V&A named as Art Fund Museum of the Year

V&A named Museum of the Year | The Victoria and Albert Museum was announced as the winner of the Art Fund’s Museum of the Year award at a ceremony in London last night. Over the past year, the V&A has hosted some of the most successful exhibitions in its history, and completed a widely praised restoration of its galleries devoted to European arts and crafts from the 17th–19th centuries. ‘It was already one of the best-loved museums in the country: this year it has indisputably become one of the best museums in the world’, said Art Fund director and chair of judges Stephen Deuchar. Other museums shortlisted for the prize, which at £100,000 is the largest such award in the world, were Bristol’s Arnolfini gallery, West Lothian’s Jupiter Artland, York Art Gallery and the Bethlem Museum of the Mind in south London.

New museum to open in Los Angeles | Plans are afoot for yet another high profile museum opening in downtown Los Angeles, reports the LA Times. Designed by Tom Wiscombe Architecture, the Main Museum will be located in the city’s Old Bank District, with a mission to ‘engage the public with the most important ideas of our time through the art of Los Angeles’, according to director Allison Agsten. In contrast to other major museums in the city – notably Eli Broad’s recently opened Broad Museum – the curatorial focus will be resolutely local. Funded by real estate tycoon Tom Gilmore, the museum’s estimated cost is $50 million, and work is expected to take four years.

Vice Media acquires majority share in Dasha Zhukova’s Garage Magazine | Vice Media has acquired a controlling stake in Garage Magazine (£), the bi-annual art publication founded by Dasha Zhukova in both Russian and English. The magazine, named after Zhukova’s Garage Museum of Contemporary Art in Moscow, is just the latest title to be acquired by the youth orientated brand, which also owns Vice magazine and its various online subsidiaries and i-D. Zhukova will continue in her role as editor-in-chief.

ISIS release further footage of Palmyra destruction | The ISIS terrorist organisation has released a new video, purporting to show extremists smashing statues and destroying mummified bodies, according to Russia Today. The footage, first released on the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights Facebook page, is thought to have been recorded before Syrian government forces retook the city in May.

New Museum and K11 Foundation announce residency for emerging Chinese artists | New York’s New Museum and the Hong Kong-based K11 Art Foundation have paired up to establish a residency programme for emerging Chinese artists. The first beneficiary of the scheme has been named as Cheng Ran, who will begin his three month residency in August, culminating in an exhibition at the New Museum’s Lobby Gallery.