“[The Montreal Holocaust Museum] opens the doors of its brand new home on St-Laurent Blvd. next year. In fact, the move from Côte-des-Neiges to the heart of Montreal and the construction of a new building on the Main are prompting a complete overhaul of the museum’s permanent exhibition.   

To help undertake this transformation, the museum brought in a renowned architectural historian and Holocaust scholar on contract as a co-curator to work alongside Fourcade.  

‘After an exhibit that lasted 23 years, we have the opportunity to rethink what we’re doing,’ Fourcade said. ‘We have this very exciting moment where we need to come up with an exhibit that’s going to last for the next 15 years. It’s not just thinking of what we’re doing today, not just looking at your feet. You have to look ahead and say “What should we do?”’” 

“A $1 million gift from University of Arkansas alumni Bob and Becky Alexander will fund a comprehensive effort to explore the future of the University Museum, including a feasibility study led by Lord Cultural Resources, a global cultural consulting practice offering services for museums, art galleries and other cultural institutions. 

The Bob and Becky Alexander University Museum Vision and Strategy Fund was created to support the strategic planning and professional expertise needed to guide the museum's next phase of development. In addition to the feasibility study, the fund will provide resources for consulting services and executive leadership support as the university evaluates opportunities to expand the museum's impact and role on campus and in the broader community. 

With experience on more than 2,900 projects in 66 countries, Lord Cultural Resources will lead a collaborative process to assess the campus and community needs and the museum's potential future direction.” 

“The spaceship has landed. Perched on an 11-acre campus in Exposition Park, the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art looks as if it alighted in Los Angeles from a galaxy far, far away. An instant landmark, the building was designed by Chinese architect Ma Yansong of MAD, working in tandem with executive architect Michael Siegel of Stantec and landscape maestro Mia Lehrer of Studio-MLA. With its futuristic forms and sinuous lines, the project echoes the radical vision of its founders, filmmaker George Lucas and his wife, Mellody Hobson, who dared to defy the shibboleths of the modern museum world by exalting art and artists long excluded from the sanctums of high culture. The city—indeed the world—has never seen anything like it.” 

We're pleased to share this video series of thought-leadership conversations from the Chicago Architecture Biennial (CAB) in partnership with Amrize “exploring the intersection of design, culture, and the future of architecture.”

CAB traces its roots to the City of Chicago's 2012 Cultural Plan, which envisioned a platform to showcase the city's cultural leadership, work Lord Cultural Resources was proud to help shape. In partnership with the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events and the Graham Foundation, that vision became reality with CAB's inaugural edition in 2015.

CAB’s 2025 iteration, Shift: Architecture in Times of Radical Change, marked the tenth anniversary of what is now North America's largest contemporary architecture and design forum. Shift brought together architects, designers, and civic leaders to explore how the built environment can respond to today's housing, climate, and sustainability challenges—echoing the city's own history of rebuilding and reinvention after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.

“On 5 August, the San Diego Museum of Art (SDMA) laid off 11 employees. These included at least one museum guard, two registrars, two preparators, an exhibition manager, a development director and a member of the membership staff. According to a source with knowledge of the situation who spoke with The Art Newspaper on condition of anonymity, at least two of the laid-off employees had worked at the museum for more than 14 years.”

“In advance of its scheduled reopening early next year after renovation work commenced in 2021, the Cultural Center of the Philippines appointed Carlos Quijon Jr. as the next chief curator of its museum for contemporary art.

“A 2024 compensation study from the lobby group Irish Museums Association found there was an overreliance on temporary contracts and volunteers in the country’s museums. Around 52 percent of museum workers were on permanent or rolling contracts with volunteers making up their second largest pool, standing at 27 percent, IMA said in the report. Only 6 percent of workers were on fixed-term contracts for up to five years. The transition from short-term contracts to permanent positions is a fundamental issue Ireland’s museums need to address, the IMA concluded in its report.”

“The Uffizi Galleries in Florence, Italy has announced a two-year, €50 million transformation, described as one of its most ambitious projects to date. Announced by Uffizi Galleries director Simone Verde, the project covers the Uffizi complex, including the Palazzo Pitti and Boboli Gardens.”

“According to research commissioned by the charity Kids in Museums in early 2025, as many as three in five small museums and galleries in the UK fear the same fate. Declining footfall and revenue are cited as reasons, in the wake of that now ubiquitous deadly trinity—Brexit, Covid and the cost-of-living crisis—not to mention the ongoing turmoil in local authority funding. 

