Museum Misfortune
New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art is struggling with a $40 million deficit, which has forced the institution to reduce its staff and postpone a proposed expansion. “To have inherited a museum as strong as the Met was 10 years ago—with a great curatorial staff—and to have it be what it is today is unimaginable,” said George R. Goldner, a former department chairman at the Met.
[The New York Times]
Pretty In Pink
The Council of Fashion Designers of America has partnered with Planned Parenthood to create Fashion Stands with Planned Parenthood. The new program’s first initiative will be distributing pink pins, accompanied with fact sheets about Planned Parenthood, during New York Fashion Week.
[W]
Charitable Donation
This year’s Genesis Prize Laureate, Anish Kapoor, will donate the $1 million awarded to him to help with the refugee crisis. The Genesis Prize has been called the Jewish Nobel Prize, as it is awarded to highly accomplished individuals of Jewish heritage. “As inheritors and carriers of Jewish values it is unseemly, therefore, for us to ignore the plight of people who are persecuted, who have lost everything and had to flee as refugees in mortal danger,” Kapoor said.
[Artnet]
Building from the Rubble
A new cultural center is under construction near the Baimyan Buddhas, a UNESCO World Heritage site in Afghanistan destroyed by the Taliban in 2001. Experts are still debating whether or not to rebuild the rock-cut Buddhas.
[The Art Newspaper]
Exit at Tiffany’s
Tiffany & Co. CEO Frederic Cumenal is exiting the company after less than two years in the position. Previously this month, another change indicated that the company was seeking a new direction. Cumenal had previously hired design director Francesca Amfitheatrof, but the company recently announced that Reed Krakoff would become the brand’s chief creative officer, effectively usurping Amfitheatrof’s top role.
[Business of Fashion]