U.S. Air and Space Museum launches 40th anniversary bash

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U.S. Air and Space Museum launches 40th anniversary bash
The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum late on Friday kicks off its 40th anniversary festivities with a first-ever overnight celebration, long enough for the International Space Station to orbit the Earth nearly eight times. It houses the Apollo 11 command module Columbia, which achieved President John F. Kennedy’s goal of delivering a crew to the moon. The Bell X-1 that Chuck Yeager flew faster than the speed of sound and the Mercury capsule Friendship 7 flown by John Glenn, the first American to orbit Earth, are also on view.

Top Chinese art collector to hand over museum, sell works

One of the world’s leading collectors of Chinese art, Belgian billionaire Guy Ullens, is to give up his eponymous Beijing museum — among the capital’s top art centres — and sell his private collection, the organisation said. Ullens, a baron, is a foodstuffs magnate and longstanding Chinese art collector whose companies have included Weight Watchers. In a joint statement by the museum and the Guy & Myriam Ullens Foundation, Ullens said he will hand over UCCA to a new benefactor and sell off his own vast collection through private sales and auctions later this year.

WWI soldiers mingle with commuters in artist’s Somme tribute

LONDON (AP) — British commuters were met by the eerie sight of World War I soldiers in uniform as they made their way to work Friday, the 100th anniversary of the start of the Battle of the Somme.

Karl Lagerfeld dresses the latest Paris ballet

Karl Lagerfeld has turned his talented hand to costume design for the latest ballet to hit Opéra Bastille in Paris. The fashion designer has created the costumes for the upcoming production “Brahms-Schönberg Quartet” at the request of choreographer choreographer Benjamin Millepied, WWD reports. Lagerfeld has created the looks for all four acts of the George Balanchine piece, totaling around 100 costumes.

Country Artist Kerri Leigh on Her Upcoming Album
Leigh and her guitarist Craig Wilson are producing music that is personal.

Fiona Tan revealed as new artist-in-residence at Getty Research Institute

The visual artist was announced as the new artist-in-residence for the Getty Institute’s 2016-2017 Scholars Program. Born in Indonesia and raised in Australia, Fiona Tan is currently living in the Netherlands. Primarily a visual artist, Tan is known for her photography, film and video installations.

Charges dismissed against graffiti artist Fairey in Detroit: reports

The office of Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Cynthia Gray Hathaway confirmed she granted on June 21 a motion to dismiss the charges filed by Fairey’s attorney, Bradley J. Friedman, according to the Detroit News. Hathaway, Detroit city attorneys, Friedman and Fairey could not be immediately reached for comment.

‘Shift’ makes new record for Jenny Saville at Sotheby’s auction

Saville’s painting sold for £6.8 million (around $9.1 million) on Tuesday, June 28 in London, after having been predicted to sell for £2 million, allaying fears of a slump in the art market following Brexit. The 46-year-old British artist Jenny Saville was first noticed by the art world when Charles Saatchi bought her postgraduate show (1993) and invited her to exhibit at the Saatchi Gallery in London. Since, Saville has become known as one of the leading Young British Artists, a contemporary movement whose pioneers are Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin.

Artist Who Inspired Kanye West’s “Famous” Video Calls It a “Feat of Magic”
“What was demonstrated was the power of the artistic imagination to transcend categorical expectations, and the fluidity of the transfer of codes deeply embedded within the apparatus of our preferred mediums.”

Puma to dress New York City Ballet

Puma has teamed up with the New York City Ballet to act as the company’s official activewear partner.

George Lucas gives up on trying to build museum in Chicago

Chicago (AFP) – “Star Wars” creator George Lucas said Friday he has given up on plans to build a legacy museum in Chicago after a legal battle with local activists. The museum was meant to be constructed along Chicago’s famed lakefront in a spot that’s currently a parking lot. Chicago lured Lucas there in 2014, after efforts to build the museum in San Francisco failed.

Chicago Mayor Says George Lucas’ Museum Will Go to Another City
CHICAGO (AP) – Mayor Rahm Emanuel says filmmaker George Lucas has abandoned plans to build his art museum in Chicago after a legal challenge from a parks group. Emanuel released a statement Friday calling it a “missed opportunity” that will cost the city millions of dollars in economic investment, thousands of jobs and educational opportunities for the city’s youth. The Associated Press could not immediately reach museum officials or Lucas representatives for comment. A group called Friends of the Parks sued to stop the museum from being located along Chicago’s lakefront.

Chicago mayor says George Lucas museum will go to another city following legal challenge by parks group
CHICAGO (AP) — Chicago mayor says George Lucas museum will go to another city following legal challenge by parks group.

The Latest: Lucas Museum to be in California, not Chicago
CHICAGO (AP) — The Latest on filmmaker George Lucas withdrawing his plans to build an art museum in Chicago (all times local):

Greek foundation unveils new Athens opera, national library

A leading Greek foundation on Friday unveiled a sprawling new park, opera and national library in southern Athens designed to “give hope” to a country brought low by a six-year economic crisis. The 1,400-seat opera, library and adjoining park designed by famed Italian architect Renzo Piano cost nearly 600 million euros ($680 million) and took eight years to design and build. “We thought it was very important to give hope,” Andreas Dracopoulos, co-president of the Stavros Niarchos foundation that funded the project, told a news conference.

