Awards, Prussian Porcelain, Techno, Cabaret! Inside Berlin’s First-Ever Art Gala

Berlin's Hamburger Bahnhof museum held its first-ever gala to celebrate its 30th anniversary. The event featured a curated program of performances, including a participatory installation by artist duo Elmgreen and Dragset titled "Performing Yourself" and a mirrored neon work by Monica Bonvicini. High-profile guests like Cate Blanchett, Matt Dillon, Wim Wenders, and Nina Hoss attended the evening, which blended traditional gala elements with Berlin-specific cultural touchstones like techno, cabaret, and performances by artists such as Ellen Allien and Alice Sara Ott.

Gallery Weekend Berlin opens ranks as city faces identity crisis

Gallery Weekend Berlin (GWB) expands from 50 to 57 participating galleries in 2025, introducing a new section called Perspectives that features smaller, younger galleries previously excluded from the event. The 20-year-old event, which began with 21 dealers aiming to attract international collectors to Berlin, has grown into a major sales week for galleries. Perspectives includes galleries like Anton Janizewski and Persons Projects, with a reduced participation fee of €4,500 (half the usual €9,000), subsidized by the Berlin Senate. The selection committee invites galleries rather than accepting applications, a process that has faced accusations of elitism.

As the US Slides Into Tyranny, Europe Champions Black American Artists

Four major European museums are simultaneously staging ambitious exhibitions of Black American artists, including Kerry James Marshall at London's Royal Academy, Jacob Lawrence at Kunsthal KAdé in Amersfoort, Nina Chanel Abney in Paris and Amersfoort, and Mickalene Thomas at Les Abattoirs in Toulouse and the Grand Palais in Paris. The article, written as an opinion piece, describes the author's experience at the opening of Abney's show at Elbow Church in the Netherlands and contrasts the European embrace of these artists with the political climate in the United States.

video data bank downsizing school art institute chicago

The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) laid off three of five staff members at the Video Data Bank (VDB), a renowned video art distribution organization, on November 12. Former director Tom Colley announced the dismissals of digital collection manager Elise Schierbeek and distribution assistant Nicky Ni, and stated that acquisitions and programming would cease. SAIC cited financial pressures from federal policy changes and enrollment declines, insisting the VDB is not closing but needs adjusted staffing to protect its teaching mission. The VDB, founded in 1976 and approaching its 50th anniversary, holds works by major artists including Nam June Paik, Pipilotti Rist, and Bruce Nauman, and has historically received NEA funding.

will the us participate in the 2026 venice biennale

As President Donald Trump cuts U.S. art programs and funding, questions surround the country's participation in the 2026 Venice Biennale. A Vanity Fair piece by Nate Freeman reports that the selection process is already behind schedule, with the U.S. State Department's typical 18-month lead time now reduced to just one year. The National Endowment for the Arts, which convenes the advisory committee for the pavilion, has been halted, and a key assistant secretary position is vacant. The application portal remains open but now includes new language requiring art that "reflects and promotes American values" and scrubbing references to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).

perez art museum miami fraklin sirmans florida arts cuts

Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) director Franklin Sirmans reflected on his decade-long tenure in an interview with the New York Times during Art Basel Miami Beach. He highlighted the museum's growth, including doubling its endowment (with 10% from the Fund for Black Art), expanding the collection to over 3,500 works, and launching digital initiatives like PAMM TV. Sirmans also criticized Florida Governor Ron DeSantis's 2024 veto of $32 million in arts funding, which left the state with zero arts funding for a period, though some funding was later restored.

Moving On Up: 24 Museum Curators and Art Leaders Who Took on New Appointments in First Half of 2025

Culture Type has published its annual list of new appointments among museum curators and arts leaders for the first half of 2025, highlighting two dozen hires and promotions at major institutions. Notable appointments include Deana Haggag as program director for arts and culture at the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Ann Collins Smith as chief curator at the New Orleans Museum of Art (the first Black American in a full-time curatorial role there), and Vincent van Velsen as head of exhibitions at Eye Filmmuseum in Amsterdam. The list also features curators such as Alisa Chiles at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and Brittany Webb at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

At the Funeral of an Art Center

A l’enterrement d’un centre d’art

The article reports on the closure of a contemporary art center, described metaphorically as a funeral. It details the final days of the institution, the reactions from the artistic community, and the circumstances leading to its demise, such as funding cuts or policy changes.

