— Smithsonian Plans Revamp: A $2 billion plan to renovate the Smithsonian proposes new entrances to the museum’s Castle structure, as well as connections between underground galleries. Designed by Danish architect Bjarke Ingels, this undertaking would be the largest project on the Mall in over a century. Meanwhile, Ingels has also been called upon to design a front door for the Frank Gehry-designed Battersea Power Station complex. [WP, Guardian]
— New Museum Triennial Announced: Plans for the 2015 New Museum Triennial, curated by artist Ryan Trecartin and the New Museum’s Lauren Cornell, have been released. The roster features 51 artists, including New York-based collective DIS, curators of the next Berlin Biennial. Titled “Surround Audience” — a phrase coined by Trecartin to evoke what Cornell calls “a contemporary condition wherein we are encircled by a ‘smarter’ and more participatory world” — the triennial will open on February 25. [ARTnews, NYT, Art in America]
— Met Reveals Whitney Takeover Show: In her column today, Carol Vogel reveals the name of the inaugural show the Met will hold in the soon-to-be vacated Whitney building: “Unfinished,” an exhibition that will “explore the fascination with unfinished works of art in all media and across time,” set to go up on March 7, 2016. In other news, Vogel touches on the philanthropy of software entrepreneur Peter Norton, who begins his proposed five-museum donating spree with a 75-work gift to the Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College. [NYT]
— New York Fall Auctions Wrap-Up: As the dust clears after two weeks of banner news from Sotheby’s and Christie’s, it appears that New York’s fall auctions have amassed a grand total of approximately $2.3 billion. [Bloomberg]
— Miami Museum Dispute Settled: Former trustees of Miami’s Museum of Contemporary Art have reached an accord with the city of North Miami regarding their decision to split and form the Institute of Contemporary Art in Miami’s Design District. The new institute will open with two shows in December. [Miami Herald, NYT]
— Olafur Eliasson Lives on the Edge: “You sit down with Olafur for a meal and he picks up the fork and stares at it for a moment and you think, ‘Oh my god, he’s either inventing a new fork or wondering how to get forks to people who don’t have forks.’ … Somehow he lives his entire life with the urgency of someone who just walked out of the doctor’s office with a dire prognosis,” wrote Jonathan Safran Foer in a profile of Elaisson. [NYT]
— In case you needed a reason to bang your head against a wall today, Kim Kardashian is coming out with an art book of selfies titled “Selfish.” [Guardian]
— Chicago advocacy group Friends of the Park are suing George Lucas’s Museum of Narrative Art in an attempt to block its construction. [Chicago Sun Times, WP]
— A project supported by Save The Children in Lebanon teaches animation to young Syrian refugees. [BBC]
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