I Gave the Whitney $75, and All I Got Was This Lousy Tee Shirt
Whitney's WhitTee: If only they could have gotten Houston to model this garment (or maybe this Whitney)
Granted, the Whitney gives you other benefits (hey, it comes in black too!) for your $75, along with this "limited edition," commissioned from Jenny Holzer, as the museum describes it. (Is this "edition" numbered?)
But why have NYC cultural organizations suddenly decided that what we all need is artsy tee shirts? As a NY Philharmonic subscriber, I was amused when this hit my inbox two weeks ago:

Bid on T-shirt Autographed by Dudamel and Zukerman
Wasn't the autograph of the NY Phil's own music director-designate, Alan Gilbert, good enough? Gustavo Dudamel is the music director-designate of the away team.

Alan Gilbert at a recent Philharmonic event, where he explained to subscribers why Schoenberg and Webern are good for them. (The riskiest programming gambit next season is actually the large number of compositions by Magnus Lindberg.)
But wait, there's more:
Judy, I know what went wrong: Remember when you wrote your series about art fraud on eBay for the NY Times? This tee shirt wasn't really "autographed." It was merely initialed! At least they should have come up with a more attractive photo. (Couldn't Zarin find an iron?):
Granted, the Whitney gives you other benefits (hey, it comes in black too!) for your $75, along with this "limited edition," commissioned from Jenny Holzer, as the museum describes it. (Is this "edition" numbered?)
But why have NYC cultural organizations suddenly decided that what we all need is artsy tee shirts? As a NY Philharmonic subscriber, I was amused when this hit my inbox two weeks ago:

Bid on T-shirt Autographed by Dudamel and Zukerman
Wasn't the autograph of the NY Phil's own music director-designate, Alan Gilbert, good enough? Gustavo Dudamel is the music director-designate of the away team.

Alan Gilbert at a recent Philharmonic event, where he explained to subscribers why Schoenberg and Webern are good for them. (The riskiest programming gambit next season is actually the large number of compositions by Magnus Lindberg.)
But wait, there's more:
The purchaser [of the Dudamel shirt] will receive a Letter of Authenticity signed by the Philharmonic's President and Executive Director, Zarin Mehta.A letter of tee-shirt authenticity! Who could possibly resist? Just about everyone, apparently. As Judith Dobrzynski reported on her nascent ArtsJournal blog, Real Clear Arts, "No bidding contest ensued. Just one bid, the minimum $100, was made when the auction ended." The hundred smackers benefited the orchestra.
Judy, I know what went wrong: Remember when you wrote your series about art fraud on eBay for the NY Times? This tee shirt wasn't really "autographed." It was merely initialed! At least they should have come up with a more attractive photo. (Couldn't Zarin find an iron?):
Maybe I need to hawk the CultureGrrl tee shirt. I'll even throw in an autographed photo. (In the meantime, many thanks to the faithful reader from Penn State who today clicked my "Donate" button!)
March 20, 2009 11:14 AM
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CULTUREGRRL (Lee Rosenbaum) is the artworld's award-winning "best blog."

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LEE ROSENBAUM I'm a veteran cultural journalist with many pieces in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and major art magazines. I have been a cultural contributor on New York Public Radio (WNYC and WQXR) and have provided arts commentary on NPR and public radio stations in Philadelphia and Los Angeles. I am a HuffPost Arts writer. I've been profiled on the PBS NewsHour with Jim Lehrer's Art Beat and in the Chicago Reader. I've appeared as an art-market commentator on BBC-TV and have published numerous Op-Ed pieces in the New York Times and Los Angeles Times. I am author of The Complete Guide to Collecting Art (Knopf) and have lectured on cultural property issues at the New Acropolis Museum and the University of Pennsylvania, on deaccessioning at at Investigative Reporters and Editors 2011 Annual Meeting, Columbia Law School, the University of Iowa and a conference of the Museum Association of New York, on museum governance and cultural property issues at Seton Hall University, on arts blogging at American University and on Smithsonian exhibition controversies at Rutgers University.
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CONTACT ME
Write to me here.
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Photo © by Jill Krementz
CULTUREGRRL SPEAKS on museum issues and ethics, arts journalism.
CONTACT ME: here.
CULTUREGRRL VIDEOS
My YouTube Channel
FIND ME ON
FOLLOW ME ON
________________________
moreLEE ROSENBAUM I'm a veteran cultural journalist with many pieces in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and major art magazines. I have been a cultural contributor on New York Public Radio (WNYC and WQXR) and have provided arts commentary on NPR and public radio stations in Philadelphia and Los Angeles. I am a HuffPost Arts writer. I've been profiled on the PBS NewsHour with Jim Lehrer's Art Beat and in the Chicago Reader. I've appeared as an art-market commentator on BBC-TV and have published numerous Op-Ed pieces in the New York Times and Los Angeles Times. I am author of The Complete Guide to Collecting Art (Knopf) and have lectured on cultural property issues at the New Acropolis Museum and the University of Pennsylvania, on deaccessioning at at Investigative Reporters and Editors 2011 Annual Meeting, Columbia Law School, the University of Iowa and a conference of the Museum Association of New York, on museum governance and cultural property issues at Seton Hall University, on arts blogging at American University and on Smithsonian exhibition controversies at Rutgers University.
more
CONTACT ME
Write to me here.
more
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