Hackett’s Hatchet Job: CultureGrrl Gets Nicked

I feared it was only a matter of time before Regina Hackett, a refugee from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (now online only), started sniping at me on my home turf, ArtsJournal, whose roster of bloggers she recently joined. On her now defunct "Art to Go" blog, she delighted in periodically taking personal potshots at me.

So it was today (in a post to which I won't link), when she linked to four of my pleas for financial support of CultureGrrl, and advised me to consult a fundraising expert. (Her link on the word "expert" is to a photo of a homeless man with tin cup.)

As I indicated in one of my cup-rattling posts, the only thing I find more distasteful than repeatedly soliciting regular readers for "voluntary subscriptions" is continuing this project in its current form, without significant remuneration.

That said, I'd like to recognize with gratitude the ad from the Shelburne Museum that now graces my righthand column. I had hoped for my ad space to be replete with museum, gallery and book publishers' offerings. But without an ad sales person, I've found that avenue of fundraising to be mostly a dead end. You have only to look at the arts sections in mainstream-media publications to know that this is a tough environment for art-related ad sales everywhere, not just in specialized niches like mine.

The CultureGrrl Fund Drive began promisingly in mid-February. But my list of financially generous readers now appears to be stuck at 24. My "Donate" button seems to have become vestigial. So, with much regret (but also some pride in what I created), I'm planning to repurpose this blog on or about Apr. 23, CultureGrrl's third anniversary. It will become an occasional outlet for my analysis and commentary, in the manner of some of the less active sites on ArtsJournal. If the financial recompense for blogging miraculously picks up, so will the pace of my posts. The button and the ad space remain at your disposal.

I'm sure there are some, like Regina, who will regard this cutback as a welcome development. And I know, from all the positive feedback I've received over the past three years, that many devoted readers will miss me, as I will you.

I'll end this maudlin maundering by responding to the one reader of Regina's blog, "CB," who commented on her swipe at me. CB wrote to Regina:

Thank you! Once, ok, I was thinking of donating...maybe I still will. But something about soliciting from barely-paid museum professionals seems a little off.

CB, I'm moved that you even thought of donating. The last thing I want to do is take bread from the mouths of struggling museum professionals. (Some of my readers, including several munificent donors, are not in that category.) It's time to earn my keep the old-fashioned way, by giving lectures (a relatively new endeavor for me, which I owe to the blog), writing mainstream-media articles and, I hope, getting a contract for the book that I've foolishly neglected in my blogging frenzy.

Barring a sudden surge of support, there will soon be far fewer posts. Still, I'll keep you posted occasionally on my thoughts and professional activities.

Speaking of repurposing: Do you know how the sumptuous space of the bankrupt, legally besieged Salander O'Reilly Galleries is being repurposed? COMING TOMORROW.