Los Angeles’s two biggest museums are passing each other in opposite directions. The Getty Center announced it will shut down for a full year of renovations, aiming to reopen in spring 2028 just ahead of the Olympics (The New York Times). Meanwhile, LACMA’s $724 million new building — 25 years of argument made concrete — is finally about to open, and the question is whether it can reinvent what an encyclopedic museum even means anymore (The New York Times, Los Angeles Times).
The Hirshhorn’s Melissa Chiu is heading to the Guggenheim — the fourth Smithsonian museum director to leave in two years as the Trump administration reshapes the institution from above (The New York Times). And the administration quietly dropped its legal fight to dismantle the Institute of Museum and Library Services, but the proposed 2027 budget zeroes out its funding anyway (Publishers Weekly). Same destination, different route. Disney, meanwhile, is cutting another 1,000 jobs (Variety).
On the US-Canada border, a library that straddles both countries just installed a new door — on the Canadian side — after the U.S. made it nearly impossible to walk in the old one (CTV). When one door closes, apparently, another country opens one.
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