The US$300m (£193.5m, 220m euro) Modern Wing at the Art Institute of Chicago, US, has opened to public this week. The 24,500sq m (264,000sq ft) extension, designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Renzo Piano has increased the museum's floor space to more than a million square feet, making it the second largest art museum in the US. The three-storey extension, which is covered by a sun-shade system allowing natural light to

Lakeland Motor Museum at Holker Hall in Cumbria will be relocated to a new purpose-built premise at Backbarrow near Newby Bridge. Former Blue Mill carton packaging sheds have been redeveloped to provide a larger display space for the museum's 30,000 exhibits, which tell the story of more than 100 years of motoring history. A new exhibit on all aspects of road transport history will now be presented, while existing displays,

A new £25m visitor centre is set to be built at Stonehenge in Wiltshire after a scheme to revitalise the World Heritage Site was provisionally given the green light by the government. Work will now commence on drawing up a planning application for the new centre, which is to be located at Airman's Corner following recommendations by the Stonehenge Project Board - chaired by culture minister Barbara Follett and transport

New plans for the radical mixed-use redevelopment of London's Grade II-listed Commonwealth Institute building in Holland Park have angered heritage groups. The designs have been submitted to the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea Council (RBK&C) by the Office of Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), with the intention of converting the building into a possible new home for the Design Museum. The redevelopment, led by developers Chelsfield Partners, includes the removal of

The architect has been picked to design a new branch of Mexico's Tamayo Contemporary Art Museum in Mexico City on behalf of client Patronato Tamayo. Mexican architects Roijkin Arquitectos and Danish practice BIG have been selected from a design competition to create the new 3,500sq m Tamayo Museum, which will house art exhibition spaces, storage and restoration facilities. The cross-shaped building, designed to look like 'an open box', is earmarked

The National Children's Museum (NCM) - formerly the Capital Children's Museum in Washington - is set to reopen at its new home in Maryland, US, in 2013. Part of the National Harbor development in Prince George's County, the 150,000sq ft (14,000sq m) building will represent six core content areas: the environment, health and well being, play, civic engagement, the arts and world cultures. Designed by Connecticut architect Cesar Pelli, it

The Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Centre has opened in Skokie, IL, US. Around 12,000 people attended the US$45m (£30m, 34m euro), 65,000sq ft (6,040sq m) museum, which features 2,000 survivor testimonies. The museum – designed by architect Stanley Tigerman – houses artefacts such as Simon Wiesenthal’s eyeglasses, an original volume of the Nuremberg Trial transcripts, Kindertransport lists and artwork made in the concentration camps. Its Room of Remembrance honours

A new £2.2m visitor centre has opened at the Stanwick Lakes countryside attraction and nature reserve near Higham Ferrers, Northamptonshire, as part of a two-phase project at the site. The facility, which marks the completion of the first phase of the construction scheme, includes a central atrium containing an interpretation space and interactive exhibits, a multi-purpose function suite and an indoor play area for young children. A café with terrace

Attempts to save the former home of author Elizabeth Gaskell have received a boost after English Heritage (EH) announced that it would contribute more than £260,000 as part of a £2.5m revamp of the property. The Grade II-listed house, where Gaskell wrote novels including Cranford and Wives and Daughters, is set for extensive renovation work after Manchester City Council approved the scheme in November last year. Owned by the Manchester

Work is set to get underway on the restoration and redevelopment of a historic music hall in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, after the scheme secured a £1m grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF). The Shropshire Portal scheme will include the development of a new, sustainable museum and visitor information centre at the 13th century, Grade II*-listed Vaughan's Mansion and the Grade II-listed Music Hall and Assembly Rooms dating back to 1835.

Bewdley Museum will reopen to the public on 2 May following a £500,000 revamp. Improvements at the museum include a brand new Café, new exhibition galleries and updated educational facilities. The museums brass foundry has also been refurbished and the saw yard building has been expanded to provide more space for educational l activities. Museum technician Dave Darby said: "There is still a lot of work to do before we

The Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in Poland is in urgent need of a huge restoration fund to prevent the landmark holocaust site from crumbling into the ground. A Foundation was established in January to campaign leaders in Europe to donate money towards a 120m euro (£110m) Perpetual Fund to help conserve the WWII memorial to human tragedy for the education of future generations. The capital will be invested and ring-fenced by

The first sod has been cut on the £13.6m redevelopment of Bath’s Holburne Museum of Art. When it reopens, the Holburne will house a collection of fine and decorative arts, and will be fully accessible for the first time. A new garden café will also be built. The scheme has already received £10.6m of funding, comprising grants form the Heritage Lottery Fund, Lord and Lady Sainsbury’s Linbury Trust and Bath

