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In 2003 the Louvre adopted a new policy of openness to contemporary art, with the aim of offering a fresh perspective on the museum’s collections, while revitalizing the debate on artistic creation and creating links between the past and the present. From April 4 to June 25, 2007, in the sculpture department, the Louvre presents the third edition of this programme called Counterpoint. On this occasion, the Louvre will accomodate eleven artists from the contemporary art scene, including Luciano Fabro, Giuseppe Penone, Richard Deacon, Robert Morris and Anish Kapoor.

Go to website Louvre

The Kremlin Museums in Moscow and the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg are in talks with the authorities in Abu Dhabi to hold loan exhibitions in the emirate. The Kremlin Museums are planning an exhibition in Abu Dhabi’s Emirates Palace luxury hotel in September. The Hermitage director, Mikhail Piotrovsky, who is an Islamic specialist, is also in talks with the authorities in Abu Dhabi. Last year the Hermitage held talks with the Prado in Madrid and the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna to jointly display works in Abu Dhabi, but that idea was rejected in favour of the establishment of a Louvre outpost.

Read full article (The Artnewspaper, April 19, 2007)

A large section of the historic city centre of Rome will be turned into an openair museum. Plans for a museum sector to rival the Louvre in Paris have been approved by Roman town planners. Covering an area of six hectares (15 acres), the “Great Campidoglio” will take in the Colosseum, the Imperial Forums and the Campidoglio, with several buildings being converted into museum space.

Read full article (The Times, April 20, 2007)

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‘Cultuur 2.0’ borrows from Web 2.0, the new generation of internet applications and practice that emphasize generating, sharing and classifying content, collective intelligence, collaboration, sharing, reviewing, ranking, rating, and empowering users. In which ways can such developments be applied in the cultural sector? Will cultural institutions generate other forms of content or approaches by embracing the 2.0 mindset and connecting to the active internet user - or would this mean the end of culture as we know it?

Cultuur 2.0 is a 2-day international conference and laboratory to introduce a Web 2.0 mindset into the creative processes and strategies of cultural institutions. The conference will be held at Felix Meritis on May 30-31 in Amsterdam.

Click for more information

It’s not wrong to wonder how a Smithsonian museum can survive as the Wikipedia of design culture. Or whether a museum site modeled after the populist photo-sharing http://flickr.com/ — with favorite artifacts and amateur points of view — would diminish an institution’s reputation. The bigger question for all museums is how to flourish if they don’t.

Read full article (Washington Post, March 11, 2006)

Until the end of April, a rented downtown space holds a month-long exhibition hosted by a gallery of no fixed address. Called Douz and Mille, the gallery exists, in a manner of speaking, online and in the rented booths of the global art fairs. Its only permanent home is an Internet site.

With “Tomás Rivas: Left to My Own Devices,” gallery owner Rody Douzoglou (hence the “Douz”) has made a rare effort to mount an exhibition that runs the length of most traditional shows — in this case, the month of April — and holds regular public open hours. (”Mille” derives from the last name of a former partner.)

Read full article (Washington Post, April 14, 2007

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On April 19, 2007 the Nederlands Fotomuseum is opening its doors in the completely refurbished Las Palmas building on the Wilhelmina Pier in Rotterdam. The original building was built back in the 50’s to accommodate workshops and warehousing for the Holland-America Line, but now Benthem Crouwel Architects has turned it into a cultural cluster. This multifunctional building will also house the BeeldFabriek (Image Factory) media school and LP2 Center for Urban Culture who both focus on young talent and grassroots initiatives. Transitions between all spaces will be fluid and those taking courses at the BeeldFabriek will also use the museum’s library and its exhibitions supposedly will inspire participants in the workshops at LP2.

Go to website Fotomuseum

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Tate Modern has invited the French fasion designer Agnès Troublé, better known as agnès b., to make a compilation of her favourite 1960s British films. The programme consists of eleven feature films and will run until the end of aprill on the occasion of Gilbert & George’s retrospective at the museum in London.

Go to website Tate Modern

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In an attempt to challenge Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinajad’s call to wipe Israel off the map, the Israeli Holocaust Museum Yad Vashem has launched a website in Farsi, targeting the Iranian people in their own language with a more moderate message. But will the museum be able to convince the more than 60 milion inhabitants of a country, who’s leader simply calls the holocaust a myth?

Read full article (ABC News, April 14, 2007)
Website of Yad Vashem (in Farsi)

For some a battle between science and religion is being fought for the soul of America. The Creationists argue God created the world in six days and want their beliefs given equal status to evolutionary science. And so they opened their own museum.

Read full article (BBC News, Saturday, 14 April 2007)