Archives for January 2011

Not unpredictably, the new Art Gallery of Alberta did not turn out to be a big tourist draw — despite its great expectations, fostered by the Guggenheim-Bilbao experience. But on some other scores, AGA’s inaugural year did turn out well, as we shall see.

The AGA opened about a year ago, boasting on its website that “this architectural icon will draw visitors from around the world with twice the former gallery space….” Uh, uh, I said — don’t count on it. Edmonton, its home, is the northernmost metropolis on this continent with a population of more than 1 million. Except for skiers, most tourists prefer warmer climes.  

The first year brought more than 111,000 visitors to the museum, up from about 20,000 the year earlier, according to the Edmonton Journal. But the comparison is hardly fair, considering that the old museum was in a small gallery nearby, and — if the experience of many other museums is a guide — many people will come to see new architecture, even more than the art inside. 

On the other hand, AGA’s membership jumped to 5,300 in 2010, from 1,650 a year earlier, and that’s a good sign.

But here’s the rub: 82% of the visitors came from Edmonton itself, and another 8% came from the Edmonton region. Only 10% came from “elsewhere in Alberta or beyond.”

Executive Director Gilles Hebert is quoted as saying: “We have to expand our reach so people throughout the province come to our gallery.” Ital mine: AGA’s goal seems to have shifted from a year ago. 

And here’s another rub: while increased school groups accounted for some of the increase, a good thing, late night parties called “Refinery” appear to be the real sell-outs, with 200 people turned away at the last one.

Meantime, “operating costs [at the $88 million building] have been running higher than all but a few galleries in the country,” at $6.4 million annually, the Journal says.

A cautionary tale for all museums, I think.

UPDATE, 3/10/11: The Toronto Globe & Mail has weighed in on the Refinery parties, including this passage:

“I wonder in the end how effective these things really are. I’ve been to some of these things and heard people say things like: ‘Has anyone been here before?’ Or, ‘Does anyone know what they do here?’ ” [Charles] Reeve [a Toronto-based curator and associate professor at the Ontario College of Art and Design] said.

The results at Saturday’s AGA event were mixed. The crowd cheered and danced throughout the night, but was thicker near the booze than near the art. Many were surprised to learn the party’s $25 ticket didn’t generate any profit to benefit the gallery, while others said becoming a monthly donor is a tall order for young parents…

 

It’s hard to tell when developments in Cairo are happening so fast and are so volatile, but it seems that the damage to the Cairo Museum is worse than has been reported in some newspapers. It goes beyond damage to two mummies.

Al Jazeera has two videos (here and a long one here) calling it “tragic damage” with the best footage inside the museum that I have seen.

MSNBC, meanwhile, consulted Margaret Maitland, an Egyptologist at Oxford, who matched up the damage pictures with artifacts from King Tut’s tomb. The report said that “three gilded wooden statuettes of the boy-king may have been broken off their pedestals.”

Here are before and after shots of one of them:

Maitland’s own blog post has the best descriptions I’ve seen, with details on what was destroyed

And where is Zahi Hawass? I would have expected him to run to the museum on Friday — or even Thursday — to help defend it. But reports say he got there after the damage was done, and that he minimized the vandals’ impact, saying nothing was stolen, according to CNN.

UPDATE, 1/30 evening: Several reports have come in citing looting at various Egyptian archaeological sites and other museums, including the National Museum in Alexandria, the Royal Jewelry Museum and the Coptic Museum. 

Hawass now apparently says that many objects have been stolen. A report by the Canadian Broadcasting Company quotes him as fearing for the Cairo Museum because of attacks on party headquarters next door.

Internet service is down in Egypt, but Hawass has faxed a report to colleagues in Italy, who posted on his blog.  

[Read more…] about Demonstrations Take Toll on Cairo Museum — UPDATED, With Hawass Blog Link

What did you think about seeing the Musee d’Orsay draped with a gigantic banner advertising Chanel No. 5? Or the Doge’s Palace in Venice sporting an ad for Bulgari?

Both pictures were published in The New York Times on Monday, accompanying an article about the shaky status of some European arts institutions — and their efforts to create new revenue streams. (Even nastier, though not shown, was the disclosure that a couple of “shiny new Dany electric cars” were placed in the Ara Pacis Museum in Rome, which is nasty enough already.)

Last week, I listened to a similar story from Gianandrea Noseda, the Music Director of the Teatro Regio Torino, Chief Conductor of the BBC Philharmonic, Artistic Director of the Stresa Festival, and the Victor de Sabata Guest Conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony.

Noseda was here to conduct La Traviata at the Metropolitan Opera, but he also wanted to let those who love Italian culture — and how could one not? — know that the Berlusconi government was about to zero out support for opera and classical music.

