Bank Street Leadership in Museum Education

09/23/2026

AAM Supports Congressional Action to Protect the Smithsonian’s Independence https://buff.ly/ozeh4dE

The American Alliance of Museums (AAM) endorses The Smithsonian Integrity and Historical Independence Act of 2026, introduced by Representatives Stanbury (D-NM), Jackson (D-IL), and Mfume (D-MD), which would protect the scholarly independence of the Smithsonian Institution from political influence.

We thank them for taking action by introducing this bill to protect the Smithsonian’s scholarly independence.

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The American Alliance of Museums (AAM) endorses The Smithsonian Integrity and Historical Independence Act of 2026, introduced by Representatives Stanbury (D-NM), Jackson (D-IL), and Mfume…

09/23/2026

Build It Now: A Financial Resilience Framework for Nonprofit Leaders | The Engage Blog https://buff.ly/6BDnNf1

Picture this moment. You open your email on a Tuesday morning, coffee still hot, and there it is: the notice that your largest government contract is on hold, effective immediately, with no timeline for resolution. Your stomach drops and you start doing the math in your head before you have even finished reading the message. Payroll is in nine days. The program that contract funds serves 300 families.

For some organizations, what happens next is a plan. The executive director pulls up the cash flow forecast, sees exactly how many months the organization can operate, calls an emergency meeting with a board that already knows the financial position, and walks into the meeting with three scenarios and a recommendation.

For others, what happens next is a scramble. Digging through bank statements, calling the bookkeeper, trying to figure out frantically if there will be enough for payroll, and delivering bad news to a board that is hearing about financial vulnerability for the first time.

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Build financial resilience for your nonprofit with a framework for visibility, liquidity, flexibility, and narrative so you can plan with confidence.

09/22/2026

Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum to Expand to a Second Location in Madrid | ARTnew https://buff.ly/pEJpqVi

by Francesca Aton

The Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid is expanding to a second location just a few blocks from its current site due to overcrowding in its galleries, El Pais reported. The project is slated to be complete in 2032. The museum, known as the Thyssen, was founded in 1992 by Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza to house his private collection.

The 107,639-square-foot building is known as the Ice and Automobile Palace and is located in Madrid’s Literary Quarter. The city-owned space has been unoccupied since 2007 and, prior to its reopening as a museum, the building will undergo a €70 million ($80.8 million) renovation.

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Some works from the TBA21 Foundation, created by Francesca Thyssen-Bornemisza, will be displayed in the new building, slated to open in 2032.

09/22/2026

Head of Brussels Government Seeks to Oust Kanal-Centre Pompidou Director Ahead of November Opening | ARTnews https://buff.ly/TRIK2iS

by Devorah Lauter

Kanal-Centre Pompidou's founding general director, Yves Goldstein, speaks on a microphone. (Head of Brussels Government Seeks to Oust Kanal-Centre Pompidou Director Ahead of November Opening) https://buff.ly/TRIK2iS

The plot thickens just a few months away from the grand opening of Kanal-Centre Pompidou in Brussels. Amid criticism that the European capital’s forthcoming and only major modern and contemporary art museum is too large and costly for taxpayers, La Libre reports that the head of Brussels’ local government wants Kanal-Centre Pompidou’s founding general director Yves Goldstein out.

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Photo by Veerle Vercauteren for Fondation Kanal

09/22/2026

Iconic Rocky Balboa Statue Is Finally Moving to the Top of the Museum Steps | MyModernMet https://buff.ly/3lqMcYE

by Linnea Pejcha

Nearly 50 years after Rocky Balboa triumphantly ran up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the fictional boxer is finally getting a permanent place at the top.

Construction has begun to permanently install Philadelphia’s famous Rocky statue at the top of the museum steps. The bronze sculpture, which depicts Sylvester Stallone’s titular character with both arms raised victoriously above his head, has spent much of the past two decades at the bottom of the steps. Now, it will stand in the same spot made famous by the beloved 1976 film.

The statue was created by sculptor A. Thomas Schomberg, commissioned by Stallone for Rocky III and originally appeared at the top of the museum steps in the 1982 movie. After filming, Stallone donated it to the City of Philadelphia, but it took quite some time for the fictional boxer to find a permanent home.

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Construction has begun to permanently install Philadelphia’s famous Rocky statue at the top of the museum steps.

