 1867, contains a hidden trove of wall paintings by the almost-forgotten Victorian artist Elizabeth Arkwright, who covered walls, ceilings, and doors with nymphs, mermaids, and cherubs—many still concealed under Edwardian whitewash. The building has been used for storage and has sat unoccupied since flood repairs in 2024.
A newly discovered 1877 chalk portrait of the poet Christina Rossetti by her brother, the Pre-Raphaelite master Dante Gabriel Rossetti, has been unveiled at Wightwick Manor. The drawing, recently acquired by the National Trust, serves as the centerpiece for the exhibition "The Rossettis – Siblings and Spouses." Created during a period of shared family mourning following the death of their sister Maria, the work departs from Rossetti’s typical idealized style to offer a somber, realistic depiction of grief and resilience.
Cartwright Hall Art Gallery in Bradford has launched a new exhibition of Pre-Raphaelite masterpieces paired with contemporary reflections from the local LGBT+ community. Members of the Equity Partnership charity collaborated with museum staff to reinterpret 19th-century works by artists such as Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Ford Madox Brown, and John Collier through the lens of lived queer experience.
The Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA) is presenting *Theresa Hak Kyung Cha: Multiple Offerings*, the first survey of the late conceptual artist’s work in over two decades. Running from January 24 to April 19, the exhibition draws on BAMPFA’s substantial holdings of Cha’s art and archives, showcasing her multidisciplinary practice—including concrete poetry, mail art, textiles, ceramics, performance, and film. Curator Victoria Sung, alongside curatorial associate Tausif Noor, aims to de-emphasize Cha’s best-known work, *Dictée*, and instead highlight the fluidity of her process, revisiting themes across different media from the early 1970s to the early 1980s. The show features a recreation of her 1980 film *Exilée*, documentation of performances such as *Réveillé dans la Brume* (1977), and early ceramics and textiles never before shown publicly.
The Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London has reportedly removed maps and images from exhibition catalogues on multiple occasions following pressure from its Chinese publisher, C&C Offset Printing. The publisher cited directives from China's General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP), which enforces the Chinese Communist Party's official narratives on sensitive topics like territorial borders.
The Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London has acquired and reconstructed the first video ever uploaded to YouTube, titled 'Me at the zoo,' along with an early version of the platform's watch page. The 19-second clip from 2005, featuring YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim at the San Diego Zoo, is now part of the museum's collection and is on display.
The Denver Art Museum has announced a major touring exhibition of Australian Indigenous Art, set to open in April 2026. The show is a collaborative effort organized by the National Gallery of Victoria and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and will also travel to the Portland Art Museum and the Peabody Essex Museum.
The Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London will revamp its Gilbert Galleries, dedicated to the Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Collection, expanding from four to seven galleries. Set to open in March, the redesigned space by Citizens Design Bureau will include a new room focused on Nazi and Soviet looting and provenance research. Highlights include 200 gold boxes, micro-mosaics, and two silver-gilt gates looted from Kyiv’s Pechersk Lavra monastery after the Russian Revolution, acquired by William Randolph Hearst in 1935. The expansion is part of the V&A’s Future Plan development programme, funded by the Gilbert Trust for the Arts and The National Lottery Heritage Fund.
The University of Melbourne's Buxton Contemporary has opened a new exhibition titled "Poetry goes no further than language," which examines the emergence of conceptual art in China during the mid-1980s and early 1990s. Featuring works by the Beijing collective New Measurement Group and Shanghai artist Qian Weikang, the show also includes a new commission by Victorian College of the Arts graduate Darcey Bella Arnold. Curated by Dr. Carol Yinghua Lu, Director of Beijing's Inside-Out Art Museum, together with artist Liu Ding, the exhibition brings previously inaccessible or little-known works to Australia for the first time.
The University of Melbourne's Buxton Contemporary has opened "Poetry goes no further than language: A historical moment of art becoming art again," an exhibition examining the emergence of conceptual art in China during the mid-1980s and early 1990s. It features works by the Beijing collective New Measurement Group and Shanghai artist Qian Weikang, alongside a new commission by Victorian College of the Arts graduate Darcey Bella Arnold. The exhibition is curated by Dr. Carol Yinghua Lu, Director of Beijing's Inside-Out Art Museum, and artist Liu Ding.