Repair work has got underway in Reading, Berkshire, at the site of one of the town's most historic monuments, Abbey Ruins. Health and safety concerns had been raised about certain parts of the site last summer following a detailed inspection of the monument, undertaken by Reading Borough Council (RBC). IJP Building Conservation has been appointed by the council to carry out the repairs, which have initially focused on the Cloister

Manchester City Council has made a bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) in order to secure funding towards the restoration of the historic Heaton Hall. The council has earmarked the restoration of the hall as the final part of a three-phase programme of improvements at Heaton Park in North Manchester, which has already seen the renovation of four of the park's other historic listed buildings including the Dower House

Italy's newest art gallery, Museo Nazionale delle Arti del XXI Secolo (MAXXI) in Rome, is set for a 2009 launch. Zaha Hadid Architects have designed the museum to be reminiscent of an ‘urban campus’, a building that goes beyond interior spaces to include the entire city. The project includes two museums – MAXXI art and MAXXI architecture – which will revolve around a full-height grand hall that connects with a

An appeal has been launched by the Nant Gwrtheyrn Trust (NGT) to raise a further £200,000 in order to complete a six-phase restoration scheme at the former quarrying village in Gwynedd, North Wales. The village, which is located on the northern coast of the Llŷn Peninsula, near Pwllheli, is home to a Welsh language and heritage centre, and includes an education centre, accommodation and conference facilities. Funding worth £3.5m has

The Dreamland Trust is to unveil its plans to establish the world's first heritage amusement park in Margate, Kent, on the site of the former Dreamland Amusement Park. Levitt Bernstein Architects, together with Paris-based theme park designer Jean-Marc Toussaint, is behind designs for the proposed £12m attraction, which will be built around the Grade II-listed scenic railway, one of the oldest rollercoasters in Britain. The trust, which administers the Save

A historic World War II codebreaking centre at Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire is set to undergo vital repair work after Milton Keynes Council (MKC) agreed to match a funding pledge by English Heritage. When English Heritage announced in November that it was investing £330,000 to fund repairs to the Grade II-listed mansion's roof, it also pledged a further £100,000 a year over a three-year period starting in April providing match-funding

The Tower Theatre Company (TTC) has unveiled plans to build a new theatre on a site confirmed by Museum of London Archaeology as being the location of London's first purpose-built playhouse. An excavation of the site in Shoreditch, which is currently occupied by a disused warehouse, has uncovered what is believed to be the inner wall of The Theatre, a polygonal theatre built by James Burbage in 1576. Trustees of

The Scottish Government has been called upon to help provide funding for the creation of a new landmark building on Dundee's waterfront that could house a proposed Victoria and Albert (V&A) Museum. Kevin Keenan, chair of the Dundee Waterfront Board (DWB), wants to see an iconic 'anchor' building developed as part of the wider regeneration of the city's waterfront, in order to capture the public's imagination and to act as

Southampton's oldest museum has been awarded a £3.5m grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) in order to carry out restoration work that will safeguard the attraction's future. Tudor House, which dates back to the late 15th century, is set to undergo an extensive refurbishment programme that will enable the Grade I-listed building and Scheduled Ancient Monument to be removed from the 'Heritage At Risk Register'. The former Tudor merchant

Science Oxford Live, a new cultural centre for science and enterprise in Oxfordshire, has opened to the public following a £250,000 refurbishment. The ground floor of the venue, which has been closed for the last two months while work has been carried out, offers a meeting area, a chill out refreshment area and a permanent exhibition space for adults and older children. A discovery zone for children and families also

Plans for a new museum, gallery and library at the Beaney Institute building in Canterbury has received a £5.98m funding boost from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF). The HLF grant will go towards a £11.6m regeneration project that will see the Grade II-listed Beaney Institute receive a new rear extension to create more gallery space. The institute first opened to the public as a museum in 1899 and houses more

The Ulster Hall, a historic 150-year old cultural venue in Belfast, Northern Ireland, has reopened following an extensive multi-million pound refurbishment scheme lasting two years. It is the first scheme to be completed as part of a series of major renovation projects taking place at buildings across the city, with St Malachy's Church, the City Hall and the Ulster Museum set to reopen later this year. Work on the £8.5m

Plans for the restoration and refurbishment of Penarth Pier Pavilion have been revived by Penarth Arts and Crafts Ltd (PACL) after the Vale of Glamorgan Council (VGC) agreed to contribute £800,000 towards the scheme. Last year, the project failed at the final hurdle in a bid to secure £2m funding support from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), but now preparations are being made to submit a new bid later this

A planning application has been submitted for the redevelopment of Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museum in Gloucester. The 100-year-old museum, which attracts more than 60,000 visitors each year, will undergo a £5m revamp which will add more than 300sq m of new temporary exhibition space and a new dedicated gallery to house the museum's collection of Dutch, Italian and British masterpieces. Fundraising for the project has begun, with Gloucestershire-based Summerfield