Nona Faustine, a photographer who used her work to highlight the perseverance of Black women, has died at 48. The Brooklyn Museum, which mounted an exhibition of the artist last year, confirmed her passing on social media. A cause of death was not specified.

ARTnews has reached out to Higher Pictures, Faustine’s New York gallery.

In ways both provocative and beautiful, Faustine’s photography explored conditions afflicting Black women across time. She frequently photographed herself in ways that considered how her body acted as a record of histories of exploitation and empowerment.

“The true lives of Black women in the United States, if not in the world, are not seen,” she told the photographer Carla J. Williams last year in BOMB magazine. “I wanted to show our lives and who we are. We are very special. Not just because of our suffering but because of our beauty and strength. The reinvention and the creativity that oozes out. The bravery.”

Her most famous series, “White Shoes,” involved visiting sites in New York that had ties to histories of enslavement. In some images from the series, she pictured herself in the nude, wearing just a pair of white pumps, in places such as the intersection at 74 Wall Street, where enslaved people were once auctioned.

Nona Faustine, a photographer who used her work to highlight the perseverance of Black women, has died at 48. The Brooklyn Museum, which mounted an exhibition of the artist last year, confirmed her passing on social media. A cause of death was not specified.

ARTnews has reached out to Higher Pictures, Faustine’s New York gallery.

In ways both provocative and beautiful, Faustine’s photography explored conditions afflicting Black women across time. She frequently photographed herself in ways that considered how her body acted as a record of histories of exploitation and empowerment.

“The true lives of Black women in the United States, if not in the world, are not seen,” she told the photographer Carla J. Williams last year in BOMB magazine. “I wanted to show our lives and who we are. We are very special. Not just because of our suffering but because of our beauty and strength. The reinvention and the creativity that oozes out. The bravery.”

Her most famous series, “White Shoes,” involved visiting sites in New York that had ties to histories of enslavement. In some images from the series, she pictured herself in the nude, wearing just a pair of white pumps, in places such as the intersection at 74 Wall Street, where enslaved people were once auctioned.

The British Museum held the record for the most visited attraction in the UK for 2024 for the second year in a row.

According to statistics recently released by Alva, the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions, the museum in London saw 6,479,952 visitors in 2024, an 11 percent increase compared to the previous year. The Natural History Museum in South Kensington was the second most popular attraction at 6.3 million visitors, also with an 11 percent increase compared to 2023.

Tate Modern was the 4th most visited with 4.6 million visitors. The Southbank Center, which includes the Hayward Gallery for contemporary art among its venues, had more than 3.7 million visitors, an increase of 17 percent compared to 2023.

Alva’s announcement also noted a 36 percent increase in visitors going to the National Portrait Gallery last year with more than 1.5 million visitors after it reopened in summer 2023. This helped the museum move up nine spots in one year to 18th place. The Young V&A, which also reopened in June 2023, welcomed more than 596,000 visitors, a 47 percent increase.

Stonehenge also experienced a 3 percent increase in visitors, with more than 1.36 million in 2024.

The British Museum held the record for the most visited attraction in the UK for 2024 for the second year in a row.

According to statistics recently released by Alva, the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions, the museum in London saw 6,479,952 visitors in 2024, an 11 percent increase compared to the previous year. The Natural History Museum in South Kensington was the second most popular attraction at 6.3 million visitors, also with an 11 percent increase compared to 2023.

Tate Modern was the 4th most visited with 4.6 million visitors. The Southbank Center, which includes the Hayward Gallery for contemporary art among its venues, had more than 3.7 million visitors, an increase of 17 percent compared to 2023.

Alva’s announcement also noted a 36 percent increase in visitors going to the National Portrait Gallery last year with more than 1.5 million visitors after it reopened in summer 2023. This helped the museum move up nine spots in one year to 18th place. The Young V&A, which also reopened in June 2023, welcomed more than 596,000 visitors, a 47 percent increase.

Stonehenge also experienced a 3 percent increase in visitors, with more than 1.36 million in 2024.

On April 10, Sotheby’s Paris will hold a sale dedicated to Niomar Moniz Sodré Bittencourt, a Brazilian businesswoman and journalist and the founder of Museu de Arte Moderna (MAM) in Rio de Janeiro. Bittencourt, who died in 2003, was a prodigious collector of mid-century Modernist masterpieces, including works by Alberto Giacometti, Pablo Picasso, and Max Ernst, as well as leading Brazilian artists of the era including Almir Da Silva Mavignier and Franz Krajcberg.

For those unfamiliar with Bittencourt, that may soon change. Later this year, according to Sotheby’s, a biography by author Ricardo Cota will be released. Titled A Mulher que Enfrentou o Brasil (The Woman Who Faced Brazil), the book will tell how Bittencourt both shaped Brazil’s modern art scene and courageously defied the Brazilian military dictatorship of the ’60s and ’70s.

