Archives for 2009

Hitting the jackpot: Kevin Salatino gets matched with MoMA's Glenn Lowry and Tate's Nicholas SerotaI don't know about you, but I find these odd couples interesting.The second group of curatorial fellows selected for intensive training that's intended to lead to professional advancement (including directorships) has just been assigned mentors and residency hosts by the Center … [Read more...] about Who Wants to Be a Museum Director? CCL Announces Curator-Mentor Match-Ups

Italy's Mario Resca, framed in today's Wall Street Journal(image by Zina Saunders)Having just written about how the economy might put an end to profit-driven rent-a-shows, I was disappointed by these comments, published today in a Wall Street Journal profile of Mario ("Big Mac") Resca, whose planned appointment as Italian culture's "super manager" provoked widespread … [Read more...] about Mario Resca’s WSJ Profile: Visions of Rent-a-Shows Dance in His Head

Lucy, the 3.2 million-year-old womanOne favorable museum development related to the current financial crisis, aside from greater emphasis on permanent collections, may be a reduced emphasis on rent-a-shows---those blockbuster exhibitions through which museums raise money from other museums by charging exorbitant fees. Andrew Herrmann and Dave Newbart of the Chicago Sun-Times … [Read more...] about Skeletal Budget Cut: No “Lucy” Fossil Show for Chicago’s Field Museum

Sir John Pope-Hennessy: Most recent Brit in a major American museum job?Will the real Tom Campbell please stand up?The London Telegraph's Jasper Rees snagged an interview with the Metropolitan Museum's new director for today's paper. I got real excited when I got to this paragraph: As the exhaustive interview process with the 12 trustees began, it became increasingly apparent … [Read more...] about The Tom Campbell Watch: Another Kid-in-the-Candy-Store Interview

Lord Colin Renfew, Met Gadfly Here's one of the first substantive changes at the Metropolitan Museum since the ascent of its new director, Thomas Campbell: On Tuesday, the Met posted on its website its revised Collections Management Policy [reported on David Gill's Looting Matters blog], which incorporates the Association of Art Museum Directors' tightened standards, … [Read more...] about Metropolitan Museum Posts Revised Collections Management Policy

What's that new addition to the Metropolitan Museum's old masters galleries, catty-cornered with the museum's iconic Vermeer, "Woman with a Water Pitcher"?Let's approach for a closer look:Vermeer, "Young Woman Seated at a Virginal," Private CollectionWait a minute, I know that lady with the vacuous expression and the awkward arms. I last gawked at the gawky girl when she was … [Read more...] about Virginal Vermeer: Sold by Wynn, Now at the Met UPDATED

Super Cooper: Tennessee Attorney General Robert CooperLawyers for Fisk University, the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum and the Tennessee Attorney General's office got another chance to rumble at yesterday's hearing in Tennessee Court of Appeals, where the university is seeking a reversal of a lower court decision that prevented the Nashville university from selling a $30-million … [Read more...] about Tennessee AG’s Brief Suggests Opposition to Walton-Fisk Deal

There was something ineffably sad about visiting the Metropolitan Museum a couple of days ago (as I did) and sensing that it's still just as Philippe de Montebello had left it, but he's no longer there. (Or maybe he was, packing up the last few mementos and belongings.) He will be greatly missed.Still, it's now out with the old, in with the new, and Philippe's not the only Met … [Read more...] about The Met’s New Star: Tom Campbell’s YouTube Moment

Fisk exhibition traveling to Crystal Bridges' Massey outpostNo, this is not a report on this morning's court hearing.It turns out that while Fisk is working hard in court to effectuate a $30-million collection-sharing agreement with Alice Walton, they've put together a print exhibition that opens Feb. 13 at the Massey outpost of the Wal-Mart heiress' in-construction Crystal … [Read more...] about Walton and Fisk: Together at Last

Fisk University President Hazel O'LearyFisk University just won't give up trying to do that $30-million deal with Alice Walton to monetize its Stieglitz Collection, which was given to it by artist Georgia O'Keeffe.Back in court everyone goes later today (Wednesday), including representatives from the office of Tennessee Attorney General Robert Cooper, who has not publicly taken … [Read more...] about The Case Continues: Fisk Back in Court Today to Argue for Walton Deal

Tobias Meyer, Sotheby's head of contemporary artA video recently posted on Sotheby's website, Contemporary Art Market: A Candid Look from the Inside, features a cast of five---the auction house's contemporary art team---looking chastened as they candidly discuss the disastrous November sales but try to calm market jitters by assuring sellers that "despite a worsening economic … [Read more...] about Auctioneers’ Nightmare: Sotheby’s Combined November/December Sales Down 54% From Previous Year’s

I know this blog has got to stop being "all National Academy, all the time." But first, I feel compelled to relay this timely job posting:Date posted: 12/18/2008Application deadline: 1/15/2009 The National Academy Museum and School of Fine Arts seeks a development assistant to join the National Academy's development team.Development team? I thought director Carmine Branagan had … [Read more...] about Help Wanted (and desperately needed) at National Academy: Development Assistant

Graham W.J. Beal, director, Detroit Institute of ArtsJim Zarroli, a business and economics reporter for National Public Radio (he's their Madoff man), did a segment today on museums' financial difficulties, with an emphasis on the National Academy situation. You can both listen to the audio and read the summary text for "Museums Exhibit Signs Of Economic Distress," here.The … [Read more...] about NPR’s Report on the National Academy Sales

The National AcademyI've been getting many thoughtful responses to my revelations about the sales of art by the National Academy, the subsequent fallout, and my analysis of lessons to be learned from this sorry episode.Here are four reactions from CultureGrrl readers:Michael Botwinick, director of the Hudson River Museum, writes: You have broken an incredibly important story. … [Read more...] about BlogBacks: Readers Speak Out on National Academy Deaccessions

And now, after a whole month of National Academy deaccessions, LA MOCA rescue plans, and reckless New Year's frivolity...we finally return to our regular programming:You may remember that a couple of weeks ago, when we perused the Getty Trust's 2008 financials, we discovered that, unlike the statements for prior years, this year's account omitted both the amount of the deficit … [Read more...] about Budget Fudgit: Being the Getty Means Never Having to Say You Ran a Deficit