Spain’s first solar eclipse in a century prompts A.I. reimagining of Prado masterworks.
Madrid’s Museo Nacional del Prado released an A.I.-assisted video on August 12 digitally altering 11 paintings in its collection to depict Spain’s total solar eclipse, the first to cross the country in more than a century. The one-minute video, titled The Prado by the Light of the Eclipse and soundtracked by Vivaldi’s “Summer,” darkens works including Velázquez’s Las Meninas, Goya’s El Quitasol and La pradera de San Isidro, and Rubens and Jan Brueghel the Elder’s La Vista, alongside pieces by Dürer, José de Ribera, and Claude Lorrain. The video was produced by Madrid studio AMB Piensa, which used A.I. video-generation tools combined with traditional animation to simulate the eclipse’s gradual darkening and shifting shadows across each painting. Every sequence was manually reviewed to preserve the works’ original composition and technique. The museum said the project is intended partly as outreach to audiences who don’t typically visit museums.
MoMA’s 2026 Film Benefit will honor Steven Spielberg’s half-century legacy.
Steven Spielberg has been named the honoree for the 2026 MoMA Film Benefit, presented by lead sponsor Chanel. The annual event, set for November 12, celebrates influential figures in cinema while raising funds for the museum’s film collection and programming. The evening will feature tributes from Spielberg’s collaborators, clips spanning his filmography, and a black-tie dinner. Rajendra Roy, MoMA’s Celeste Bartos chief curator of film, noted that the museum’s relationship with Spielberg dates back more than 50 years, to when it featured him in its New Directors/New Films series in 1974. Spielberg joins a list of past honorees that includes Sofia Coppola, Samuel L. Jackson, Guillermo del Toro, Martin Scorsese, Tom Hanks, Cate Blanchett, Quentin Tarantino, and Kathryn Bigelow, among others. The recognition comes on the heels of an active year for the director, who released his latest film, Disclosure Day, this summer and executive produced Apple TV+’s Cape Fear.
DS+R reimagines a warehouse for MIT’s School of Architecture and Planning.
Diller Scofidio + Renfro has completed the conversion of MIT’s historic Metropolitan Warehouse into a new 195,000-square-foot home for the School of Architecture and Planning, replacing decades of scattered facilities spread across campus. Built in 1894 and expanded through 1923, the fortress-like red-brick warehouse sat largely unused despite sitting just steps from the school’s former base in Building 7. DS+R, working with associate architect Leers Weinzapfel Associates, preserved the building’s south-facing façade while enlarging its small windows almost invisibly, and replaced the brick along the north facade with five-story glass curtain walls. To create light-filled studios, the firm removed the centers of four of the five original structures, exposing raw cross-sections of brick and terra cotta rather than concealing them. MIT will mark the completion with “Occupancy,” an inaugural exhibition on movement, labor, and adaptation, alongside a procession on September 8, a dedication on October 1, and a public opening October 3 during MIT Future Fest.
San Diego Museum of Art lays off nearly a dozen employees amid budget cuts.
The San Diego Museum of Art laid off 11 employees, just six months after celebrating its 100th anniversary, citing rising operational costs and an uncertain funding landscape. The cuts affected departments across the Balboa Park institution, including operations, development, exhibitions, and programming, reducing total staff to 118. The museum, the region’s oldest, largest, and most visited, is still pursuing a planned expansion of its west wing, recently entering the design phase. The layoffs come amid broader financial strain on arts institutions nationwide, as federal grant funding has been significantly reduced. Locally, San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria had proposed cutting $11.8 million from the city’s $13.8 million arts and culture budget earlier this year.
Zeitz MOCAA appoints Elvira Dyangani Ose as its new artistic director
Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA) in Cape Town has named Elvira Dyangani Ose as its new artistic director, effective October 1. Dyangani Ose, currently artistic director of the second Public Art Abu Dhabi Biennial, is known for championing artists from Africa and its diaspora and for her collaborative leadership approach. The appointment comes more than a year after the unexpected death of Koyo Kouoh, who as executive director and chief curator from 2019 to 2025 transformed Zeitz MOCAA into an internationally recognized institution. Córdoba-born Dyangani Ose most recently served as director of Barcelona’s MACBA from 2021 to April 2026, becoming the first woman and person of color to lead the museum since its 1987 founding. Her earlier roles include director of London’s Showroom, curator of international art at Tate Modern, and senior curator at Creative Time in New York. She has also held artistic director posts at biennials in Sweden and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
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