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ATHENS, GA.- The Georgia Museum of Art will host the fifth Henry D. Green Symposium of the Decorative Arts, “Neighboring Voices: The Decorative Culture of Our Southern Cousins,” January 29-30, 2010, at the University of Georgia Center for Continuing Education Conference Center and Hotel. The symposium will bring together representatives from neighboring states to discuss their own research, collections and decorative-arts history. Topics to be discussed at the symposium include the discovery of Georgia’s early decorative arts, the paint-decorated furniture of Piedmont North Carolina, the influence of Georgia potters on Alabama pottery, the profile of a southern antebellum silversmith, German toys in American childhood, French porcelain in the antebellum South and early Georgians’ migration to Alabama. Featured speakers at this year’s symposium are Mary Audrey Apple, Joey J. Brackner, Daniel Brooks, Charlotte Crabtree, Robert Doares, Robert A. Leath, and

WASHINGTON, DC.- The AIA Board of Directors elected James Logan Abell, FAIA, as the 2010 recipient of the Edward C. Kemper Award. Named in honor of the AIA’s first executive director, the award recognizes individuals who contribute significantly to the profession of architecture through service to the Institute. Abell will be honored at the 2010 AIA National Convention in Miami. The Tempe, Ariz.-based Abell has spent the last 35 years offering the public a myriad of community design solutions the AIA has to offer through its Regional and Urban Design Assistance Teams (R/UDAT). He has been the public face of what architects and the AIA can do to help people in need of better cities, town, neighborhoods, streets, homes, and businesses. Abell has worked with numerous R/UDAT programs across the nation, assembling diverse groups of design professionals to lead community forums in developing design solutions for changing communities

ROME (REUTERS).- The mystery surrounding the death of Baroque master Caravaggio may soon be resolved thanks to new DNA tests — as long as the right body can be found. What caused the death of the painter in 1610 and the whereabouts of his corpse have always been unclear. But a team of Italian anthropologists believe that what is left of Caravaggio’s body may be hidden among dozens of bodies buried in a crypt in Tuscany, thanks to recent historical clues. The team — armed with a CAT scan and kits for carbon dating — plan to study the painter’s exhumed remains to discover how he died.

NEW YORK, NY.- The International Association of Art Critics/USA announces its 26th annual awards to honor artists, curators, museums, galleries and other cultural institutions in recognition of excellence in the conception and realization of exhibitions. The winning projects were nominated and voted on by AICA’s 400 active U.S.-based members to honor outstanding exhibitions of the previous season. This year’s 13 first-place winners include exhibitions focusing on contemporary artists William Kentridge and Pipilotti Rist, the architect

NEW YORK, NY.- The Whitney Museum of American Art today announced the list of artists participating in the upcoming Whitney Biennial, 2010, which takes over the Museum from February 25 through May 30, 2010. This is the 75th in the ongoing series of Biennials and Annuals presented by the Whitney since 1932, two years after the Museum was founded. The fifty-five artists were selected by curator Francesco Bonami and associate curator Gary Carrion-Murayari. Curators Bonami and Carrion-Murayari noted, “The Whitney Biennial continues to reflect the way in which art is shaped

PARIS (AP).- A French family drama worthy of a soap opera landed in court Friday, as the daughter of France’s richest woman questioned whether her mother has lost her mind and frittered away a fortune on a man known for befriending high-society celebrities. Francoise Bettencourt Meyers’ two-year legal campaign against the man she accuses of taking advantage of Liliane Bettencourt, her 87-year-old mother, has already included a failed attempt to have her mother put under court-ordered

PARIS (AP).- Pieces of old Paris from a lamp post to a park bench go on the auction block next week, with the piece de resistance 40 iron steps from the Eiffel Tower, all 7.8 meters (25.6 feet) of them. “Paris Mon Amour,” the title given to the auction Monday at the famed French house Drouot, brings together an eclectic batch of memories that evoke a bygone era as well as the present. Among the 301 items to be auctioned is a section of glass broken during the construction in 1987 of the glass pyramid now standing at the entrance to the Louvre Museum. Estimated at €500 to €1,000 ($735-$1,470),

LONDON.- On Saturday, December 12, Londoners and visitors will see a dream realised, as the doors of ‘Out the Closet 2009’ in Covent Garden’s Flower Cellars will fling open, and shoppers will have a once-in-a-lifetime chance to get their hands on an exclusive array of Elton and David Furnish’s flamboyant clothing collection, direct from their wardrobes. From outfits worn by Elton on stage, to David’s favourite Dior shirts, fans will have the opportunity to step into their shoes for real,

NEW YORK, NY (REUTERS).- Sotheby’s hopes that the fervent mood at an auction this week in London of important Old Master paintings will travel overseas when several rare art works will be auctioned next month. The fragile state of the world economy didn’t influence the few deep-pocketed art collectors who vied for rare 17th century masterpieces in the British capital on Wednesday. Sotheby’s sale of Old Master & British Paintings in London saw a new auction record set for Anthony van Dyck when his last self portrait soared above expectations and sold for$13,521,704.

LONDON.- The winners of the RIBA President’s Medals Student Awards 2009 in association with Atkins were announced at a ceremony at the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). These prestigious awards promote excellence in the study of architecture, rewarding talent and encouraging architectural debate world-wide. Nicholas Szczepaniak , from the University of Westminster, won the Silver Medal for his project “A Defensive Architecture” and Wen Ying Teh from the Architectural Association won the Bronze Medal for her project “An Augmented Ecology of Wildlife and Industry”. Rebecca Gregory from the University of Westminster won the Dissertation Medal for her work “The Art of Skew Bridges: The Technique and its History Explored”. The main President’s Medals are: the Bronze Medal (awarded to the best Part 1 design project), the Silver Medal (for the best Part 2 design project) and the Dissertation Medal, which is awarded f