Awards and changes

I let the first anniversary of the launching onto the market of ARS go by. There was no chance to be egocentric. Although, having a look at the current times, today it is worth celebrating simply everything. And we have reasons to do so.

First, two of our contributors have received two separate awards. Jacinto Antón got the National Science Journalism Award 2009 and Bárbara Celis, a scholarship in the Getty Foundation of Los Angeles. The magnificent interview between her and Thomas Krens and her chronicles from New York, where she works as a correspondent, deserved it. As Jacinto Anton deserves it too. Congratulations to both. They will not be alone. And they will not because the quality that has met our publication makes us proud. Proud that Professor Jonathan Brown has selected us to publish his article on the new Velázquez of the Metropolitan Museum in New York; happy that Odile Delenda has selected the new works by Zurbarán that she discloses in her monumental catalog of the artist to talk about them in ARS; delighted that Gianni Papi discovers two new works by Ribera in his new partnership with us, and grateful that Gilbert & George, this odd couple of Pop Art, think of us to present their new home-studio in London. All them, reasons to be satisfied with this number.

But in our profession, as in all, you can’t rest on laurels and, therefore, we have initiated a series of changes and improvements in the magazine that begins at this issue. It was missing, as we were told by our readers, a section that deals with those buildings and structures, increasingly striking and avant-garde, that house the works of art museums, expansions, galleries, halls, fairs... We have never forgotten the architecture, but we believe that it must be present in our pages in a more emphatic way. The article written by Cecilia Barbieri on the new Benozzo Gozzoli Museum in Castelfiorentino (Florence) is a good start.

And I will not forget about our website. Originally created as a digital support of the magazine, it has become a media with its own life, where the current affairs and the updated information from galleries around the world overflow and complete, with the same quality, the work of the print edition.

We're happy. And so we are because our coming issues are such overwhelming -not because of us but because of our contributors- that only their preparation is a challenge for further work. It is fortunate to do something. And it is thanks to you. That is still our best reward.