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News

A daily global contemporary art digest powered by the curator assistant and the research corpus. Each item pairs a fresh announcement or report with concise context about the artist and the publishing institution.

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Updated: 2026-03-18T14:59:33.180969+00:00
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Helen Legg appointed artistic director of London's Royal Academy of Arts

artist / The Art Newspaper - International art news and events

Helen Legg appointed artistic director of London's Royal Academy of Arts

Helen Legg has been appointed artistic director of London’s Royal Academy of Arts, taking up the role in June 2026. Legg, currently director of Tate Liverpool since 2018, will oversee the RA’s exhibitions, collection and public programme. At Tate she has led a major capital redevelopment of the Grade I-listed Liverpool building, due to reopen in 2027. Her previous posts include director of Spike Island (2010–2018) and curator at Ikon Gallery. She holds an MA in history of art from the University of St Andrews (1996) and an MA in curating and commissioning contemporary art from the Royal College of Art. The announcement also named Livia Evans and Lamia Dabboussy to senior RA roles.

March 18, 2026 Tate
US congress passes revamped Holocaust recovery bill that sidesteps many legal defences

artist / The Art Newspaper - International art news and events

US congress passes revamped Holocaust recovery bill that sidesteps many legal defences

The US Congress has passed the Holocaust Expropriated Art Recovery (HEAR) Act of 2025, approved by the House on 16 March and already cleared the Senate in December; it awaits President Donald Trump's signature. The law extends the 2016 HEAR Act without a sunset, keeping a national six-year discovery-based statute of limitations while removing common procedural defenses—including laches and deference to foreign sovereign actions—often invoked by museums and other possessors in Nazi-era restitution cases. Supporters say it enables meritorious claims to be heard; critics, including the Association of Art Museum Directors, warn it undermines legal principles and could increase litigation. The change may prompt museums to intensify provenance research.

March 17, 2026 Tate
Open Letter Calls for Israel to be Banned from Venice Biennale

institution / ARTnews.com

Open Letter Calls for Israel to be Banned from Venice Biennale

Art Not Genocide Alliance (ANGA) released an open letter calling on the Venice Biennale to bar Israel from participating in this year’s exhibition; it has nearly 200 signatories, including artists and curators taking part in the Biennale. Signatories include curators Gabe Beckhurst Feijoo and Rasha Salti, members of the team working with the late curator Koyo Kouoh, who died last May after being announced as curator of the 2026 Venice Biennale. The letter accuses Israel of genocide and apartheid and cites 2024 protests—when ANGA’s earlier letter drew over 20,000 signatories and Israel’s pavilion did not open—as precedent. Israel will exhibit in the Arsenale rather than the Giardini; Haifa-based artist Belu-Simion Fainaru is set to represent Israel. The Biennale is also facing controversy over Russia’s planned pavilion reopening.

March 17, 2026 Venice Biennale
Nearly 200 Venice Biennale participants sign letter demanding cancellation of Israeli pavilion

institution / The Art Newspaper - International art news and events

Nearly 200 Venice Biennale participants sign letter demanding cancellation of Israeli pavilion

Nearly 200 artists, curators and art workers involved in the 2026 Venice Biennale have signed a letter, delivered to the biennale’s president and board, demanding the exclusion of the Israeli pavilion. Led by the Art Not Genocide Alliance (ANGA), the signatories say they refuse to "platform the Israeli state as it commits genocide," and cite damage to Palestinian cultural life. Named signatories include Alfredo Jaar, Yto Barrada, Rosana Paulino, Meriem Bennani, Cauleen Smith, and curators Binna Choi and Carles Guerra. ANGA previously warned on 2 October 2025 that failure to exclude Israel could prompt a full artist and audience boycott and coordinated industrial action in Italy. The letter references Palestinian Ministry of Health death toll estimates in Gaza.

