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An initiative developed by Art Fund is visualising the impact art displayed in museums and galleries has on people’s brains.

The experiment will see headsets that show how art affects brainwaves toured across museums and galleries in the UK. The devices have already been used at London’s Courtauld Gallery.

The headsets are connected to an electroencephalogram (EEG) monitor, which allows people’s brainwaves to be visualised on screens in 3D and in real time.

Art Fund Director Jenny Waldman told Sky News the experiment is the charity’s latest initiative to encourage visitors to return to museums and galleries.

"This is a way of just showing us exactly what happens in our brains and how exciting it is to actually be back in a museum context, back in a gallery, seeing real art, having that experience."

"What we're trying to do with this experiment is show how fantastic the museum experience is and encourage people back."

Further details of the theft of 2,000 Greek and Roman artefacts from the British Museum (BM) have emerged as the terms of a review of the organisation were published on its website yesterday.

The terms of reference for the British Museum Independent Collection, Security and Governance Review state that the “loss and/or damage of the affected objects occurred during the period from 1993 to 2022”, corresponding to the timeframe the alleged suspect was employed at the museum as a curator.

The document also names the review’s three co-chairs as Nigel Boardman (former trustee and lawyer), Lucy D'Orsi (Chief Constable of the British Transport Police) and Ian Karet (lawyer and charity law expert). 

They join senior BM employees David Bilson (Head of Security and Visitor Services), Mark Coady (Head of Internal Audit) and Thomas Harrison (Keeper of Greece and Rome) in investigating the thefts and liaising with the police.

The terms task the team with “identifying a complete list” of the missing items, noting “the ongoing detailed audit of affected objects is likely to take longer” than the scope of the review.  

In setting up procedures to recover the missing property, the terms suggest this could involve “civil litigation against persons suspected of possessing missing affected objects”.

The review will also examine the “failures of controls, processes or policies” that enabled the thefts, as well as the actions taken by the board in response to the allegations of losses.

The review report will be presented at the December meeting of trustees. It will also be shared with the Secretary of State at the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, Lucy Frazer, and her Permanent Secretary, Susannah Storey.

It will, however, be “kept confidential” though the trustees reserve the right to publish it in whole or part with the approval of the Co-Chairs.

Work is underway on a temporary theatre venue following the closure of the Orchard Theatre in Dartford over reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) concerns.

The Orchard Theatre was closed in September due to fears over RAAC in its roof.

In response, the temporary auditorium, which will have a 1,091-person capacity, is being built in Orchard West.

It will facilitate performances while refurbishment works on the Orchard Theatre are undertaken, which are expected to be completed in late 2024.

A spokesperson for Dartford Borough Council (DBC) told the BBC the temporary venue will also support the continued employment of the theatre team, visiting artists and backstage crew.

One of the temporary venue’s first events will be this year's pantomime.

Michael Harrison, Chief Executive of Crossroads Pantomimes, said: "We're delighted that DBC and Trafalgar Theatres have found such a creative solution to keep theatre alive in Dartford while work on the Orchard Theatre is undertaken".

A £2.3m arts and culture centre has opened in Derry/Londonderry as part of an initiative funding projects in five urban areas of Northern Ireland (NI).

Funding for the New Gate Arts & Culture Centre comes from the Urban Villages Initiative, which is overseen by NI’s Executive Office.

The scheme offers funding for projects that develop thriving places where there has been a history of deprivation and community tension.

The new arts centre, located in the Fountain area of Derry/Londonderry, features a performance space, art and tuition rooms and a dance studio.

A spokesperson for Derry City and Strabane District Council, which managed the development, said the centre will “assist in fostering positive community identities, building community capacity and improving the local physical environment”.

Joan O’Hara, Director of the Executive Office’s Urban Villages programme, added: “This is a fantastic regeneration project for the Fountain area of the city and across the region to provide a shared cultural space right in the heart of the local community”.

“The centre will invigorate the area and encourage the community to come together to celebrate their culture and backgrounds in a space that will use the arts to create new experiences and friendships.”

A Manchester-based ensemble that closed following the loss of its entire Arts Council England (ACE) funding has had its full catalogue of works acquired.

NMC Recordings announced the full acquisition of Psappha’s work earlier this week.

Throughout its 32-year history, Psappha commissioned and premiered music by more than 500 composers and also launched its own record label.

Announcing its closure earlier this year, the ensemble said the loss of £250,000 a year funding from ACE had proven “too great a challenge to overcome”.

NMC Executive Director Cathy Graham said Psappha’s contribution to living composers and the musical life of this country has been “immeasurable”. 

“We were enormously saddened to learn of their decision to close but proud and happy that NMC Recordings is able to safeguard their legacy by ensuring their magnificent recorded archive, which we have previously distributed, will be available in perpetuity.”

Five Just Stop Oil protesters have been warned that they could have to cover the costs of a cancelled performance of Les Miserables in October after they took to the stage and locked themselves to the set during the musical’s first act.

The disruption led to the theatre being evacuated and the cancellation of the performance. 

District Judge Michael Snow told the defendants the cost to the theatre of cancelling the show was around £80,000 and that they could be liable to pay the total amount if found guilty.

Appearing in Westminster Magistrates' Court, the protesters pleaded not guilty to one count of aggravated trespass.

The trial will start at City of London Magistrates' Court on 5 February.

Research that aims to compile a history of record shops specialising in Black music from the 1950s onwards has received a £247,494 grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Led by Leicester-based organisation 2Funky Arts, the project called 'The Record Store and Black Music, A UK History' will produce a film, publication, podcast series and educational resource using collected interviews with artists, DJs, store owners and customers as well as documentation.

Describing the work as “groundbreaking”, 2Funky Arts said: “For the Windrush generation and Black diaspora, the early independent UK record store was a music-fuelled vehicle for resistance against systemic racism. 

“Such sites became fertile ground for new music, and cultural eco-systems that shaped society’s relationship with Black music.”