Victoria Colmegna has opened a solo exhibition titled "Play Technique" at the Aspen Art Museum. The show, which features 53 documented works, will be on view from December 12, 2025, through March 29, 2026.
Mountain Galleries, a Canadian fine art gallery group, has opened a new location inside the Fairmont Empress hotel in downtown Victoria. The space features works by established artists such as Paul Nicklen, Ann Murphy, Charlie Easton, and Robert E. Wood, alongside contemporary voices from the Off-Piste Fine Arts group including Jane Waterous, John Clinton, and David Yarrow. A grand opening celebration is scheduled for June 26th, 2025, from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., with champagne and free admission by RSVP.
Five of seven valuable 18th-century snuffboxes stolen from Paris’s Cognacq-Jay Museum in November 2024 have been recovered. Paris Musées announced the return, crediting a police investigation with assistance from the Paris Criminal Investigation Department. The boxes were taken by masked thieves during a daylight robbery from the exhibition “Pocket Luxury.” Two of the recovered boxes were on loan from the Louvre, two from the British royal family’s Royal Collection Trust, and one from the Victoria and Albert Museum. Two more boxes, one from the V&A and one from the Royal Collection, remain missing. The stolen items, decorated with gold, precious stones, mother-of-pearl, or enamel, are estimated to be worth at least €1 million ($1.16 million).
The Dorset Museum & Art Gallery in England has launched a fundraising campaign to acquire a rare 15th-century Netherlandish altarpiece, known as *The Master of the Sherborne Almshouse Triptych*, valued at up to £3.5 million ($4.6 million). The work is set to be auctioned by Sotheby’s in an Old Master evening sale next month, and the museum aims to prevent it from entering a private collection or being exported. The triptych, which depicts five healings of Jesus Christ, was hidden during periods of iconoclastic destruction and rediscovered in St. John’s Almshouse in Sherborne in the 19th century; it has only left the site twice, for exhibitions at the Royal Academy in 1923 and the Victoria and Albert Museum in 2003.
After a 43-day government shutdown, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., will reopen to the public on Friday, returning to normal business hours. The Smithsonian Institution will also begin reopening several of its museums and the zoo on a rolling basis, starting with the National Museum of American History, the National Air and Space Museum, and the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center on the same day. The shutdown, the longest in U.S. history, ended after President Donald Trump signed a spending package following a House vote.
London's Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) has acquired a reconstructed version of YouTube's 2006 interface, including its first-ever uploaded video, 'Me at the zoo.' The interactive display, built using archived code and Adobe Flash, is now on view in the museum's 'Design 1900-Now' gallery, representing a significant effort to preserve the look and feel of early internet culture.
The V&A East Museum has opened in London, marking a major expansion of the Victoria and Albert Museum into the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford. The new institution comprises two sites: a museum at Stratford Waterfront and a collections and research centre at Here East. The project, led by Director Gus Casely-Hayford and a dedicated team, aims to democratize access to the V&A's vast collections and engage new, diverse audiences in East London.
The Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) has announced a major exhibition titled "Rising Voices: Contemporary Art from Asia, Australia and the Pacific," scheduled to open in May 2026. Developed in partnership with the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA) in Brisbane, the show will feature over 70 works by more than 40 artists from 25 countries. The selection draws from three decades of the Asia Pacific Triennial, showcasing a diverse range of media including sculpture, painting, and weaving, with a significant emphasis on First Nations perspectives.
Tristram Hunt, director of the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, has been knighted in the UK New Year Honours list for 2026, recognized for his services to museums. Other art-world figures honored include curator Ekow Eshun (OBE), art historian Marcia Pointon (OBE), cultural heritage expert Janet Blake (OBE), Jo Quinton-Tulloch of the National Science and Media Museum (OBE), Susan Bowers of the Pilgrim Trust (MBE), and Hilary McGrady of the National Trust (CBE).
The Denver Art Museum will host the international touring exhibition "DIVAs" from October 2026 to January 2027, making it the only U.S. venue for the show. Organized by the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the exhibit features over 200 objects including costumes and accessories worn by icons such as Lady Gaga, Rihanna, RuPaul, Prince, Tina Turner, and Marilyn Monroe. Highlights include Rihanna's 2018 Met Gala gown by John Galliano for Maison Margiela and Tina Turner's Bob Mackie "Flame Dress" from 1978. The ticketed event will take place in the Hamilton Building.