Lucas abandons plan to build museum in Chicago after lawsuit
CHICAGO (AP) — “Star Wars” creator George Lucas announced Friday that he has abandoned plans to build his art museum in Chicago, blaming delays over a lawsuit from a parks group opposed to any development along the city’s prized lakefront.

Purloo Is No Longer Open at The Southern Food & Beverage Museum

Chef Ryan Hughes’ acclaimed Southern pop-up turned SoFAB eatery Purloo has quietly shuttered on O.C. Haley this week, with plans to move to a new location. No word on where the restaurant will be reopening or what eatery will take over the SoFAB space.

Christian Hip-Hop Artist Lecrae Returns to WME
He signed with Columbia Records last month.

Paris museum reopens as French floods slowly ease

PARIS (AP) — The riverside Grand Palais exhibition hall in Paris reopened Sunday as floodwaters slowly receded from the French capital, after the worst floods in three decades caused the Seine River to burst its banks.

‘Like Crazy’ Director Pens Tribute to Anton Yelchin: “He Was an Artist in the Truest Sense”
Drake Doremus fondly remembers a flight he took with his Sundance star, who died June 19 at age 27.

Brandon Ingram Is The Best 6’9 Street Artist New York City Has To Offer

Brandon Ingram may still be incredibly thin and lanky, but the talented former Duke forward is supremely talented nonetheless and is the favorite to be selected by the Los Angeles Lakers with the No. 2 pick in the NBA Draft on Thursday. Ingram was a pretty big star in the world of college basketball this past season, helping to lead Duke into the Sweet 16. Draft Kings TV taped Ingram showing off his secret talent at Washington Square Park, and the 18-year-old star can more than hold his own with a pencil and an easel.

Black ballet: classical dance stirs up Soweto

In a Soweto dance studio with yellowing mirrors, enthusiastic ballet students practise their first positions and plies in socks at the barre. Classical dance, for decades confined to South Africa’s white minority, is finding its feet in the country’s black townships. Twenty-two years after the end of apartheid, “We have beautiful contemporary dancers but not classical dancers,” said Dirk Badenhorst, head of the South African International Ballet Competition, seeking out rising stars across the continent.

Syrian opera singer performs with US refugee orchestra

Performing Puccini to a rapt New York audience, her soprano voice soaring to the rafters, Lubana al-Quntar may be the last person most Americans would think to be a Syrian refugee. Just days after the billionaire presidential candidate repeated his call to stop Syrian refugees entering America, Quntar had the audience spellbound even if many of the church pews were empty. Quntar has been in the United States for five years after leaving Syria five months into its conflict.

An Artist Built A ‘Harmful Robot’ That Will Deliberately Hurt Humans, Because We Needed To Fear Robots

In the 1950s, Isaac Asimov created three basic rules of robotics. A human decides where and where another human should be killed by a robot, which presents its own set of problems, but at least governments are approaching the concept of killer robots cautiously and with at least a token desire to abide by what little ethics they are on the battlefield. Artists, however, can just build killer robots to their heart’s content!

Head of Chicago parks: Group wants to sabotage Lucas Museum
CHICAGO (AP) — The head of the Chicago Park District says demands from a group suing to block “Star Wars” filmmaker George Lucas from building his museum on Chicago’s lakefront are “outrageous.”

Group suing to stop Lucas museum outlines settlement options
CHICAGO (AP) — A group suing to block construction of “Star Wars” filmmaker George Lucas’ museum on Chicago’s lakefront is willing to negotiate a settlement to allow the project to proceed, but under several conditions.

Hip-hop artist Attrell Cordes, half of duo P.M. Dawn, dies
NEW YORK (AP) — Attrell Cordes, who formed the hip-hop duo P.M. Dawn with his brother and was also known by the name Prince Be, has died.

Tale of Brazil slum orchestra has audiences in tears

A classical violinist wracked with self-doubt takes a job teaching children in one of Brazil’s most crime-ridden favelas, and ends up creating an orchestra with young delinquents and teenage mothers. Except the story behind “The Violin Teacher”, a film which has been moving audiences to tears, is true. Having seen his young actors drawn from a tough Sao Paulo slum learn to play Bach as he shot the film, director Sergio Machado is now evangelical about the city’s Baccarelli Institute.

Famed artist Christo invites public to walk on water

Renowned artist Christo Vladimirov Javacheff can walk on water. Wearing dark wellington boots, a red and black all-weather coat, jeans and a smart striped shirt, Christo — as he is universally known — crossed his hands while standing in the middle of Lake Iseo in northern Italy. First conceived in 1970 for the River Plate delta in Argentina, the Christ-like project that Christo, 81, devised with his late wife Jeanne-Claude has finally been resurrected.