Auction of artworks; Unionized workers on strike; Florida Museums to shut down

A SUMMARY OF THE MOST EXCITING ART NEWS FROM AROUND THE GLOBE

While we focus on Indian art, we can’t obviously function in a vacuum. It’s a small world and everything is connected, especially on the web. So, let’s train our spotlight across the world map to see what’s going on — from art trends to socio-political issues to everything that affects the great aesthetic global consciousness. Or, let’s just travel the world and have some fun!

Auction of 200 artworks to raise fund for the museum

Grażyna Kulczyk, a Polish collector and investor, will auction around 200 works from her contemporary art collection this fall to raise funds for the Muzeum Susch, her private museum in Swiss Alps. Works by the likes of Vanessa Beecroft, Zhang Huan, and Thomas Ruff, as well as ones by Polish postwar and contemporary artists, will be sold across five sales between October 18 and 20 at the Warsaw-based auction house Desa Unicum. Funds from the sales will go toward the museum’s exhibition programming, a contemporary performance and dance program, and research initiatives. Read more at Art News.

Unionized workesrs at Philadelphia Museum of Art on Strike

STRIKE STARTS MONDAY. Join us on the picket lines at the Philadelphia Museum of Art starting Monday morning. Last Friday was a warning.

Management has had every opportunity and can still avert a strike, but the clock is ticking. pic.twitter.com/AJpnlMswsE

— #ONSTRIKE Philadelphia Museum of Art Union (@PMA_Union) September 23, 2022

Unionized staff at the Philadelphia Museum of Art voted overwhelmingly to strike Sunday and began an indefinite strike this Monday. According to a statement by PMA Union President Adam Rizzo to ARTnews, the strike followed an initial one day warning strike in mid-September and 15 hours of negotiating over two days last week. “We were able to clear non-economic issues off the table and that was really encouraging. We thought we’d wrap up the contract on Friday,” said Rizzo. “But when we got to the economic issues like pay and benefits, the Museum said, ‘We won’t budge on any of these things’ and that’s what led us to vote on the strike.” The strike comes at an awkward time for the Museum as their new director, Sasha Suda, began her first day on Monday. Details at Art News.

Florida museums to shut as hurricane Ian hits on state\’s west coast

Hurricane Ian is expected to make landfall early in the morning on 29 September somewhere between Tampa Bay and Fort Myers, a stretch of Florida’s west coast that is home to more than 3 million residents and many museums. The region’s greatest concentration of museums is located in St Petersburg and Tampa Bay, where the last major direct hit from a hurricane (in 1921) brought an 11ft storm surge with it that flooded downtown Tampa. The Tampa Museum of Art closed on 26 September and will remain shuttered at least through 30 September. Just across Old Tampa Bay in St Petersburg, the waterfront Dalí Museum is closed through 29 September and the Imagine Museum, an institution devoted to contemporary glass art, is closed 27 and 28 September. The James Museum of Western and Wildlife Art is closed through 29 September and the Contemporary Art Museum at the University of South Florida is closed indefinitely. Read the news on The Art Newspaper.