France: Six of France’s 31 national museums, including the Pompidou Centre and the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, closed last month after staff members went on a four-day strike over government plans to replace only one of every two retiring workers.
Unions said this policy would undermine the Pompidou Centre because 44 per cent of its staff are set to retire in the next decade. Frédéric Mitterrand, France’s culture minister, met union leaders, but failed to reach an agreement.
Hong Kong: The international consultancy Cultural Innovations has been commissioned by Hong Kong’s newly formed West Kowloon Cultural District Authority (WKCDA) to carry out a study of international governance structures and best practice worldwide.
The WKCDA plans to develop a 40-hectare site with “a major new cultural institution with museum functions focusing on 20th to 21st century visual culture”, said a Cultural Innovations statement. The Hong Kong government has established a $2.7bn endowment for the authority, which is preparing a site development plan.
Middle East: Tate and the British Museum have set up acquisition committees to purchase contemporary works by Middle Eastern artists. Tate’s 22-member Menaac group (Middle East and North Africa acquisitions committee) will meet formally twice a year to consider acquisitions dating from 1960 to today.
The first Menaac acquisitions will be detailed in the September 2010 annual report. The British Museum’s new panel, which has approved the purchase of a series of prints by Palestinian and Israeli artists, will focus on works on paper.
Sudan: UK architect David Chipperfield has designed a museum at Naga, in Sudan. Excavations at the site 1oo miles north of Khartoum were supported by Berlin State Museums, which commissioned Chipperfield to renovate the newly opened Neues Museum. The German-funded Sudanese museum is scheduled to open by 2011.
US: The Museum of Modern Art (MoMa) in New York has frozen staff salaries following a dip in its investments from $788m to $610m during the last fiscal year. The museum agreed the spending squeeze with unions to avoid laying off employees. In July, museum executives earning more than $150,000 accepted a pay cut of between 2 per cent and 8 per cent; MoMa director Glenn Lowry earned $1.32m in the 12 months to June, down from $1.95m the previous year.
Compiled by Gareth Harris. Seen in the New York Times, Bloomberg, BBC, Reuters and the Art Newspaper
