Chanel Culture Fund Announces 2026 Next Prize Winners

The Chanel Next Prize, a biennial award established by the Chanel Culture Fund, grants EUR 100,000 (USD 117,460) each to 10 contemporary practitioners across visual art, performance, design, music, and film. The 2026 recipients in visual art include Álvaro Urbano, Ayoung Kim, Emeka Ogboh, Pan Daijing, and Pol Taburet. In addition to the no-strings funding, the winners will participate in a two-year mentorship and networking program organized in collaboration with Chanel’s cultural partners, including the Royal College of Art in London. Yana Peel, Chanel’s global head of arts, culture and heritage, stated that the prize “creates the conditions for artists to thrive on their own terms,” describing each winner as “a trailblazer shaping the now and defining the next with creativity and audacity.”

Cecilia Alemani Named Curator of 10th Max Mara Art Prize

The Max Mara Art Prize for Women has named Cecilia Alemani, director and chief curator of New York’s High Line Art, as curator of its 10th edition (2025–27), and announced Jakarta’s Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Nusantara (Museum MACAN) as its new institutional partner. Established in 2005 by the Max Mara Fashion Group to support emerging and midcareer female artists, the prize will now enter a nomadic phase, taking on a new international dimension as it travels to a different country for each future edition. This shift brings to a close the prize’s longstanding partnership with London’s Whitechapel Gallery. Luigi Maramotti, president of Max Mara Fashion Group, welcomed this new chapter, stating: “As we take this initiative to the global stage, the prize will serve as an even more effective and significant springboard, advancing the careers of artists from a rich tapestry of cultures worldwide.”

25th Serpentine Pavilion Announces Designer and Collaboration with Zaha Hadid Foundation

London’s Serpentine Pavilion has announced that LANZA Atelier, a Mexican architecture studio founded by Isabel Abascal and Alessandro Arienzo in 2015, will design its 25th edition. Marking the anniversary, the Serpentine will also collaborate with the Zaha Hadid Foundation on a special program at Serpentine South Gallery in commemoration of the late architect who designed the inaugural Serpentine Pavilion in 2000. On view from June 6 to October 25, LANZA’s Pavilion, titled a serpentine, takes inspiration from the crinkle-crankle wall in English architecture to establish a conversation with the surrounding landscape and the South Gallery’s brick facade. In a press release, the studio explained that the pavilion is conceived as a device that “both reveals and withholds: shaping movement, modulating rhythm, and framing thresholds of proximity, orientation, and pause.”

Elvira Dyangani Ose Appointed Artistic Director of the Second Public Art Abu Dhabi Biennial

The Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi has appointed Elvira Dyangani Ose as artistic director of the second edition of Public Art Abu Dhabi Biennial, slated to open in late 2026. Currently director of Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA) and formerly director and chief curator of The Showroom in London, Dyangani Ose is known for multidisciplinary curatorial projects that foreground participation, collective representation in public space, and non-Western narratives and epistemologies. Under her leadership, the second edition of the biennial will feature large-scale public artworks across urban and community spaces, aiming to deepen public engagement with art and foster international dialogue.

Art Jameel Founder Awarded French Order of Arts and Letters

Fady Jameel, founder and chairman of Art Jameel and vice chairman, international at Abdul Latif Jameel, was appointed chevalier in the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by France’s Ministry of Culture, in recognition of his and his family’s contributions to the arts in Saudi Arabia and internationally. Founded in 2003, Art Jameel oversees Dubai’s Jameel Arts Centre—which recently received a Medal of Excellence at the inaugural Art Basel Awards in 2025—as well as Jeddah’s creative complex Hayy Jameel, which includes Hayy Cinema, Saudi Arabia’s first independent film center. In a statement, Jameel cited the organization’s belief “in the role of the arts in transforming lives” through its programs across exhibitions, commissions, research, and education. Mohammed Nehad, consul general of France in Jeddah, said, “We will continue to work closely with the Jameel family and are excited about the recent prospects for expanding our joint activities.”

Yasha Grobman Appointed Director at the Israel Museum

Jerusalem’s Israel Museum has appointed Yasha Grobman as director general, succeeding Suzanne Landau, who has served as interim director since September 2023. An architect and professor at Haifa’s Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Grobman is the co-founder and principal of Axelrod Grobman Architects. His appointment comes amid intensified regional challenges and calls to end the prolonged leadership instability following the departure of former director James Snyder in 2016. Grobman expressed his gratitude and excitement, pledging to “continue to advance the mission of the Israel Museum as a first‑class cultural institution with the highest international status.”