Increase in total prize money for Art Fund Museum of the Year

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Art Fund Museum of the Year 2017 launched | The Art Fund has begun its hunt for 2017’s Museum of the Year. Next year’s award will boost the total cash prize by 40 per cent, bringing it to £140,000, with runners-up now receiving £10,000 each in addition to the £100,000 first prize. It will be judged by a panel that includes British Museum director Hartwig Fischer, DJ Jo Whiley and arts and philanthropy advisor Munira Mirza, to be chaired by Art Fund director Stephen Deuchar. The prize, which was established in 2008 and awarded to London’s V&A in 2016, is the largest such award for museums in the world.

Right-wing activists protest against exhibit at Jaipur Art Summit | Last week, two groups of activists visited the Jaipur Art Summit in order to protest against an exhibit by London-based artist Radha Binod Sharma that depicted four topless women. According to the Indian Express, members of Lal Shakti (a women’s organisation) and Rashtriya Hindu Ekta Manch (RHEM) ‘stormed’ the summit and allegedly damaged the work while removing it for being ‘obscene’. Sharma was reportedly injured and threatened in the altercation. Pandit Vijay Shankar Pandey, leader of RHEM was arrested shortly after the incident, while Lal Shakti leader Hemlata Sharma has reportedly ‘absconded’.

Philip Rylands to leave Peggy Guggenheim Collection | Peggy Guggenheim Collection director Philip Rylands is to leave the institution next June after 16 years in the role, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation has confirmed. Under Rylands’s direction, the Venice-based Collection has become the most visited modern art museum in Italy, says The Art Newspaper. The museum will begin searching for a new director ‘in the coming months’.

Woodrow Kernohan appointed director of John Hansard Gallery | The University of Southampton has named EVA International’s Woodrow Kernohan as the new director of its John Hansard Gallery. Kernohan will replace long-term director Stephen Foster, who has led the John Hansard Gallery for the last 30 years. ‘I am thrilled […] Growing up in the region, the Gallery was a constant reference point for me and I am delighted to be returning to the area to take up this role and build on Professor Stephen Foster’s legacy’, Kernohan said.