$250 million Hudson River pier project is cancelled

Our daily round-up of news from the art world

$250 million Hudson River pier project is cancelled | The plug has officially been pulled on Pier 55, the billionaire businessman Barry Diller’s project for a a Thomas Heatherwick-designed ‘floating park’ and performance space built on Manhattan’s lower west side, the New York Times reports. Diller, who intended to underwrite the scheme along with his wife the fashion designer Diane von Fursternberg, ascribed the decision to the ‘continuing controversy’ over the pier’s location in a protected estuary, as well as ‘huge escalating costs’, which saw project costs rise from an initial estimate of $35 million in 2011 to over $250 million.

British Museum apologises for curator’s comment on exhibition labels | Yesterday the British Museum took part in an ‘Ask a Curator’ session on Twitter, during which the museum’s keeper of Asian art Jane Portal attracted criticism by responded to a question about exhibition labels with the statement that ‘Asian names can be confusing, so we have to be careful about using too many.’ The institution has subsequently issued a statement, also on Twitter, which seeks to clarify Portal’s comments and apologises ‘for any offence caused’.

Crystal Bridges founder announces new Art Bridges foundation | Alice Walton, the Wal-Mart heiress who founded the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Arkansas in 2011, has announced a new project: the Art Bridges foundation, a non-profit dedicated to ‘building partnerships’ between museums, private collections and foundations. The organisation will have its own collection of American art, which it plans to loan out to other institutions, while also creating and funding exhibitions to increase public access to art.

2017 Chicago Artadia award winners announced | The 2017 winners of the Chicago edition of the Artadia awards have been announced: Rashayla Marie Brown, who often goes by RMB, and Claire Pentecost. Over the past 18 years Artadia, a US-based non-profit, has awarded over $3 million to more than 300 artists in its seven participating award cities. The winners of the 2017 Chicago awards, who were selected by artist Rashid Johnson and curators Omar Kholeif, Susan Thompson, and Megha Ralapati, will each receive $10,000 and their work will be presented in the Artadia booth at this year’s Expo Chicago art fair.

The Met outlines job description for new director | The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s former director and CEO Thomas Campbell stepped down nearly nine months ago in February, but the job description for his successor was only finalised this week. Following a board meeting on Tuesday morning, an outline of the yet-to-be-appointed leader’s responsibilities was circulated to staff yesterday morning. The new director, in a departure from the combined roles of their predecessor, will report to the museum’s president and recently appointed chief executive Daniel Weiss. No candidates have been interviewed for the position at this stage.