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New York will increase its direct support to artists, Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani and Cultural Affairs commissioner Diya Vij announced today. Rising from $5,000 to up to $10,000, the increase doubles the funds given to artists and represents the first change in this funding stream in some 20 years. The funding comes from the Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA) and is distributed to each borough’s arts councils, which act as regrant partners and dole out grants to individual artists annually as part of an open call. The funds will come from the DCLA’s budget, totaling around $3.5 million given to all five councils cumulatively. “Artists are working New Yorkers, and they pay the same rent and the same grocery bills as everyone else in this city,” Mayor Mamdani said in a statement. “A grant frozen at $5,000 for twenty years has been losing value every single year. Doubling it is a first step toward making sure the people who give this city its culture can a...

On Monday, the UK government poured cold water on speculation that overseas visitors could soon be forced to pay entry fees to the country’s national museums. Lisa Nandy, the secretary of state for digital, culture, media and sport (DCMS), confirmed that institutions including the British Museum, Tate, the National Portrait Gallery, and National Museums Liverpool will continue to offer free admission. Nandy made the announcement at an event at Tate Liverpool organized by Art Fund and the Cultural Policy Unit. It comes as the UK’s free museum-entry policy approaches its 25th anniversary. The 15 national museums sponsored by the DCMS began offering free admission on December 1, 2001, under the Labour government. She said the policy is about keeping museums open and accessible to everyone. “They remind us of our shared history and enable us to step outside the confines of our lives,” Nandy said. She added that free entry should remain in place “forever,...

Sotheby’s will offer a dozen works from the holdings of Miami hedge funder and art collector George Allen Weiss in the wake of his firm, Weiss, filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last year. The proceeds will go toward satisfying a $123 million debt to Bank of America that was secured by his artwork, Bloomberg reports. The auction house will sell 16 of Weiss’s works during its marquee November sales, Weiss’s lawyer, Paul Battista, said at a court hearing Wednesday, according to Bloomberg. Court papers indicate that Weiss collects works by artists including Francis Bacon, Paul Cézanne, Pablo Picasso, and Andy Warhol. Lawyers at the court hearing said that Sotheby’s has guaranteed a minimum price for six of the 16 works. His collection includes at least 25 additional pieces, according to Bloomberg . Weiss’s attorney did not immediately respond to ARTnews ’s request for comment. Sotheby’s declined to comment. A year ago, Weiss sought to sell a Clau...