Victorien Bornéat : « De l’échec de la démocratisation culturelle est né un sentiment d’exclusion »

Victorien Bornéat has published a manifesto arguing that French cultural democratization policy, rooted in André Malraux's vision of making masterworks accessible to all, has failed. He cites budget cuts by regional presidents Laurent Wauquiez and Christelle Morançais, police raids on bookshops like Violette and Co, and statistical studies showing that working-class audiences still do not spontaneously attend theaters, museums, or opera. Bornéat contends that the policy's emphasis on direct confrontation with canonical works ignored the need for cultural codes and institutional literacy, creating an exclusion that politicians now exploit for electoral gain.

us artists struggle with food and healthcare insecurity study

A national survey commissioned by the Mellon Foundation and conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago has produced a 102-page report on the livelihoods of 2,618 US artists across five disciplines—performing arts, visual arts, writing, craft arts, and other arts—broken into 37 subdisciplines. Key findings reveal that 34% of artists are fully self-employed, 50% are self-employed in their primary job, and 11% hold three or more jobs. More than 57% of artists report being worried about financial vulnerabilities, including food (22%), housing, medical costs (32%), or utilities, while 28% provide unpaid care for a loved one and 8% have served in the military.

supreme court ruling advances trumps plan for mass layoffs of federal workers

The U.S. Supreme Court lifted a lower court order that had temporarily blocked the Trump administration's plan to lay off thousands of federal workers. The initial lawsuit was filed by the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), 11 nonprofits, and local governments from states including California, Texas, and Illinois, challenging Executive Order 14210. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was the sole dissenter, while liberal justices Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor sided with the conservative majority. The ruling allows mass firings and reorganizations at 19 federal agencies, including the State Department and Social Security Administration, to proceed, though a separate injunction protecting sub-agencies of Health and Human Services remains in place.

Miami Advice: Mikhaile Solomon on the immersive Artists in Residence in Everglades programme

Mikhaile Solomon, founder of Prizm art fair, discusses the Artists in Residence in Everglades (Airie) program, which has hosted around 200 artists over 25 years. Founded in 2001 by artist Donna Marxer and park ranger Alan Scott, Airie invites about 14 artists per year to live and work for one month in Everglades National Park, producing work that responds to the subtropical wilderness. The program's exhibitions have traveled to venues like the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum and the Venice Biennale, with recent projects including Miami-based artist Germane Barnes' sound installations.

More than 150 US arts organisations pledge to resist political pressure

More than 150 US arts organizations and over 320 artists and cultural workers have signed a public statement affirming their commitment to resisting political pressure. Organized by the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) and the Vera List Center for Art and Politics (VLC) at the New School, the statement does not explicitly name President Donald Trump or his administration's actions, but was precipitated by Trump's pressure campaigns against the Smithsonian Institution and the Kennedy Center, as well as deep cuts to the NEA, NEH, and IMLS. Signatories include institutions from both Democratic- and Republican-controlled states, such as the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts in New York and Diverseworks in Houston, Texas.

Prospect, New Orleans’ international art exhibition, cancels its next big show in 2027

Prospect, New Orleans' international art exhibition, has canceled its next planned show in 2027. The decision was announced by the organization's most recent director, Nick Stillman, who cited the current political climate and cuts to government arts funding as making the financial outlook for the multi-million-dollar event "ominous." Stillman has since left the organization. Instead of mounting another exhibition, Prospect will publish a book titled "20 Years of Prospect" and shift focus to exploring sustainable models for presenting global art discourse while archiving its past work.

In bid to diversify KW Institute in Berlin, artist Sung Tieu sells work to fund new board member

Artist Sung Tieu has sold her work *Declaration of Donation* (2025) for €25,000 to fund a new board member at KW Institute of Contemporary Art in Berlin. The work, a contract engraved on four A4-sized mirrors, stipulates that the proceeds cover the five-year term of curator and academic Mi You, whom Tieu nominated to the board. The sale directly challenges KW’s board structure, which requires a €5,000 annual fee from each member—a key revenue stream for the institution amid Berlin’s arts funding cuts. Tieu’s piece argues that such fees perpetuate exclusion and economic gatekeeping, and that institutional change requires structural shifts, not mere declarations of inclusivity.

Walters’ Latin American art exhibit lost $70K in Trump cuts. It’s opening anyway.

The Walters Art Museum in Baltimore is opening its inaugural installation of Latin American art despite losing $70,000 in federal funding due to cuts by the Trump administration. The lost funds represented 6% of the $1,160,000 installation cost, and the museum had little opportunity to raise replacement money. The exhibition features an earthenware burial urn and other works, proceeding as planned despite the financial shortfall.

Milwaukee art gallery owner working tirelessly to keep her space open amid potential foreclosure

Fatima Laster, owner of the 5 Points Art Gallery & Studios in Milwaukee’s 5 Points neighborhood, is facing potential foreclosure on the building she purchased in 2018. She acquired the property through the city’s ARCH loan program and financed it with a five-year loan from the Greater Milwaukee Foundation’s Impact Investing program. The balloon payment of $260,000 is due by December 1, 2025. Laster has been fundraising to save the space, which has hosted hundreds of artists and thousands of visitors. Her current immersive installation, “Interrupted: Cash for Homes,” replicates her grandparents’ home and addresses gentrification and housing displacement on Milwaukee’s north side.

A morning with Shoair Mavlian, director of The Photographers’ Gallery

Shoair Mavlian, director of The Photographers’ Gallery in London, is the subject of a profile that follows her through a typical morning, discussing her leadership strategies amid challenges facing the arts sector. The article explores how she navigates pressures from AI-generated imagery, government funding cuts, and cultural backlash against progressive initiatives, while maintaining the gallery's relevance and financial stability.