“A novel cigarette tax has generated $270 million for cultural organizations in the Cleveland area, which makes declining smoking rates ‘a double-edged sword.’ ... The innovative model has been so successful, raising money by making cigarettes more expensive, that it threatened its own demise. Adult smoking rates in Cleveland, which used to be far above the national average, plummeted to 19 percent from 35 percent over the past decade. Tax revenue fell by half.”

“The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) is set to receive a $35 million boost in funding for its expansion project that's currently underway and set to continue over the next two years, increasing the museum's gallery space by 40,000 square feet.” 

“The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles has unveiled its inaugural exhibitions ahead of its opening this September. Founded by George Lucas and Mellody Hobson, the new museum is designed by MAD Architects founder Ma Yansong. It opens on 22 September.”

“Hamilton Public Library (HPL), in partnership with the City of Hamilton, will open a small, temporary West Harbour Branch, activating the waterfront site with services and programs while long-term plans continue. ... From a city-building perspective, this initiative reflects a broader vision for Hamilton’s waterfront as a place for connection, learning and cultural exchange.” 

Lord Cultural Resources, in collaboration with DPAI Architecture Inc. and Indigenous Thought Leader Tim Johnson, is working closely with the Hamilton Public Library (HPL) and the City of Hamilton's Indigenous Relations Division on Program Design & Development of the former Canadian Marine Discovery Centre. This includes a visitor experience strategy, facilities planning, operations planning, and schematic design with capital cost estimates.

“Jenny Ellison, the manager of digital engagement strategy and publications at the Canadian Museum of History, says that adopting AI is part of the museum’s responsibility as a Canadian institution. ‘It’s our job to stay abreast of technological developments and harness them where we can to connect with our audiences.’”

“Next week, the Penn Cultural Heritage Center (PennCHC) at the University of Pennsylvania‘s Penn Museum will launch a first-of-its-kind survey exploring the collecting practices in place at museums and libraries across America. ... The forthcoming survey will collect information on policies, acquisitions, deaccessions, and more from May 20 through August 20.”

“The Museum of Image and Sound (MIS-RJ) on Rio de Janeiro’s waterfront finally opens ... after more than 16 years of development. The 10,000-sq.-m museum is expected to become a national landmark, featuring eight floors, including a rooftop and two basement levels. The building’s façade, made from interlocking aluminium and glass panels, provides visitors with panoramic views of Copacabana Beach.”

“The vast majority—around 85%—of US museums face a costly backlog of maintenance or repairs to their buildings. In addition, around 77% have at least one structural issue putting their collections at risk. This is according to a recent survey conducted by the US Government Accountability Office (GAO), a non-partisan federal agency that investigates government spending and performance and reports its findings to congress.”

“’The Saudi Arabia Museum of Contemporary Art will be the epicentre of Saudi modern and contemporary art,’ Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al-Hammad, chief executive officer of the Saudi Museums Commission, said in a statement. ...‘We are committed to ensuring this dynamic platform remains accessible and inspiring for all.’”

“After an eight-month closure for construction, Detroit’s Museum of Contemporary Art is open for visitors to experience again. MOCAD’s 2026 Spring Exhibition features four new exhibitions, as the museum celebrates its 20th year of operation.”

“The Museum of the Moving Image in Queens, long a home for cinephiles, found success, and new visitors, by repositioning itself as a community hub. ... A jewel box of a space — at less than 100,000 square feet, it’s one-seventh the size of the Museum of Modern Art — MoMI has more than doubled its visitors in the last two years, to over 300,000, and increased membership by nearly 50 percent since 2024, according to museum leaders.”

“On Wednesday, the National Trust for Historic Preservation released its annual list of the most endangered historic sites in the United States. While some locations on the shortlist were included due to threats of redevelopment and environmental decay, others–including several commemorating sites of civil rights struggles–face political challenges from the Trump Administration.”

“Construction workers racing to build the Trump administration’s border wall between the US and Mexico accidentally damaged a two-hundred-foot-long work of Indigenous Land art thought to be over a thousand years old, according to the Washington Post.”

“Canadians represent the largest group of international tourists to the US, but the Trump administration’s rhetoric has made many of them feel unwelcome. New York City Tourism + Conventions counted approximately 983,000 Canadian visitors to the city in 2024—a number that dropped to 800,000 in 2025.”

“A landmark expansion of the Louvre is one step closer to becoming a reality today, as the Paris museum announced an international team of architects to realize its ambitions. New York’s Selldorf Architects will team up with Studios Architecture Paris to see through the project, which has been dubbed the ‘Nouvelle Renaissance.’”

“The Tokyo-based architecture firm Kengo Kuma & Associates has been chosen to design a new, approximately $100 million project for the Brandywine Conservancy & Museum of Art in rural Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, per a statement.”

“US studio Safdie Architects has released designs for an interconnected set of pavilions in Oklahoma, USA, to serve as a cultural campus for the Cherokee Nation. The designs for the Cherokee Heritage Center feature a set of pavilions with walls that ‘evoke’ layered, earthen materials rising among and above a grove of trees in the Cherokee Nation capital at Tahlequah within eastern Oklahoma.”

“Billed by its co-founder, Turkish-American artist Refik Anadol, as ‘the world's first museum of AI arts,’ Dataland will be located at The Grand LA, the Frank Gehry-designed complex in downtown Los Angeles' Grand Avenue Cultural District.”

Dataland’s immersive exhibitions, generated with artificial intelligence, will debut to the public on June 20, with an inaugural show about rainforests trained on millions of images of nature.

“The law, which fulfills a promise Emmanuel Macron made to a crowd of young African people in 2017, allows the government to approve the restitution of looted artifacts by decree, rather than requiring a specific law for each case.”

“On Wednesday, at a ceremony held at La Marmora barracks in Rome, the United States officially returned 337 looted antiquities to Italy in a repatriation ceremony, the New York Times reports.”