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New Cyber Art Competition The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences have created a new Webby Award to recognize and encourage artists working in online media around the world. The SFMOMA Webby Prize for Excellence in Online Art will offer $50,000 to an artist or artists for a body of work whose primary focus is to be experienced online and that explores and expands the distinctive capacity of the online medium. Winning artists will have their work exhibited in "e.space," SFMOMA's new online gallery. Winners will be announced at the Webby Awards 2000 on May 11. Deadline: March 14. Call (415) 357-4000; www.sfmoma.org.

Sculptor Chosen Artist Glenna Goodacre has been chosen to create the Irish Memorial, a sculpture to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Irish famine. Measuring 12 feet high and 25 feet long, the work will feature more than 25 figures in silicon-bronze and will be installed in a park at the Penn's Landing district of Philadelphia, where many Irish arrived.

Milestone Comic book artist Gil Kane has died in Miami at age 73. Kane was known for his dynamic figures (Green Lantern, the Hulk, Captain Marvel, Spider Man, etc.) and innovative fight scenes between them.

Gifts Donated Peter Norton, California software entrepreneur, and his wife are donating Nearly 1,000 works of art by more than 450 artists to 29 institutions. Mostly dating from the '90s, the works are valued at more than $3 million Raymond and Ruth Perelman have donated $15 million to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The museum will use this, the largest cash gift in its history, to acquire and renovate an Art Deco structure across the street, which will add 100,000 sq. ft. of space.

Painting to be Returned After confirmation that Madonna and Child in a Landscape (1518) by Lucas Cranach the Elder was indeed stolen by the Nazis during WWII, the North Carolina Museum of Art will return the painting to its rightful owners in Austria. Deeded to the museum by a California art collector in 1964, this was one of its most prized paintings.

Attendance Records Set According to the New York Times, record numbers attended U.S. museum shows last year. Over 800,000 people saw Van Gogh's van Goghs at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; over 400,000 saw Egyptian Art in the Age of the Pyramids at the Metropolitan Museum of Art; and nine other exhibitions drew crowds of more than 300,000.

Exhibitions:

Detroit, Michigan Detroit Institute of Arts Van Gogh: Face to Face is the first exhibition of portraits by Vincent van Gogh. This major exhibition celebrates the artist's commitment to and love of portraiture and features 50 paintings and drawings that are brought together from an array of public and private international collections. Opens March 12 through June 4. Travels to Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Omaha, Nebraska Joslyn Art Museum Dale Chihuly: Inside and Out. Featured are art glass sculptures and large-scale "environments" created by the world renowned artist for museums and universities, as well as train stations, outdoor sanctuaries, and other public spaces. Through June 4. Travels to Knoxville Museum of Art.

New York City National Academy of Design 175th Open Annual Exhibition. This annual exhibition is America's oldest, continuously held juried art competition and has attracted America's finest visual artists. Some 160 juried works painting, sculpture, watercolor and graphics are on view through March 26.

Columbus, Ohio Columbus Museum of Art Illusions of Eden: Visions of the American Heartland. This exhibition features installations by four contemporary artists and art and artifacts from the 1920's through the 1940's and explores the cultural identity of the Middle West. Through April 30. Travels to Madison Art Center, WI, in February 2001.

Washington, D.C. Corcoran Museum Annie Leibovitz: Women Celebrating the status of women at the end of the millennium, this show features more than 70 portraits of women who have made significant contributions to contemporary culture. Through April 3.

March Birthdays:
  6    Michelangelo Buonarroti
  9    David Smith
14    Diane Arbus
19    Joseph Albers
21    Hans Hofmann
30    Francisco de Goya

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