09/22/2026

Leon Black Plans to Turn Woolworth Mansion Into His Own Museum, Book Reveals | Hyperallergic https://buff.ly/lYKmrPU

The disgraced financier, whose ties to Jeffrey Epstein are being investigated in Congress, told author William D. Cohan that he wants to turn the Manhattan property into “his version of the Neue Galerie.”

by Anna Lee

Billionaire art collector and MoMA board member Leon Black, whose connections to convicted s*x offender Jeffrey Epstein are the subject of ongoing investigation, plans to convert an iconic Manhattan property into a foundation to display his estimated $5 billion art collection, a new book reveals.

In Money to Burn: Leon Black, Apollo and the Remaking of Wall Street (2026), veteran business journalist William D. Cohan writes that Black said he plans to turn the Woolworth Mansion on East 80th Street “into his version of the Neue Galerie.” The disgraced financier purchased the French Gothic estate last November for $38 million, Curbed reported.

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The disgraced financier, whose ties to Jeffrey Epstein are being investigated in Congress, told author William D. Cohan that he wants to turn the Manhattan property into “his version of the Neue Galerie.”

09/21/2026

Uffizi Removes Famed Caravaggio After Flash Flood Soaks Gallery | Artnet News https://buff.ly/AywYVtN

by Jo Lawson-Tancred

A flash flood in Florence yesterday saw rainwater leak into the Uffizi Galleries and directly onto the glass case protecting a prized Caravaggio painting. Bacchus (1596) was immediately removed from the gallery; museum experts said it is unharmed.

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A Florence storm sent rainwater into the Uffizi Galleries, wetting the display case of Caravaggio's Bacchus.

09/21/2026

Visitors Arrested at Louvre After Posting Their Artworks Near Mona Lisa | ARTnews

by Maximilíano Durón

Two visitors to the Louvre in Paris were arrested Saturday after they installed two paintings in the Salle des États, which houses the Mona Lisa, according to a report by Agence France-Presse that cited police sources.

According to police, they stuck two paintings (each measuring about 11.8 by 15.7 inches) onto the walls of the Salle des États with sticky tape. One painting showed one of the suspects wearing a suit of armor, while the other showed the two with a woman. The Mona Lisa, which attracts crowds from opening to close, was not damaged in the incident.

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(Photo by Lou BENOIST / AFP via Getty Images) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY MENTION OF THE ARTIST UPON PUBLICATION - TO ILLUSTRATE THE EVENT AS SPECIFIED IN THE CAPTION [Visitors look at the painting "La Joconde" (the Mona Lisa) by Italian artist Leonardo Da Vinci at the Musée du Louvre in Paris, on July 22, 2026.]

09/21/2026

What the Kennedy Center’s Tax Return Reveals | The Atlantic Gift Article

A previously unseen filing captures the state of the institution seven months after Donald Trump’s takeover.

by Janay Kingsberry

For 19 months, Donald Trump has portrayed himself as the Kennedy Center’s savior. He promised to root out “woke” programming at the arts complex. He claimed that past leaders had neglected dangerous conditions in the building—a structure that he now says might have to be “ripped down” if he can’t put his name on it. Throughout his tenure, he and his allies have accused former executives of financial mismanagement and even “fraud” that left the organization struggling.

Now there’s a fuller picture of the finances Trump inherited—and of what happened during his first months in charge. A previously unseen federal tax filing captures an institution in transition: It spans the final months of its previous leadership and roughly seven months under Trump, offering a baseline for understanding a financial crisis that has grown more severe over the year that has followed. (The Kennedy Center provided me with the filing because nonprofits are required to do so within 30 days of a request.)

(Photo by Andrew Harnik / Getty)

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09/21/2026

How President Trump Broke the Kennedy Center | NYT Gift Article

Internal emails and documents demonstrate the political capture of the institution, including how officials once pursued a plan to unload much of the art collection.

by Elizabeth Williamson and Julia Jacobs

The closure is the apotheosis of the wreckage and chaos created in the less than two years since Mr. Trump’s takeover of the center, once a bipartisan global model of public access to the arts. Internal emails and documents obtained by The New York Times demonstrate the political capture of the institution by the whims of Mr. Trump, who at the start of his second term installed a board that made him chairman. Audiences and donors fled, and its finances cratered.

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(Photo by Pete Kiehart for The New York Times)