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A Much More Serious Situation In Cincinnati Than I Imagined

May 19, 2013 by 2 Comments
Betsky

When grumblings about a museum director start to make headlines, a change is usually in the offing. Given the article published in the May issue of Cincinnati Magazine, which an RCA reader pointed out to me this morning, I'd say Aaron Betsky, director of the Cincinnati Art Museum, is on his way out. But it's getting a little ugly. Watching from afar, I've both praised and panned moves by Betsky in the last few years (here,  here, and here, for example), but if the article is accurate -- and it is certainly written with authority by RJ … [Read more...]

05/19/13 7:29 PM | filed under: People, Uncategorized |

Does Cincinnati Art Museum Need A New Director?

May 8, 2013 by Leave a Comment
betsky_aaron_jan07

Aaron Betsky took over as director of the Cincinnati Art Museum, its eighth, in 2006. Is he now headed out the door? Some people think so. Betsky was formerly director of the Netherlands Architecture Institute in Rotterdam, an important center for the architects, and now it seems that he is a finalist for the post of dean of the College of Architecture, Design and the Arts at the University of Illinois, Chicago. It's a better fit, really. Betsky is a graduate of the Yale School of Architecture, and from afar architecture has always … [Read more...]

05/8/13 1:09 PM | filed under: People, Uncategorized |

To Boston, With Love — From Tom Campbell

May 7, 2013 by 1 Comment
Northeaster

Gestures are important, and here's one that deserves notice. Within hours of the bombing at the Boston Marathon last month, Thomas P. Campbell, director of the Metropolitan Museum,* reached out to Malcolm Rogers, director of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, offering his support and backing that up with the suggestion that the Met lend a few paintings to the MFA as a special show. As a result, the MFA will put the three -- chosen by Campbell and Met curators -- on display during its "community weekend" over the three-day Memorial Day … [Read more...]

05/7/13 4:35 PM | filed under: Museums, People, Uncategorized |

People In The News Lately

April 24, 2013 by 1 Comment
Pepper Henry

Let's catch up on a few personnel changes announced in recent days: The first, and should be biggest, news: Jim Leach resigned yesterday from his job as chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities. The fact that this did not make news says something about his tenure there. I watch for the NEH's grant announcements -- which go to more museums than many people realize -- and I think it supports some excellent projects. But Leach, imho, was not very effective as the chief. partly because he chose to embark on a civility tour of the … [Read more...]

04/24/13 4:53 PM | filed under: People, Uncategorized |

Consolation Prize: $17 Million For Old Masters

March 27, 2013 by Leave a Comment
marguerite-hoffman-img_0092

Back in December, I wrote here that the bid by the Dallas Museum of Art to buy the recently discovered Leonardo, Salvator Mundi, had failed -- not enough money to satisfy the owners, who reportedly wanted $200 million but had agreed to settle for somewhat less to see it go to Dallas. Alas, the gap was too big. Today the museum announced that good things can come from failure: one of the donors to the fundraising drive, trustee and past chairman Marguerite Steed Hoffman (left), has decided to establish of a $17 million endowment for … [Read more...]

03/27/13 4:52 PM | filed under: Museum Funding-Fundraising, People, Uncategorized |

It’s Far From Over Yet: LA-MOCA’s Independence Campaign

March 26, 2013 by 1 Comment
JeffreySoros

It's a journalistic convention: after an election, the emergence from bankruptcy, or some other momentous change, we often write headlines that say something along the lines of "Now Comes The Hard Part." It's common because it usually happens to be true. Earlier today, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles announced that it had received pledges from donors that would place its current endowment above $60 million (versus $23 million earlier this year), and that it was building toward a goal of $100 million. You can see various … [Read more...]

03/26/13 8:34 PM | filed under: Museum Funding-Fundraising, People |

Bread And Circuses: A Coup At The Corcoran?

March 24, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Reynolds

Even if you disliked Nicholas Sarkozy, in one way you couldn't help rooting for him to win the presidency of France a few year back because he was so entertaining. Loud, outspoken, a shameless self-promoter who liked to challenge convention, he was great to write about and read about. There's more than an element of Sarkozy in Wayne Reynolds, the brash Washingtonian who wants to be chairman of the Corcoran Gallery of Art. Late last week, he began emailing potential supporters of  his quest with an invitation to an open bar reception on … [Read more...]

03/24/13 8:10 PM | filed under: Museum Funding-Fundraising, People, Uncategorized |

Corcoran Catch-Up: Lesser Of Two Evils Or A Third Choice?

March 12, 2013 by 3 Comments
The Reynolds

Last week, the group called Save the Corcoran (a museum which as you'll all remember is suffering from poor leadership, lack of ideas and perhaps lack of convictions) emailed me their endorsement of a man named Wayne Reynolds to become the Corcoran's new board chair. Now that I've had time to see what this would mean, I wonder if they have read the fine print. Reynolds, the husband of Catherine Reynolds (both are shown at right), who some years back got rich on student lending and attempted to give millions of dollars to … [Read more...]

03/12/13 5:38 PM | filed under: Museum Funding-Fundraising, People, Uncategorized |

Way-Out Solution For LA-MOCA: Dump Deitch And Hire…

March 11, 2013 by 2 Comments
Koshalek

I've been thinking about the Museum of Contemporary Art's struggles in Los Angeles since news broke in the Los Angeles Times on Thursday that the LA County Museum of Art had essentially made a takeover bid for the troubled museum. In case you missed it: ...The acquisition offer was made in a letter from the leaders of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, or LACMA, to the co-chairs of the MOCA board. LACMA would preserve MOCA's two downtown locations and operate them under the MOCA name. With money an obvious issue for MOCA's future, the … [Read more...]

03/11/13 5:53 PM | filed under: Museums, People, Uncategorized |

Did Michael Govan Really Say This?

February 28, 2013 by 4 Comments

It was a typical museum director panel last week in Georgia, at the Savannah College of Art and Design’s deFINE Art conference. I wasn't there, but thought I'd read the account of it on Hyperallergic, which carried the perfunctory headline, Museum as Tool: Directors on How They Run Their Art Institutions. Then, I read this: “Universal museums were the result of colonialism. The Metropolitan Museum’s narrative is false. It’s a creative act to assemble the narrative of the past.” [Boldface mine.] Wow. It was attributed to … [Read more...]

02/28/13 11:37 AM | filed under: Museums, People, Uncategorized |
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