LONGVIEW, USA — The under-construction Longview Arboretum and Nature Center could open within a year after a recent property deal moved up the timetable and brought a potential savings of about $1.5 million.

PATNA, INDIA — The state cabinet on Tuesday allotted Rs 397 crore for the ambitious Dr A P J Abdul Kalam Science City project.

In 2013, Lord Cultural Resources was commissioned to prepare the master plan for the Science City. We conducted a needs analysis, contextual and best practices analysis, and a site analysis. We subsequently conducted a Visioning Session to seek input from various stakeholders and target audiences.

MUNICH, GERMANY — A new museum is coming together in the Nymphenburg Palace. The Naturkundemuseum Bayern, Bavarai's new natural history museum, is well on its way to opening in 2023.

Lord Cultural Resources, working with RAA, was appointed by the government of Bavaria to develop a visionary Master Plan for a new science museum to replace and expand the existing and much loved ‘Museum Mensch und Natur’.

ABU DHABI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES — A decade after the €1bn contract was signed to create the Louvre Abu Dhabi, and following multiple construction delays, the museum should finally open this November, if everything goes according to plan.

Lord Cultural Resources worked with the Abu Dhabi Tourism Development and Investment Company (TDIC) to develop many of the new cultural institutions on Saadiyat Island including Master Planning and Facility Programming for the Maritime Museum and the Louvre Abu Dhabi (Classical Art Museum).

OTTAWA, CANADA — On May 9, election day in British Columbia, Bob Rennie – well-known Vancouver real estate marketer and former fundraising chair for the BC Liberals – was nowhere near the political action, or even the province. He was in Venice, giving away art.

TORONTO, CANADA — Design can change the world. In fact, it already is changing the world for the better. That’s the argument of EDIT, a new exhibition and festival that will launch this fall in Toronto.

In 2011, Lord Cultural Resources developed a Strategic Plan that reviewed Design Exchange's programming, facilities and governance models, and established a new strategic direction for the institution. DX has been implementing these directions, including our recommendation to start a festival. In 2017, DX will launch EDIT I Expo for Design, Innovation and Technology, an expo-meets-festival that will present interactive experiences and immersive exhibits, as well as talks and speakers programs.

INDIA — From a Renaissance fixation to a 21st century journey through Buddha’s life, niche museums are changing the way we look at art and history. Institutions like the Bihar Museum combine artefacts with interactive installations, and audio-visual experiences to better tell the stories of their collections.

Lord Cultural Resources is the Master Planning consultant on this project, and is working along with the Department of Art, Culture and Youth and the Building Construction Department of the Government of Bihar to develop this museum.

MIAMI, USA — For decades, South Florida schoolchildren and adults fascinated by far-off galaxies, earthly ecosystems, the properties of light and sound and other wonders of science had only a quaint, antiquated museum here in which to explore their interests.

Lord Cultural Resources began working with the Museum during the first phase of the master planning process with a Concept Development study. We continued to work with the Museum in varying capacities until 2011.

INTERNATIONAL — Michael Phillips Moskowitz explores nine avenues by which museums and other cultural institutions can better engage their increasingly-savvy partners and audiences.

MINNESOTA, USA— With the $25,000 NEA grant, the St Paul, Minnesota-based arts non-profit, Springboard for the Arts, which calls itself “an economic and community development organization for artists and by artists”, opened an office in Fergus Falls and was able to launch a multi-year cultural project.

PHILADELPHIA, USA — Not long after the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation commissioned a series of case studies to help museums improve diversity and inclusivity in their staffing practices, news emerged this spring the Barnes Foundation was stepping into the fray.

ITALY — An Italian regional court has ousted five directors at Italy’s top museums, almost two years after they were appointed in an unprecedented shake-up of the country’s bureaucratic museums sector.

INTERNATIONAL — Museums are the coral reefs of the global art ecosystem; their health underpins and signals the well-being of the whole.

DALLAS, USA — What’s keeping museum lawyers up at night? The new future. That was the message at the annual meeting of more than 200 museum professionals and lawyers in Dallas in March.

MONTREAL, CANADA — Don’t look back. That has been an imperative among architecture’s intellectual leaders for the past 100 years: to focus relentlessly on innovation and to regard history warily, if at all.

TORONTO, CANADA — The nearly complete future home of the University of Toronto’s Daniels Faculty is already one of the best Canadian buildings of the past decade, Alex Bozikovic writes.

INTERNATIONAL — “The Age of Spectacle” by Tom Dyckhoff, a British architecture critic, is the story of the transformation of cities from the dense manufacturing hubs of the early 20th century to the consumerist meccas they are today.

INTERNATIONAL — Freely accessible and the first of its kind, the EAMENA Database catalogues over 20,000 sites at severe risk in the region.

INTERNATIONAL — Museums are turning to virtual reality, apps, and interactive experiences to keep tech-savvy visitors engaged.

INTERNATIONAL — Technology giant Google, through the Google Arts & Culture project, is offering a different experience in terms of culture. In addition to providing thousands of online exhibits, the project offers the possibility to explore more than 2,500 museums through a feature very similar to Google Street View.

NEW YORK, USA — The multidisciplinary organisation at the centre of the massive Hudson Yards redevelopment project has received a $75m gift from Bloomberg Philanthropies.

INTERNATIONAL — Greece and China have officially inaugurated the China-Greece Cultural Exchanges and Cultural Industry Cooperation Year in Athens, in an effort to enhance bilateral relations.

TORONTO, CANADA — After enduring racism and an unforgiving property market, BAND opens its permanent home just in time for the CONTACT Festival.

INTERNATIONAL — New York is once again the the world's "smartest" city, according to the IESE Cities in Motion Index 2017, which analyses all aspects that make up sustainability and quality of life in 180 key world cities. London takes the second spot, followed by Paris.

INTERNATIONAL — Richard Florida is famous for popularizing the theory that creativity helps spur urban development: Artists and other bohemian types make places fun and attractive, and knowledge workers cluster in open-minded, tolerant communities with culture and the amenities that generally come with it.

INTERNATIONAL — The growing appreciation of the importance of cities, especially by leaders in business and science, is much appreciated and long overdue.