Orlando plans to turn Pulse nightclub into a memorial

Our daily round-up of news from the art world

Orlando plans to turn Pulse nightclub into memorial | The city of Orlando is planning to purchase the site of a nightclub where a lone gunman murdered 49 people earlier this year and convert it into a permanent memorial, reports the New York Times. The city has agreed to buy the building that housed the Pulse nightclub for $2.25 million, but the decision is still pending the city council’s approval. The council has reportedly deferred its vote on the matter, which was expected to take place Monday, until 5 December to study previous precedents. According to mayor Buddy Dyer, the site has ‘great significance, not just for the LGBTQ community and for the Hispanic community, but for all of us that live [in] and love Orlando.’

Staff and students protest planned redundancies at RCA School of Architecture | The Royal College of Art’s decision to launch a redundancy consultation process with four lecturers at its architecture school has sparked criticism from staff and students. According to the Architects’ Journal (£), a petition protesting the possible departure of Joe Kerr, the head of the RCA’s cross disciplinary Critical and Historical Studies programme has attracted more than 1,000 signatures and sparked a protest rally. Protestors worry that the college’s decision to lay off staff while simultaneously trying to increase student numbers will be ‘detrimental’ to students, one student told the AJ.

Guatemala to open Holocaust Museum | The first museum in Central America dedicated to the memory of the Holocaust is to open officially in Guatemala City in 2017, reports The Art Newspaper. The institution, which has already hosted temporary displays, will apparently focus its permanent exhibition on the ‘Holocaust by bullets’, or the mass murder by shooting of Jews and other persecuted groups that took place in German-occupied areas of the Soviet Union prior to the establishment of the extermination camps. Curator Marco Gonzalez hopes that learning about the subject will provide ‘an opportunity [for the people of Guatemala] to integrate their own story’ into a global one.

Museum of Liverpool to close for ‘essential works’ | The Museum of Liverpool is to close for two months so that ‘essential works’ can be carried out on the building. The museum, which has attracted some 4 million visitors since it opened in 2011, will be closed from 31 December so that crucial construction and design problems can be rectified, says the BBC.

Rema Hort Mann Foundation 2016 Emerging Artist Grants announced | The Rema Hort Mann Foundation has named the eight recipients of 2016 Emerging Artist Grants, reports Artforum. Genesis Belanger, Teto Elsiddique, Anna Glantz, Joiri Minaya, Azikiwe Mohammed, Sara Murphy, Sondra Perry and Adrianne Rubinstein will each receive $10,000 in recognition of their ‘critical and rigorous’ work.