Without tax deductions for contributions, Italy has little culture of philanthropy for the arts (excluding traditions in previous eras of patronage). But Noseda would like to cultivate that culture. He’s starting here by talking to wealthy Italian-Americans, particularly those who moved here, or whose ancestors moved here, fairly recently.

“We have to find a mixed system” of state and philanthropic support, he said — a system more like the American system.

Indeed, as much as we complain here about the lack of state support, our system is better — and Europe is moving in our direction, like it or not.

Noseda spoke from the heart about his love for his country and his culture. I have much sympathy for him, and I wish him luck. At least he’s trying. But as I said at the table then, Americans are unlikely to provide the critical support he needs. Perhaps some money from Americans will help him spark the philanthropic culture needed in Italy, but it’s unlikely to be big enough to solve Italy’s problems. 

On another note, Noseda mentioned that 2011 is the 150th anniversary of the unification of modern Italy, and there’ll be many celebrations, including concerts in Torino, the first national capital. Time to plan a trip? Cultural tourism would help.   

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Opera America

 

Last April, I wrote here about the results of the State of the Sector survey by the Nonprofit Finance Fund, which disclosed worrisome figures about the art sector. For example, the vast majority — 65% — of the 417 arts groups that participated in the survey had less than three months’ cash on hand.

This year, the NFF would like to gain a broader, more accurate picture of the non-profit sector, and though I have never made a request of readers like this, I’ve agreed to help with the outreach by posting about it. I’m doing it because, as regular readers know, I frequently advocate for better statistics in the arts world.

So, if you are in a top position responsible for your organization’s finances — or can call this survey to the attention of whoever is – here’s the link to the 2011 survey. The deadling is Feb. 15. To refresh your memory, the NFF is a community development financial institution that makes loans to non-profits.

Actually, there’s a little news on another statistics front. At their just-ended meeting, members of the Association of Art Museum Directors agreed “to develop an improved and expanded data collection and analysis tool for members in recognition of the importance of data for internal and external audiences. The second phase of this project will look at ways for sharing this information with the public.”

I should declare victory, but I’ll await the time when the better information is shared (should I still be writing this blog).

The AAMD agreed to a few other things at their meeting, including new guidelines for the use of digital images (to be published shortly), a commitment to “constructive dialog” with institutions contemplating deaccessioning for purposes outside the scope of currently permitted uses, and some revisions to the professional practices guidelines (also to be published soon). Read more, in a press release, here.

It’s pretty unusual for a living artist to have his or her own museum. But that honor is going to William Eggleston, known as the father of color photography as an art form.

Eggleston, 71, is lucky to be from Memphis, which is home to a museum for Elvis and to Stax, a museum for American soul music. Two years ago, a group of local philanthropists decided that giving Eggleston a museum would be good not only for him but also for the city. Together, members of the group have pledged more than $5 million to start the ball rolling.

Eggleston has promised to transfer his full oeuvre to the museum, which will include offices for the archive’s staff. In return for housing the work, and helping to conserve and digitize them, the museum will “have access and display rights” to all of the “approximately 60,000 imaged and 1,000s of prints, including rights in and to vintage dye transfer prints” in the artist’s collection, according to Mark Crosby, the museum’s planning director. (That’s an untitled work from 1975 at left.)

Planners expect to build in the Midtown area of Memphis, but they have not finalized the site.

They expect to spend about $10 million on the building, and are raising an additional $5 million for an endowment. They expect donors to include foundations as well as individuals, and perhaps state and local governments.

Eggleston’s “story” was recapped in a press release from the group:

The myth of Eggleston often begins with his arrival in New York in the 1970s carrying a shoebox of his own photographs. As the story goes, he showed them to John Szarkowski, the head of photography at the Museum of Modern Art, who looked at them and said they were “perfect.” Szarkowski hosted Eggleston’s one-man 1976 show, “William Eggleston’s Guide.” When the show opened, critics panned it. The New York Times critic wrote, “Perfect? Perfectly banal, perhaps. Perfectly boring, certainly.”

Now more than thirty years later, Eggleston is widely admired in the art world, and his work seems to win him affection as well as admiration. He is widely known as a colorful character as well as a groundbreaking artist. A retrospective exhibition opened at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 2008 and has toured Europe and the US, finishing at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art this past fall. His fans routinely line up around the corner to ask the artist to sign books. The New York Times wrote in 2008 that Eggleston is “one of our finest living photographers.”

There’s a bit more information and background in an article in the Memphis Commercial Appeal, published last week.

If there’s a moral to this story — aside from pursuing your vision no matter what critics say, it may be “be lucky where you hail from.” Eggleston is still a presence in Memphis. 

Photo Credit: Courtesy of the Eggleston museum organizers