Many Lord clients have moved their annual galas online this year. Institutions as diverse as The Canadian Human Right Museum, OCAD University, and the Art Gallery of Hamilton have all already embraced digital, distanced events this year, and the American Jazz Museum will do the same on December 3^rd. The Jazz Museum’s event will include live performances, guest appearances, and will be livestreaming on multiple platforms including Facebook, YouTube, and Zoom.

Lord Cultural Resources is helping many institutions migrate to digital-first experiences for everything from fundraising and community engagement to exhibitions and marketing. Find out more here.

At the San Diego Natural History Museum, and at institutions much like it across the country, the exhibition halls remain dark, the atriums empty, the frontline employees furloughed.

Judy Gradwohl, the president and CEO of the museum, decided in August to close for the remainder of the year — and she said in an interview on Tuesday that she believes she made the right call. “We’re finding great ways to channel our energy into online programming and making headway on a number of projects,” Ms. Gradwohl said, “as opposed to spending all our time trying to figure out how to stay open safely.”

Louvre Abu Dhabi is launching a short film that explores the history of human creativity through artworks from the museum’s collection.

Entitled The Pulse of Time, the 40-minute piece is the first short film produced by the museum. It takes viewers on an audiovisual journey through the 12 chapters of the museum’s galleries, highlighting a selection of 15 artworks and sharing stories of cultural connections from prehistory to contemporary times.

Lord Cultural Resources worked with the Abu Dhabi Tourism Development and Investment Company (TDIC) to develop many of the exciting new cultural institutions on Saadiyat Island including a Concept Plan for the Louvre Abu Dhabi, and Master Plans for the Abu Dhabi Maritime Museum, and the Zayed National Museum. We were subsequently asked to help develop a Governance Structure for these museums.

Memory is pliable. How we remember the COVID-19 pandemic is continually being reshaped by the evolution of our own experience and by the influence of collective interpretations. By the summer of 2020, the Black Lives Matter protests, divisive partisan politics, and anger over extended lockdowns were all influencing how we remember the pandemic.

The Historic New Orleans Collection (THNOC), where I have worked for over two decades, asked me to design an oral history response to document the pandemic in our area.

Lord Cultural Resources was engaged by The Historic New Orleans Collection to facilitate a strategic planning process to review the institution’s mission and vision, set impactful goals, and develop measurable objectives.

“Freshen up.” “Powder one’s nose.” “Tinkle.” The Washington, D.C.’s newest museum has these phrases painted on the restroom walls. It’s potty humor with a purpose: to remind you that there are a bazillion ways to express yourself.

Every room in Planet Word, which opened October 22, celebrates heeding that other urge — a desire to communicate that turns baby babbles into complex languages that let you deliver punchlines and powerful speeches. Expect it to be kind of noisy, promises founder Ann Friedman. “You can talk to exhibits,” she explains. “You have to use your voice and get involved.”

We are thankful for having known Major General Victor Hugo Jr. who was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery on Friday, November 13, 2020.

Following his graduation from West Point in 1954, General Hugo served under OSS and CIA legend Col. Edward Lansdale as part of the Saigon Military Mission. His decorations included the Distinguished Service Medal, the Legion of Merit, the Bronze Star Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster, and the Air Medal with three Oak Leaf Clusters. General Hugo was The OSS Society's executive vice president and its greatest champion.

Lord Cultural Resources was commissioned by The OSS Society to develop a Master Plan for the National Museum of Intelligence and Special Operations. Major General Victor Hugo Jr. was a visionary and key advocate for the project. We will miss him, and offer our condolences to his family and loved ones.

Western Australia's new $400 million museum Boola Bardip, in the heart of Perth's Cultural Centre, has officially opened after four years of construction. The new Aboriginal name means 'many stories' in Noongar language and recognises the significant role of Aboriginal people in WA's shared cultural heritage.