Denver has been announced as the exclusive US venue for 'DIVA,' a major fashion and iconography exhibition organized by the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. The show will run from October 4, 2026, to January 31, 2027, at the Denver Art Museum’s Hamilton Building, featuring over 200 objects and more than 50 costumes worn by legendary performers including Maria Callas, Cher, Lady Gaga, Rihanna, RuPaul, Prince, Tina Turner, and Marilyn Monroe.
Giorgio Armani, the Italian fashion designer who bridged fashion and contemporary art, has died aged 91. Born in Piacenza in 1934, he founded his eponymous label in 1975 and became a global brand. In 2000, he became the first fashion designer to have a solo exhibition at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, curated by Germano Celant, which marked a turning point in how museums engage with fashion. In 2015, he opened Armani/Silos in Milan, a converted warehouse serving as an archive and cultural venue, hosting retrospectives of photographers Aldo Fallai and Peter Lindbergh. He also collected photography, sponsored exhibitions like Magnum on Set at the Museo della Permanente, and lent his archive to institutions including the Victoria and Albert Museum.
A three-day citywide symposium titled "Brave New Work: AI and Tech in the Hands of Artists" will take place in Santa Barbara from October 7-9, 2025. Organized by Michael Delgado in partnership with the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara, and UCSB, the event brings together leading artists and scientists for panel discussions, exhibitions, networking, and public art installations. Participants include internationally renowned artists Nancy Baker Cahill, JoAnn Kuchera-Morin, Victoria Vesna, and Beatie Wolfe, alongside technology leaders Kevin Davis, Ken Kosic, and Alan Macy. Highlights include a companion exhibition curated by the Brill Family Foundation, an AR installation at MCASB, performances from the Quantum Concerto, and free projected public artworks at the Michael Towbes Library Plaza.
Two masterworks from the collection of the late Jacob Rothschild—Guercino's *King David* (1651) and John Deare's *Edward and Eleanor* (1790)—have been allocated to London's National Gallery and the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) respectively under the UK's acceptance in lieu (AIL) scheme. The Guercino painting settles £5.6 million in inheritance tax, and will be reunited with two related Guercino works already at the National Gallery. The marble relief by Deare enters the V&A's collection.
The Victoria & Albert Museum hosted a special Friday Late event in collaboration with the London Games Festival, transforming its historic galleries into a playground for interactive and independent video games. Visitors could play titles like the Bafta-winning 'Thank Goodness You’re Here!' and the comedic 'Sex With Friends' amidst the museum's permanent collection, while live-coding music performances and participatory art projects like 'Robot Karaoke' and 'The Line is the Game' emphasized communal, performative experiences.
An exhibition opens at Brodsworth Hall in Yorkshire celebrating the life and passion of Sylvia Grant-Dalton, the house's long-term custodian. The show focuses on her love of gardening and floral art, featuring her collection of decorative objects, a recreated flower preparation room, and displays inspired by her work, including a large floral installation by local floristry students.
Nancy Lupo's exhibition "Meow Meow Real Estate" opens at the Nicoletta Fiorucci Foundation in London's Chelsea neighborhood, curated by Vittoria de Franchis. The show shares its title with Lupo's first novel, which follows a woman searching for an apartment—a quest that is both literal and existential. The foundation's Victorian architecture serves as the bourgeois dwelling central to the narrative.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani publicly called on King Charles III to return the Koh-i-Noor Diamond to India during the British monarch's visit to New York City on Wednesday. Speaking at a press conference before a 9/11 commemoration ceremony, Mamdani said he would encourage the King to return the diamond, which was given to Queen Victoria in 1850 after Britain's colonial governor-general arranged its exchange from a deposed Indian leader. The two leaders later met at the ceremony, but Buckingham Palace declined to comment on the discussion.
Performance artist Maria De Victoria spent Tuesday chanting the last words of Renee Nicole Good—a poet and mother killed by an ICE agent in Minneapolis—outside the ICE field office in New York City's Jacob K. Javits Federal Building. Dressed in a coat bearing Good's phrase "I'm not mad at you, dude," De Victoria performed the endurance piece from sunrise to sunset as an act of dissent against federal immigration crackdowns. The work concluded with a silent vigil, and De Victoria, an immigrant from Peru represented by Desnivel Gallery, has a history of politically charged endurance performances.