“Valerie Hillings, the director of the North Carolina Museum of Art (NCMA) , has been appointed the inaugural director of the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi ahead of the museum’s opening later this year.

Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, who splashed her signature polka dots on paintings, sculptures and museum installations around the world, has died, her studio said Thursday. She was 97.

“Amid rising operating expenses and dwindling international financial support, the artist-led Picha Art and Research Center in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has launched an “urgent” crowdfunding campaign on GoFundMe. It has received support from a number of leading artists and cultural figures including Elvira Dyangani Ose, who was recently announced as the new artistic director for the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa in Cape Town; the Belgian-born, Mexico-based artist Francis Alÿs; and Paula Nascimento, the co-curator of the upcoming Sharjah Biennial 17. So far, the fundraiser has raised more than €6,000 of its €10,000 target.”

“Coming upon Toronto’s Biidaasige Park in the Port Lands area, a curious sight emerges in the form of a monumental tree-like structure covered in red basketball hoops. With more than 20 nets at different heights hanging off the ends of ‘branches’, Orange Functional (2022) by the Cuban artist Alexandre Arrechea is part of the new Lassonde Art Trail (Lat), an ambitious initiative that opened in June to bring public art to the city’s waterfront. Years in the making, the free, open-air art trail marks a significant milestone in a larger C$1.4bn ($1bn) revitalisation project and feat of engineering to improve Toronto’s relationship with its waterways.”

“Today, Jaime Battiste, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations and Member of Parliament for Cape Breton—Canso—Antigonish, announced investments totaling more than $1.2 million for five tourism operators in Cape Breton and two non-profit organizations in Antigonish and Baddeck.

These investments will help create the experiences that attract visitors to the region, from unique places to stay and vibrant cultural venues to welcoming community spaces and outdoor attractions.”

“Xavier Salomon landed in Lisbon nine months ago to become the director of the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum but the dark-oak bookshelves in his office are still empty. ‘I keep joking that I’ve been living out of boxes because the focus has been entirely on the museum,’ he says with a smile. Rome-born Salomon arrived in the Portuguese capital from the Frick Collection in New York, tasked with overseeing a major renovation. ‘It’s a huge honour and responsibility to reshape a museum for the next 50 years,’ says Salomon. ‘There isn’t going to be another redo of the Gulbenkian anytime soon so you have to think carefully about everything that you do. It’s part of a legacy.’”

“The Shenzhen Natural History Museum officially opened to the public on July 28, 2026, marking the opening of one of the world’s largest new natural history museums and the largest in South China.

“Across the edge of Houhai, where Shenzhen’s headquarters district meets Talent Park and the open water, MAD has completed Shenzhen Bay Culture Square after eight years of work. The 188,000-square-meter museum sits on a reclaimed site facing Hong Kong, with mangrove wetlands continuing along China‘s shoreline.”

“With the recent release of plans to build on top of Eero Saarinen's terminal building at Dulles International Airport, we take a look at old and new controversies surrounding significant works of architecture and their preservation across the US.

Preserving historic architecture is no easy task given ageing buildings, lack of funding and the lucrative nature of new development.”

“Breeze Creative, a leading interactive product company creating innovative installations that combine technology, play, and education, has worked with the ICR Discovery Center in Dallas to develop engaging, hands-on activities that inspire children and families to explore science through play, creativity, and discovery.”

“The Obama Presidential Center, a 19.3-acre campus in Chicago’s Jackson Park, officially opened to the public on 19 June 2026. Alongside programming spaces, a fruit and vegetable garden, the John Lewis Plaza, a playground, and Home Court, a key highlight is the Obama Presidential Center Museum [...].

“On August 2, the next phase of Europe’s Artificial Intelligence Act came into force as the European Union frames this legislation as the world’s first comprehensive law on AI.

“In a ceremony that took place on Tuesday, August 19, the Speed Art Museum in Louisville, Kentucky returned twenty-four cultural items from its collection to the Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes, both of which hail from Oklahoma. This is the first time the museum has repatriated items under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA).”

“A Mixtec human skull adorned with turquoise, shell, jadeite and quartz, displayed for over six decades at the Wereldmuseum in Leiden, is now in the custody of Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH). The remains, whose mosaic embellishment was likely assembled in modern times, were repatriated to Mexico in May 2025 following an initiative by the Nchivi Ñuu Savi collective and the Mexican artist Daniel Aguilar Ruvalcaba. The Yucu Saa Community Museum in Villa de Tututepec, Oaxaca, is the ancestor’s planned final destination.”