In the 1940s, while Brazil’s cultural establishment remained skeptical of modernism, Bittencourt founded the MAM with little funding and against stiff resistance. Through sheer force of will, she was able to secure support from artists and patrons across the globe, most prominently Nelson Rockfeller, then president of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Her passion for art was deeply personal but also political. Through her friendship with the artist Maria Martins, she was introduced to figures like Peggy Guggenheim, Marcel Duchamp, and Giacometti. For Bittencourt, modern art was more than an aesthetic pursuit—it was a declaration of intellectual freedom, a challenge to convention, and, ultimately, a reflection of her own unyielding spirit.

Bittencourt’s influence extended beyond the art world. Having inherited one of Brazil’s leading newspapers from her late husband, she transformed it into a staunch voice of opposition during the military dictatorship. The regime responded with force: she was imprisoned in 1969, released only after an international outcry, and eventually exiled to Paris.

On April 10, Sotheby’s Paris will hold a sale dedicated to Niomar Moniz Sodré Bittencourt, a Brazilian businesswoman and journalist and the founder of Museu de Arte Moderna (MAM) in Rio de Janeiro. Bittencourt, who died in 2003, was a prodigious collector of mid-century Modernist masterpieces, including works by Alberto Giacometti, Pablo Picasso, and Max Ernst, as well as leading Brazilian artists of the era including Almir Da Silva Mavignier and Franz Krajcberg.

For those unfamiliar with Bittencourt, that may soon change. Later this year, according to Sotheby’s, a biography by author Ricardo Cota will be released. Titled A Mulher que Enfrentou o Brasil (The Woman Who Faced Brazil), the book will tell how Bittencourt both shaped Brazil’s modern art scene and courageously defied the Brazilian military dictatorship of the ’60s and ’70s.

In the 1940s, while Brazil’s cultural establishment remained skeptical of modernism, Bittencourt founded the MAM with little funding and against stiff resistance. Through sheer force of will, she was able to secure support from artists and patrons across the globe, most prominently Nelson Rockfeller, then president of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Her passion for art was deeply personal but also political. Through her friendship with the artist Maria Martins, she was introduced to figures like Peggy Guggenheim, Marcel Duchamp, and Giacometti. For Bittencourt, modern art was more than an aesthetic pursuit—it was a declaration of intellectual freedom, a challenge to convention, and, ultimately, a reflection of her own unyielding spirit.

Bittencourt’s influence extended beyond the art world. Having inherited one of Brazil’s leading newspapers from her late husband, she transformed it into a staunch voice of opposition during the military dictatorship. The regime responded with force: she was imprisoned in 1969, released only after an international outcry, and eventually exiled to Paris.

A new report on spending at art museums says most such institutions spend a median of $82 per visitor, expansions don’t always lead to deeper public engagement, and free admission can lower costs per visitor due to greater attendance.

Those insights come from the latest report recently published by Remuseum, an organization and initiative from the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas. Remuseum was established and funded by entrepreneur and Top 200 collector David Booth in 2023, with additional support from the Ford Foundation.

Stephen Reily, Remuseum’s founding director and former director of the Speed Art Museum in Louisville, Kentucky, told ARTnews that one of the biggest challenges to compiling the report was a lack of available data. “It’s a time where museums need more support than ever to be able to fulfill their missions as vital cultural institutions, and in that context, the you know, the lack of publicly available data doesn’t really help,” Reily told ARTnews.

“The idea is that more publicly available data has the capacity to expand public trust in museums, align more with what Next Gen philanthropists want to see, but also will help each individual museum figure out how to be the best possible version of itself, how to maximize its own mission, how to maximize the quantity and quality of visits and the number of the people in the public it serves,” Reily said.

Through a large collection of data from 153 American art museums, the key question the Remuseum report aimed to help answer for museum leaders and boards is “How do you best invest dollars to maximize the quantity and quality of people’s visits?”

A new report on spending at art museums says most such institutions spend a median of $82 per visitor, expansions don’t always lead to deeper public engagement, and free admission can lower costs per visitor due to greater attendance.

Those insights come from the latest report recently published by Remuseum, an organization and initiative from the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas. Remuseum was established and funded by entrepreneur and Top 200 collector David Booth in 2023, with additional support from the Ford Foundation.

Stephen Reily, Remuseum’s founding director and former director of the Speed Art Museum in Louisville, Kentucky, told ARTnews that one of the biggest challenges to compiling the report was a lack of available data. “It’s a time where museums need more support than ever to be able to fulfill their missions as vital cultural institutions, and in that context, the you know, the lack of publicly available data doesn’t really help,” Reily told ARTnews.

“The idea is that more publicly available data has the capacity to expand public trust in museums, align more with what Next Gen philanthropists want to see, but also will help each individual museum figure out how to be the best possible version of itself, how to maximize its own mission, how to maximize the quantity and quality of visits and the number of the people in the public it serves,” Reily said.

Through a large collection of data from 153 American art museums, the key question the Remuseum report aimed to help answer for museum leaders and boards is “How do you best invest dollars to maximize the quantity and quality of people’s visits?”