Helen Whately appointed UK minister for arts, heritage and tourism

Our daily round-up of news from the art world

Helen Whately appointed UK minister for arts, heritage and tourism | Conservative MP Helen Whately has joined the UK’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sports (DCMS) as the new minister for arts, heritage and tourism. Whately replaces Rebecca Pow, who held the position for four months and has now joined the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Announcing the appointment on Twitter, Whately said she had ‘already lost count of the number of people who’ve told me I have the best job in government’.

Record-breaking £58.6m of cultural artefacts handed over to UK through Arts Council schemes | A new report by Arts Council England (ACE) has disclosed that £58.6m worth of cultural objects were given to museums and galleries in acceptance in lieu and cultural gifts schemes between 2018–19 – the highest total value since the schemes were launched in 2013. A total of 46 objects and collections have gone to museums and galleries across the UK.

Mary Abbott (1921–2019) | Mary Abbott, the American painter, has died at the age of 98. Born in New York City, Abbott studied at the Arts Student League and at the Corcoran Museum School in Washington, D.C., before moving to a studio in Greenwich Village in 1946, where she became involved in Abstract Expressionism. Known both for her figurative and abstract painting, Abbott captured her zeal for the natural world through expressive brushstrokes and vivid colour. Abbott was included in the Denver Museum of Art’s ‘Women of Abstract Expressionism’ exhibition in 2016.