Briefing
Sir Nicholas Serota set to leave Tate after nearly 30 years; plans are unveiled for new arts venue at the World Trade Center site
Sir Nicholas Serota set to leave Tate after nearly 30 years; plans are unveiled for new arts venue at the World Trade Center site
- Sir Nicholas Serota is set to step down from his post as director of Tate to become chairman of Arts Council England. Serota has been at the helm for nearly 30 years, founding Tate Modern and Tate St Ives and curating a number of major surveys of the likes of Eva Hesse, Henri Matisse, Gerhard Richter and Cy Twombly, while also leading on the GBP£260 million development of the new wing, the Switch House, which opened earlier this year.
- Digital renderings of the World Trade Center Performing Arts Center, New York, have finally been unveiled, shortly after businessman Ronald O. Perelman donated USD$75 million to the project in order to expedite the developments. Now named ‘The Ronald O. Perelman Performing Arts Center’, the 90,000-square-foot space will boast of three flexible auditoriums, and will be led by newly appointed chairwoman Barbra Streisand.
- Steve McQueen has been awarded the 2016 Johannes Vermeer Award, the Dutch state prize for the arts which carries with it around USD$112,000 in prize money. Last month, McQueen became the youngest ever recipient of a British Film Institute fellowship, the institution’s highest accolade. McQueen lives between London and Amsterdam.
- Charlie Hebdo has drawn severe criticism once again for a cover illustration mocking the recent earthquake in central Italy, which killed around 300 people. Responding to the reproach, the French publication posted another illustration, which depicted the aftermath of the earthquake alongside text reading: ‘Italians … It’s not Charlie Hebdo that builds your homes, it’s the mafia.’ (French)
- Egyptian sculptor Wagih Yani has been forced to alter a public statue commissioned by a local council after critics claimed that it depicts a soldier sexually assaulting a woman. Yani has agreed to amend the work, but continues to defend his original design, saying that the soldier is in fact protecting the woman.
- London-based artist Rebecca Moss has found herself stranded several hundred kilometres off the shore of Japan, midway through completing the ‘23 Days at Sea’ residency. The Hanjin Shipping Company, which carries the resident artists, has filed for receivership, meaning that its assets have been frozen and international ports have blocked access to its entire fleet.
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