Art Dubai will host a scaled-back “special edition.”
Art Dubai’s scaled-back 2026 “special edition” will bring together roughly 75 presentations across galleries, institutions, and partners and highlight a regional core. Staged as a more focused, curated “cultural gathering” following its postponement amid regional conflict, the fair shifts away from a traditional booth model toward collaborations, commissions, and flexible presentation formats.
Barneys may come back to Madison Avenue.
Authentic Brands Group is reviving Barneys New York, reclaiming control of the brand and planning a retail comeback with new operating partners and store concepts. The strategy includes launching small-format stores (with a first planned in Florida in 2027) and potentially reopening a flagship on Madison Avenue, repositioning Barneys as a modern luxury and lifestyle platform. Part of Authentic’s broader model of leveraging heritage brands through licensing, partnerships, and experiential formats, the relaunch taps into ’90s nostalgia while testing whether Barneys can regain cultural relevance in today’s luxury market.
Art installations are bringing new life to Swiss architect Peter Zumthor’s LACMA addition.
Peter Zumthor’s long-awaited David Geffen Galleries at LACMA introduce a series of site-specific installations integrated across plazas, gardens, and interior spaces, emphasizing a seamless relationship between art, architecture, and landscape. These works—ranging from sculptures to outdoor interventions—activate the museum’s new open-plan, non-linear layout, encouraging visitors to move fluidly between indoor and outdoor environments. Together, the installations reinforce Zumthor’s vision of the museum as a porous, experiential environment that dissolves boundaries between exhibition space and the city, redefining how audiences encounter art in Los Angeles.
Psychologists continue to embrace the benefits of art.
Art is increasingly being embraced by psychologists as a tool for mental health, offering benefits ranging from stress reduction to improved emotional processing and resilience. Research shows that both viewing and creating art can lower anxiety, reduce depression risk, and activate brain regions tied to pleasure, memory, and meaning-making, making it a powerful complement to traditional therapy. Beyond individual well-being, experts argue that engaging with art fosters empathy, self-reflection, and social connection, positioning it as a meaningful way to navigate complex emotions and contemporary life.
Hampshire College, the alma mater of many artists, is closing.
Hampshire College, the experimental liberal arts institution in Massachusetts that has long been influential in the arts, will close after the fall 2026 semester following years of financial instability and declining enrollment. Founded in 1970 and known for its self-directed curriculum, interdisciplinary approach, and lack of traditional grades, the school has produced a wide network of artists, writers, and cultural figures. Despite multiple turnaround efforts—including fundraising campaigns and restructuring—the closure underscores broader pressures facing small, progressive liberal arts colleges in the U.S., with students now being supported through transfers or completion pathways.
Today’s attractive distractions:
A vintage TAG Heuer worn by Steve McQueen in Le Mans will head to auction at Sotheby’s New York.
Andrew Lloyd Webber is writing a musical about the 1911 theft of the Mona Lisa.
Cate Blanchett is set to play Martha Stewart in a biopic directed by Janicza Bravo.
Everyone turned up for the New York gala premiere of “Brunello: The Gracious Visionary.”