Over at Modern Art Notes, blogger Tyler Green has the (hilariously named) MANscoop that the National Gallery of Art is in negotiations to expand across the street from its current location on Constitution Avenue into the Federal Trade Commission building. The deal isn’t sealed yet, but Green’s sources sound pretty confident that the museum will be moving over to the space in time for a 2012 opening. MAN has a decent history of the two…

While we celebrate the reopening of the Smithsonian American Art Museum and National Portrait Gallery as classic examples of what museum care and innovation should be, the Smithsonian Institution at large may be slowly losing its grasp on the rest of its constituency. D.C.-based art critic and blogger Tyler Green has some critical words in a Los Angeles Times op-ed about the dilapidated conditions the other Smithsonian museums are suffering due to Congress’ underfunding of…

We start this week’s Arts Agenda with some news from the Hirshhorn. Tyler Green of Modern Art Notes tells us that the Hirshhorn has a new director, noting that: The Hirshhorn held no press conference introducing their new director. The Corcoran, however, just held a presser to announce that they don’t have a director! Anyhow, back to the latest listings … Kick off summer by visiting some of the new exhibits around D.C. this week….

The Post’s uber arts crtic, Blake Gopnik, has sparked the passions of the D.C. arts community once again (and not because of an article about the National Gallery’s gelato offerings). Gopnik, lamenting that some of the city’s best art is held behind closed doors in private collections, is calling for a collectors’ coalition that would show off its best holdings in a local setting. What does Gopnik (who is pictured below when he was arts…