Festival Scheduled--Art Chicago 2004 will take place May 7-10 at Navy Pier's Festival Hall. Over 200 distinguished galleries from around the world will assemble to exhibit and sell the works of over 3,000 artists. Call 312-587-3300 for ticket information.

New Entrance for Museum--The Brooklyn Museum, home to the second largest art collection in the U.S., has opened its dramatically redesigned and renovated front entrance and new public plaza. Developed by Polshek Partnership Architects, the new 15,000 sq. ft. shingled-glass pavilion, combined with the renovated lobby area of nearly 9,000 sq. ft., creates a new entrance facility that more than doubles the size of the previous lobby area.

Exhibition Creates Impact--National, regional and foreign tourists visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art's acclaimed fall 2003 exhibition, El Greco, spent a combined $345 million during their visits to New York City, according to a Museum survey. The landmark exhibition, on view for approximately two months attracted 574,000 visitors, making it one of the Met's best-attended shows in recent years.

Prize Winner Chosen--Zaha Hadid, an Iraqi-born British citizen, has been chosen as the 2004 Laureate of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, marking the first time a woman has been named for this 26 year-old award. At a formal ceremony on May 31, a $100,000 grant and a bronze medallion will be bestowed in the State Hermitage Museum, followed by a reception and dinner in the Grand Peterhof Palace. The ceremony moves to a different location around the world each year, paying homage to historic and contemporary architecture.

Exhibitions:

Denver, CO -- Denver Art Museum -- Painting a New World: Mexican Art and Life, 1521-1821 is an impressive collection of approximately 50 works in the largest exhibition of Mexican colonial paintings ever assembled outside of Mexico. Visitors have the opportunity to experience traditional daily Mexican colonial life through the eyes of the artists and the people and places portrayed. Through July 25.

Detroit, MI, -- The Detroit Institute of Arts -- American Attitude: Whistler & His Followers celebrates the influential work of James McNeill Whistler and his impact on American painting. Included among over 60 paintings is his most famous work, Arrangement in Gray and Black: Portrait of the Painter's Mother, commonly referred to as "Whistler's Mother." Through June 6.

Omaha, NE -- Joslyn Art Museum -- Duane Hanson: Portraits from the Heartland opens May 8 and offers a fresh perspective on the late artist and his uncanny, super-realistic work. Included are 22 sculptures in bronze or autobody filler, a favorite medium of the artist, that span nearly 30 years of production and focus primarily on Hanson's Midwestern upbringing and its influence on his artistic vision. Through August 1.

Phoenix, AZ -- Phoenix Art Museum -- Degas in Bronze features a collection of 73 of Degas' bronze sculptures, including the famed Little Dancer. Known primarily as a painter and draftsman, Renoir was also considered a great sculptor by such artist contemporaries as Renoir and Cassatt. Through May 30.

Copyright ARTtalk Vol. 14 No. 7 -- May 2004