Arts Council England reports on Acceptance in Lieu and Cultural Gifts schemes

Our daily round-up of news from the art world

Arts Council publishes details of Cultural Gifts Scheme and Acceptance in Lieu for 2017 | Arts Council England has published its latest annual report into the Cultural Gifts Scheme and Acceptance in Lieu initiative. The report has found that in the 12 months to 31 March 2017, the nation accepted a record number of cultural objects under the two schemes, with an estimated market value of £39.4m. ‘These schemes now provide one of the principal ways in which public collections across the country can acquire significant works, in the majority of cases at no cost to the institution’, commented ACE chairman Sir Nicholas Serota.

Municipal cuts put future of Paris’s Le Plateau into question | Possible cuts to municipal culture budgets in 2018 mean that Paris’s Le Plateau arts space may be at risk of closure, reports Les Inrockuptibles (French language article). Located in the east of the city since 2002, the space has played host to exhibitions by artists including Cao Fei, Ryan Gander, and Charles Avery. When news of the putative cuts was first reported in Libération (French language article) earlier this month, more than 200 cultural figures called on Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo to abandon the mooted cuts.

Blanton Museum of Art raises funds towards construction of Ellsworth Kelly-designed building | The Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas has successfully raised $23m towards the construction of a building designed by the late artist Ellsworth Kelly. According to Art Review, Kelly gave the designs for the building to the museum just a few months before he died in 2015. When completed, the structure will span 2,715 sq ft and incorporate luminous glass windows. Entitled Austin, it will be the only freestanding building designed by Kelly.

Artists call for new supervisory structure for Documenta | Artists including Christian Boltanski and Hans Haacke have signed a petition calling for an end to the ‘profit obsession’ they perceive as having dogged this year’s financially troubled edition of the quinquennial event. The petition calls for a new supervisory structure to be implemented to guarantee Documenta’s autonomy.