Notes from the field.

aThe Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Museum in Rridgeport, CT will celebrate its Grand Reopening June 13, following a $9 milion renovation and expansion program. Designed by Tappe associates of Boston, the 25,000 square feet of new and redesigned space doubles the museum's size and accomodates 12 new galleries, including a screening room, a sound gallery, a 22-foot high project space, a 100-seat performance space, a state-of the art education center, improved visitor amenities and a re-dsigned outdoor sculpture garden. The inaugural exhibition. Into My World, on view June 13-September 1, includes a video installation by Saskia Olde Wolbers.

Constance W. Glenn, the Founding director of the Cal State Long Beach University Art Museum, will retire this August after 31 years of service. Glenn came to CSULB in 1973 and became the first full-time gallery director, soon founding both the museum and the Graduate Certificate Program in Museum Studies. She will remain active in the program as Director Emeritus and, along with Mary-Kay Lombino, will mount the UAM's ground-breaking exhibition for the German photographer Candida Hofer. The exhibit opens January 25, 2005.

The Aperture Foundation will launch a new, premier, online photography collecion called "Aperture Images." The collection of images is marketed to designers, publishers and advertising agencies who "appreciate fine art photography as a unique form of visual expression." The images will include work from the distinguished roster of photographers Aperture has published over the past fifty years as well as new and emerging artists that meet the same high standards. The goal of Aperture Images is to ensure greater exposure and additional revenue for professional photographers with the somewhat dubious subtext of offering "the best visual marketing solutions to commerical clients worldwide."

Contact 2004 is Toronto annual photo festival with this year over 49 exhibitions and several lectures.

Cristin Tierney and Elisa Flynn are proud to be new members of the Lower East Side Printshop. Tierney joins as a member of the Board of Directors and Flynn joins as the new Programs Administrator. The staff is quite excited about these new additions and are looking foreward to a new year colored by their contributions.

The Yale University Art Gallery is pleased to announce a new Curator of Academic Initiatives. Pamela Franks, a former curator of public and scholarly programs at the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas, assumed the position on March 1st. Franks has worked for the gallery before, most notably as the organizer of the acclaimed exhibit The Tiger's Eye: The Art of a Magazine. Her museum experience spans the fields of exhibtions, publications, and education. Her commitment to interdisciplinary inquiry and the direct study of art objects makes her particularily suited to creating programs that will intergrate the museum's offerings into university curriculum and life at every level. The Museum has also begun the comprehensive restoration of its landmark main building, designed by American architect Louis I. Kahn. The Gallery was Kahn's first significant comission and is widely regarded as his first masterpiece. The Yale Art Gallery restoration has been designed by the New York City-based Polshek Partnership architects. Although the building is currently closed during the renovations, the permanent home (the Gothic-style wing, designed by Egerton Swartwout) continues to display the permanent American collection. The Kahn building reopens in spring of 2006.

Philadelphia's The Print Center recently revealed a new change in leadership. They are pleased to announce the appointment of Michal Smith as the new Executive Director and Ennes Littrell as the new President of the Board of Governors. Smith comes from Silicon Gallery, one of the first galleries dedicated to the promotion of digital art in all its forms. He is an active promoter of the digital print and the melding of more traditional printmaking forms with the newer computer tools and materials. Ennes Littrell is a professional social worker and has worked in the field of community mental health for over twenty years. Their diverse backgrounds will ensure exciting news directions for The Print Center in the future.

The Chrysler Museum of Art recently acquired a vintage print of Andre Kertesz's

Eiffel Tower. Produced in 1929, the dizzying view of and from the Eiffel Tower reveals an elegant and dynamic composition of the familiar site. It is the first vintage Kertesz photograph to enter the Chrysler's permanent collection, and is considered especially rare because it was printed by the artist only a few years before he developed an allergy to photographic chemicals and was forced to stop performing darkroom work.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art announced last month several promotions in its Department of Photographs. Malcolm Daniel, Acting Curator in Charge of the Department of Photographs, would assume the post of Curator in Charge. This allows Maria Morris Hambourg, the founding curator of the department and its head for the past twelve years, to assume the post of Consulting Curator. In this new role. Ms. Hambourg will continue to work closely with the department on special projects while being free of day-to-day administrative duties. The Department of Photographs has also been promised a major gift of thirteen Diane Arbus prints. The rare, vintage prints represent one of the most significant acquisitions of 20th-century photography in the history of the Metropolitan and more than double the Museum's holdings of works by the artist. All of the prints were made by Arbus and were acquired directly from her estate by Mr. and Mrs. David Ganek. The selection includes "A Young Waitress at a Nudist Camp, N.J. (1963)" and "A Jewish Giant at Home with His Parents in the Bronx, N.Y. (1970)". These photographs are only part of the "21st-century Met": extensive construction and renovation plans are in the near

The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts is celebrating the acquisition of Kiki Smith's "Ice Man". Inspired by the discovery of a 5,300-year-old male body frozen in an Alpine glacier, it is one of her most significant works and a wonderful addition to the VFMA's permanent collection. The piece meshes well poetically with the museum's other headlining acquisition, a hammered-bronze Greek helmet from the 5th century B.C. Other purchases included a Hector Guimard Art Nouveau Portfolio from the late nineteenth century. On May 15th, The Fonds Regional d'Art Contemporain (Frac) Lorraine will open its new space in Metz. After three years of work, the historic Hotel Saint-Livier was renovated and transformed into a cutting-edge art gallery. The venue's name, chosen with reference to its latitude and longitude, is 49 North 6 East. A two-week opening is being held, entitled White Spirit, after the smell given off by the freshly painted walls, and with particular reference to this questioning of the exhibition space and the white cube.

Les Rencontres d'Arles (France), the senior of all photo festivals will open on July 8th, 2004. The festival itself (openings in the presence of the artists, exhibitions, conferences, presentations, evening screenings) will last for 4 days. There will be various workshops (Carole Bellaiche, Rene Burri, Bruno Chalifour, Clement Cheroux, Jean-Louis Courtinat, Joan Fontcuberta, Jean Gaumy, Lise Sarfati, etc....) throughout the whole month of July. Exhibitons will be open until Sept. 19. This year's artistic director is Martin Parr (among the 24 exhibitions he is supervising: Paul Shambroom, Chris Killip, Tony Ray-Jones, Lucien Clergue, Rinko Kawauchi, Osamu Kanemura, Taiji Matsue, Dayanita Singh, Katy Grannan, Hans Van Der Meer, Matthieu Pernot). Info:www.rencontres-arles.com.

Photo San Francisco, the 5th international Photographic Art Exposition at the Festival pavilion, Ft. Mason Center, San Francisco, July 22-25.