MoMA PS1 director Klaus Biesenbach to head LA’s Museum of Contemporary Art

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MoMA PS1 director Klaus Biesenbach to head LA’s Museum of Contemporary Art | MoMA PS1 director Klaus Biesenbach will be leaving the museum in Queen’s, New York to join LA’s Museum of Contemporary Art as director. The appointment comes after the departure of MOCA’s chief curator Helen Molesworth and director Philippe Vergne earlier this year. Biesenbach, who has a reputation for championing emerging artists, is expected to ‘bring stability and a new vision’ according to the museum board’s co-chair Maurice Marciano. Biesenbach’s colleague, painting and sculpture curator Laura Hoptman, will also be leaving MoMA to start a new role as executive director of SoHo’s Drawing Center this September.

Jewish Museum receives $10m and more than 70 artworks from the Barnett Newman Foundation | The Jewish Museum has received $10m from the Barnett Newman Foundation, which will be used in part to endow a curatorial position. The gift also includes more than 70 works, of which some 30 come from the late artist’s own collection, including works by Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg and Claes Oldenburg, while the remaining 40 are by past winners of the foundation’s Barnett and Annalee Newman Award. The Jewish Museum is planning a programme of exhibitions that will feature the new works.

Getty Foundation awards grants to improve conservation skills | The Getty Foundation has awarded grants to several international institutions as part of their initiative Conserving Canvas, The Guardian reports. The project aims to address the skills gap between senior conservators and those that are younger or less experienced due to the recent best practice of minimal intervention. The National Gallery in London, which received £70,000, will use the money to provide visiting conservators access to essential conservation work, with a particular focus on an equestrian portrait of Charles I by Van Dyck. The University of Glasgow also received a grant of £115,000 to hold training workshops, while the Huntington Library in California won $150,000 to conserve Gainsborough’s The Blue Boy.