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John Walsh, former director of the J. Paul Getty Museum, was in Seattle last weekend to give a speech to assembled VIPs about how the expanded Seattle Art Museum compares with other recent museum architectural projects. He couldn't resist taking a dig at the Guggenheim, saying that Washington Mutual, the bank that now shares a building with SAM, "is certainly a more reliable … [Read more...] about Seattle Tattle—Part III: Wailing with Walsh

My brief post on a predicted looming crisis in future arts leadership seems to have struck a chord with young, arts-loving business types who have encountered obstacles to entering administrative positions in cultural organizations. I am posting two comments that you can access at the end of the above-linked post, and I have previously posted a particularly articulate and … [Read more...] about The Coming Arts Leadership Brain Drain, Continued

Having bestowed my Saturday NY Philharmonic tickets upon my semi-grateful son, I had to get my classical-music fix last weekend in Seattle. As it happened, the Seattle Symphony (with the obligatory Chihuly chandelier, above, in its lobby) was being fronted by Bobby McFerrin in a program of three classical warhorses plus his own vocal improvisations. Now I know McFerrin has had … [Read more...] about Seattle Tattle—Part II: Bobby McFerrin Makes Symphony-Goers Happy

NY Magazine's Show and Talk blog, chronicling Fashion Week, has won the 2007 National Magazine Award for Interactive Feature. Isn't it time for the Pulitzers to create a category for newspaper blogs? Speaking of which, the NY Times' new ArtsBeat blog went dead two days ago. (The blog itself is here.) Don't they know that one of the cardinal rules of blogging is keep … [Read more...] about Fashion Blog Wins National Magazine Award

Philip Johnson's iconic Glass House in New Canaan, CT, is now open to the public, but this month's tours appear to be sold out. (At this writing, a few openings remain in June.) The 90-minute guided tour is $25 per person; it's $40 for the 2-hour end-of-day tour. … [Read more...] about Philip Johnson’s Transparent Hideaway Receives Visitors

Kara Kane, a Chicago-based independent IT consultant and freelance musician, responds to The Coming Arts Leadership Brain Drain: While I do agree that the arts world will lose many of the best and brightest to corporate America, I feel that the arts world is itself part of the problem. Two issues that are more important than not having the money to lure the best and the … [Read more...] about BlogBack: Words of Wisdom on Future Arts Leaders, from Generation X

I find an encouraging bit of progress for blogs in the NY Times' recently launched ArtsBeat. It's not just that the blog-backward gray lady is belatedly struggling to get hip. It's that the Times was actually willing to let its reporters start blogging on the digital fringes before they boarded the newsprint mothership. Only today did Ben Ratliff and Jon Pareles publish … [Read more...] about ArtsBeat: One Small Step for the Times, One Giant Step for Blogkind

I can't blog about the expanded Seattle Art Museum (as I have previously mentioned), until I publish my upcoming piece about it in the Wall Street Journal. But what I can do is dish some tasty tidbits that I was fed by the artworld gadabouts who landed in Seattle last week for VIP events at collectors' homes and for Saturday night's gala celebrating the museum's expansion Since … [Read more...] about Seattle Tattle—Part I: Riffing with Rifkin

Where are the new leaders of nonprofit arts organizations and institutions going to come from? According to Involving Youth in Nonprofit Arts Organizations: A Call to Action, a report just issued by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, there's a crisis approaching: As baby boomers in the arts approach the end of their careers, nonprofit organizations must act quickly to … [Read more...] about The Coming Arts Leadership Brain Drain

It didn't make the NY Times' online company news page and but the gray lady has finally introduced a general culture blog, ArtsBeat. It's about time that Virginia Heffernan's Screens, a blog about online video (heavy on YouTube) had some company on the newspaper's online Arts page. So far, the arts blog, launched Friday, has confined itself to dispatches by Ben Ratliff and Jeff … [Read more...] about New Arts Blog at NY Times: Will Visual Arts Be Blogworthy?

Click the link below to read the press release announcing the Barnes Foundation's rather long shortlist of architects to design its new facility in Philadelphia. I wish that architects of conscience would boycott this project, but the commission is too much of a plum. In other Barnes news, it just announced the award of a $5 million challenge grant from the Andrew W. Mellon … [Read more...] about Barnes Architect Shortlist

In November, I took the J. Paul Getty Trust to task for the shockingly skimpy one-page financial summary in its belated 2005 annual report. The 2006 report, which it had promised "at the beginning of 2007," has now been published, and the good news is that it provides detailed statements of financial position, financial activity and cash flow (pages 100-103). The bad news is … [Read more...] about Making Amends: The Getty Provides Detailed Financials in 2006 Annual Report

Got my notebook, got my pens, got my camera, got my beloved Sony ICD-SX25 digital recorder, got lots of questions. Ain't got no hot water in the hotel shower (but, hey, you can't have everything). Good thing I'm not a travel writer. Now I'm off to the expanded Seattle Art Museum, which means I've got no more time to post. Are you ready, Mimi and Brad? … [Read more...] about SAM I Am

Renzo Piano and his cohorts "swooped into town last week," according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, to discuss ideas for the new Kimbell Art Museum annex. Mary Rogers of the Star-Telegram reports: The architectural team arrived with a box filled with a variety of site plans that included not the single plot of land where the newest addition will rise, but the entire museum … [Read more...] about Tentative Details on the Kimbell’s Planned Renzo Piano Annex

Remember this? I guess that Barry Diller wears the pants at his new Gehry-designed IAC building in New York, because the billboard advertising "the boyfriend trouser" is no longer blocking the view of the structure from the south. But when I drove by last Friday night, around 9 p.m., I was startled to see the interior of this bulky building completely lit, top to bottom. What's … [Read more...] about Gehry’s “Gap” Vanishes