The Australian government has committed A$10.1m ($7.2m) over four years from 2020-21 to support the return of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural heritage overseas to traditional owners. The funding extends a A$2m ($1.4m) pilot project that was launched in 2018 by the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS), a government agency, whose latest report reveals the scale of ambition held for repatriation in this field.

Ghana has appointed a 13-person committee to advise the government on a “radical” new direction for the country’s museums and cultural heritage sites. The President’s Committee on Museums and Monuments will be run by the Accra-based ANO Institute of Arts and Knowledge and chaired by the international development advisor Edward Ayensu, a former senior scientist at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC.

As the world waited to find out if Donald Trump or Joe Biden would be the next US president, we gathered some of art history's most pertinent depictions of states of limbo. From nightmarish scenes of Purgatory to endless durational performances, we hope these works serve as an apt reminder that even the most polarising of 21st-century political battles can still echo truly timeless sentiments.

Whichever side of the aisle you found yourself on this past Election Day, you may well feel like American democracy hangs in the balance. Millions are marching in the streets, wildfires are burning throughout the American West, and we’ve had so many hurricanes, we’ve started naming them for Greek letters. It’s a bit stressful. So, what can we do if we’ve exercised, had a drink, seen our therapist, and still find ourselves anxious? We have a thought: let’s look at some soothing artworks together.

How we voted this year took planning, preparation, and determination. Whether it was by mail, dropping off a ballot at a ballot box, voting early or showing up to the polls on Nov. 3, Americans look to be on track to break the highest voter-turnout rate in over a century.

Much like the diversity of the US, not every polling site looked the same. From Fenway Park in Boston, to Osmanthus Dim Sum restaurant in San Francisco, we looked at some of the most unique places Americans cast their ballots leading up to and on Election Day.

Dozens of museums across the country retooled their lobbies to accommodate voters on election day, and many also developed key initiatives and quick curatorial decisions to affirm citizens in doing their civic duty.

The Museum of Latin American Art, or MOLAA, in Long Beach reinvented itself ahead of the 2020 election.

Indoor museums remain closed in Los Angeles County, but the space, which is normally used for special events, opened its doors to voters Friday, October 30 through Tuesday, November 3. MOLAA is one of several museums and cultural centers across L.A. County acting as a polling center this election.

In this important election year, and in honor of our traveling exhibitions American Democracy: A Great Leap of Faith and Voices and Votes: Democracy in America SITES and Smithsonian Affiliations highlighted a diverse array of the Smithsonian’s digital resources that engage audiences around voting, elections, civic engagement, and citizenship. Every two weeks between July 2020 and Election Day 2020 (November 3), a new set of resources surrounding a specific theme related to democracy in America was posted.

The British Museum and Ghanaian-born London architect David Adjaye are working with Nigerian organisations to lay the basis for the new Edo Museum of West African Art. This is intended to provide “the most comprehensive display in the world of Benin Bronzes.” The museum will be in Benin City, in Nigeria’s Edo state.

Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery has become the first official museum partner of online curatorial game Occupy White Walls, offering global audiences the chance to explore its collections like never before.

The game, which enables players to collaboratively curate exhibitions was created by London-based start-up StikiPixels and has already amassed over 75,000 users.

As new lockdowns are implemented across Europe and cases skyrocket in the United States, it is comforting to enjoy beauty and culture in safe ways. With the Netherlands returning to lockdown, a consortium of museums is doing their part to bring the work of one of the world's most famous artists to the global masses.

It’s like a pub crawl for art lovers. Over one long weekend every November, thousands of fans of visual art, from collectors to the merely curious, descend upon East Vancouver for a spirited four-day festival of studio visits, workshops, discussions and demonstrations that make up the annual Eastside Culture Crawl.

Ministers of Culture of the G20 came together on 4 November 2020 in a joint meeting on “The rise of the cultural economy: a new paradigm,” on the margins of the G20, hosted by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This marked the first time that G20 policy discussions recognized the growing contribution of culture to the global economy.