March 17, 2026 Venice Biennale
‘I don’t like that idea’: outgoing Tate director Maria Balshaw enters debate on museum admission charges

artist / The Art Newspaper - International art news and events

‘I don’t like that idea’: outgoing Tate director Maria Balshaw enters debate on museum admission charges

Maria Balshaw, the outgoing director of Tate, has criticised proposals to charge admission to overseas visitors at UK national museums, saying it would send the wrong message to countries whose cultural heritage is held in British collections. The idea, first floated by former British Museum interim director Mark Jones in 2024, has met resistance: a 2024 Cultural Policy Unit report called such charges logistically complex and ideologically at odds with global collections, noting, for example, that the British Museum would effectively charge Nigerians to see the Benin Bronzes. Balshaw favours a "tourist tax" with at least 80% ring-fenced for culture and urged tax incentives for endowment giving; she steps down this month after nine years.

March 17, 2026 Tate
Next edition of Getty's PST Art initiative will focus on Los Angeles’s connections around the Pacific Rim

artist / The Art Newspaper - International art news and events

Next edition of Getty's PST Art initiative will focus on Los Angeles’s connections around the Pacific Rim

The Getty Trust has announced that the fourth edition of its PST Art programme will focus on Los Angeles’s ties to the Pacific Rim and will open across Southern California in September 2030. The research cycle begins immediately, with nonprofit cultural organisations in eight Southern California counties eligible to submit letters of inquiry for funding by 1 June 2026. The 2030 theme will explore transpacific exchange across centuries—from Chinese porcelain in Spanish missions and Japanese visual influences on architecture to contemporary Korean pop culture—and includes a diplomatic dimension, according to creative director Justine Ludwig. PST Art will use a two-stage model (research/planning then implementation); the Getty also plans a PST Art Open House in 2027.

March 16, 2026 Tate
Epic Fantasies: An Introduction to Fantasies of the People - Journal #161

institution / e-flux.com

Epic Fantasies: An Introduction to Fantasies of the People - Journal #161

Kerstin Stakemeier's essay 'Epic Fantasies: An Introduction to Fantasies of the People' examines the role of 'fantasy' in the writings of German feminist Lu Märten (1879–1970). Stakemeier situates Märten’s concept within a historical-materialist framework, tracing how artistic imagination intersects with labor, everyday forms, and political praxis. The piece engages with Märten’s own texts (including writings from 1903 and 1924) and dialogues with thinkers such as Günther K. Lehmann, Sigmund Freud, Stefano Harney and Fred Moten, Anselm Franke, and recent scholarship to reconsider origins, intimacy, and non-sensuous standards in aesthetic theory. All translations in the article are by the author.

March 4, 2026 Tate
Kazakhstan's Tselinny Arts Center Puts Decolonization into Practice

institution / ARTnews.com

Kazakhstan's Tselinny Arts Center Puts Decolonization into Practice

The Tselinny Center of Contemporary Culture opened this September in Kazakhstan as an intentional counterpoint to hierarchical Western arts institutions, centering decolonization in practice. Its inaugural programming included Barsakelmes, a 90-minute multidisciplinary performance that summoned the Aral Sea through music, dance, and visual installation: a monumental multi-colored yurt by Berlin-based Kazakh artist Gulnur Mukazhanova with visuals by Darya Temirkhan, throat singing, synthesizer, and dancers. Guided by a creative advisory board including cultural sociologist Diana T. Kudaibergen, the project reinterpreted Central Plains myths to address Soviet-era ecological and cultural trauma. The audience mixed local and international patrons, professionals, and journalists, and the center foregrounds regional memory and post‑Soviet artistic renewal.

October 9, 2025 Tselinny Center of Contemporary Culture
494h 29m 53s - Announcements - e-flux

artist / e-flux.com

494h 29m 53s - Announcements - e-flux

Karin Sander’s 494h 29m 53s restages the Neuer Berliner Kunstverein’s Video-Forum collection in a continuous 494‑hour screening of 1,254 works by 574 artists. The programme, mounted by the Akademie der Künste in cooperation with the n.b.k., runs over 31 days beginning 3 July 2025 with a 7pm opening; screenings follow a set structure of 12‑hour blocks on weekdays and 24‑hour blocks at weekends. The opening includes a panel with Marius Babias, Bjørn Melhus, Anh‑Linh Ngo, Karin Sander and Hito Steyerl, followed by a 9pm–midnight screening. The public programme runs 4 July–2 August 2025 with daily and non‑stop weekend hours; a summer bar will be available.

June 28, 2025 Hito Steyerl