The Headlines
BATHROOM TALK. Museums Galleries Scotland, the umbrella body for 455 museums and galleries in Scotland, has warned of “an environment of suspicion and policing of gender” in some restrooms since this year’s Supreme Court ruling on what defines a woman. (The court ruled that the terms “man,” “woman,” and “sex” in the Equality Act 2010 refer to biological sex.) The Times reports that the publicly funded body said museum staff are being forced to police access to restrooms and formally criticized interim guidelines drawn up by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), a UK watchdog, arguing that if the current advice is left unchanged, some museums might close, while trans people could be left with no facilities at all. Museums Galleries Scotland said that the watchdog’s guidelines do not “uphold the spirit of inclusion,” adding, There is no guidance on how to include trans people, there is only information on how to exclude them.
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“REHABILITATING NAZISM.” Russia has filed criminal charges against Maria Smorževskihh-Smirnova, the director of the Narva Museum in Estonia, accusing her of “rehabilitating Nazism” and spreading false information about the Russian military. The Art Newspaper reports that the charges stem from a large banner displayed on the museum’s exterior, which combined the faces of Vladimir Putin and Adolf Hitler , with the caption “Putler War Criminal!” The banner was revealed on May 9, Russia’s Victory Day, and continues the museum’s annual tradition of criticizing Putin on that date since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Russia’s Investigative Committee announced the charges on July 17, intensifying a campaign against Smorževskihh-Smirnova that started last year. This campaign echoes broader Russian efforts to suppress cultural opposition, particularly in Ukraine and now in the Baltic region. Narva, located directly across a river from Russia’s Ivangorod fortress, has strategic significance: it has a large Russian-speaking population, and analysts have noted it as a potential flashpoint for future Russian aggression. Estonia, now a NATO member along with Latvia and Lithuania, has taken steps to reinforce Narva’s European identity.
The Digest
Amid rollbacks in federal arts funding and sweeping layoffs at cultural institutions across the US, visitor attendance appears to remain on a steady incline at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. [Hyperallergic]
Tate Modern is hoping to boost visitor numbers, especially among younger audiences, by extending opening hours until 9 p.m. every Friday and Saturday from next month. Before the Covid-19 pandemic the museum was regularly open until 10 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. This return to extended opening hours capitalizes on the gallery’s popular monthly late-night evening events, Tate Modern Lates. [FAD Magazine]
A bitter row at the Freud Museum in London has resulted in the institution facing calls for an official investigation into allegations of political interference and “autocratic” board decision-making that critics say put the future of the institution at risk. The museum in Hampstead was the final home of Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, and his daughter Anna Freud, a children’s psychoanalyst, and is dedicated to promoting their intellectual and cultural legacy. [The Guardian]
An ancient Egyptian handprint dating back around 4,000 years has been found on an artifact at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, England. Researchers working on the museum’s forthcoming show “Made in Ancient Egypt” made the discovery on the base of a “soul house,” a model of a building rendered in clay. [The Art Newspaper]
The Kicker
GOING DUTCH. Rotterdam, which boasts Europe’s largest port, is both a hub of industry and a point of pilgrimage for modernist architecture. “But while the city’s history plays a huge role in defining its present identity, local stakeholders are convinced that the best is yet to come as its cultural life enters a new era,” Ocula writes. Fons Hof, director of contemporary art fair Art Rotterdam, told Ocula that while Rotterdam is “inherently a production city—that doesn’t just have to apply to its industrial sector.” The transformation of former industrial districts like Rijnhaven and Katendrecht into cultural destinations suggests Rotterdam is “embracing its layered histories while investing in a creative future,” he continued. Hof said that when Art Rotterdam kicked off 26 years ago, “the prevailing sentiment among galleries was that there were no art buyers in Rotterdam.” This perception has now been reversed.