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From the looks of its post-meeting press release, it doesn't appear that the Association of Art Museum Directors paid much attention to the two hot-button issues that I had suggested should be fodder for discussion at the group's annual conclave last week. I still believe that forceful guidelines are urgently needed to rein in self-sponsored shows of objects drawn entirely … [Read more...] about AAMD’s Play-It-Safe Annual Meeting (plus Rent-a-MoMA)

Judith Martin aka Miss MannersI'm back, art-lings, and invigorated by the Investigative Reporters and Editors Conference. I'll fill you in on this later. But in the meantime, here's a ball that I dropped while in Orlando---another bit of anecdotal evidence suggesting that the cashiers at the Metropolitan Museum's ticket counter may not always be as "extremely well-trained" and … [Read more...] about BlogBack: Martha Graham Center’s Director on Met’s Admission Fee Hike

I'm about to powwow with my betters at the national conference of Investigative Reporters and Editors. Even Bill Keller, the executive editor of the NY Times (who is soon to step down), is scheduled to be there! (How come his successor, Jill Abramson, hasn't started tweeting yet?)Still, among the panelists on Digging Culture: The fine art of investigating the business of … [Read more...] about Off to Orlando: Investigative Reporters and Editors Conference

Harold Holzer, Metropolitan Museum's senior vice president for external affairsWhat exactly is the "economic necessity" that the Metropolitan Museum says is behind its recently announced admission-fee increase?Harold Holzer, the Met's senior vice president for external affairs, told me today that, unlike fiscal 2010, when the Met had an operating surplus of $3.7 million, the … [Read more...] about The Shaky Finances Behind the Met’s Admission Fee Increase

The Metropolitan Museum of ArtOn Friday, I promised to expand upon this post about the entirely predictable kerfuffle over the Metropolitan Museum's announced $5 increase in its suggested admission fee ($25, effective July 1). I never heard what soundbite New York Public Radio did (or didn't) use from my 10-minute Friday conversation on this topic with WNYC's reporter. But the … [Read more...] about More on the Met’s Admission-Fee Hike: Lessons in Pricing and Etiquette

Former Timeswoman Julle Iovine, writing in the blog of the Architect's Newspaper (where she is executive editor), got hold of culture editor Jonathan Landman's internal memo announcing the departure, after seven years, of Nicolai Ouroussoff, the NY Times' architecture critic. According to Landman's memo, Ouroussoff plans "to write a book about the architectural and cultural … [Read more...] about Architectural Transition: Nicolai Ouroussoff Leaves the NY Times

In its revised Professional Practices in Art Museums, the Association of Art Museum Directors did a laudable job in directly confronting many of the thorny issues that have roiled the field in the 10 years since the last iteration of this bible for best practices in museums. (More on these issues later.) But there are a two hot-button topics that I feel urgently require … [Read more...] about AAMD’s Annual Meeting: CultureGrrl’s Hot-Button Agenda

The Metropolitan Museum has just won the NYC art-museum admissions-fee race (at least temporarily).Starting July 1, the recommended adult admission fee at the Met rises from $20 to $25, due to "economic necessity," as the press release helpfully explains. The "honors" for highest NYC art-museum admission price traditionally belongs to the Museum of Modern Art. But MoMA's … [Read more...] about Coming Soon: My WNYC Commentary on Met’s “Economic-Necessity” Admissions Increase UPDATED

Michael Taylor, new director of the Hood Museum, Dartmouth Michael Taylor is a lean, mean exhibition machine. (Well, at least the last part is true.) During his time as curator of modern art at the Philadelphia Museum, he's been responsible for a big chunk of that institution's best received, most illuminating shows, which have always been more than mere crowd-pleasers, … [Read more...] about Philly’s Loss: Michael Taylor Leaves the Parkway for Dartmouth’s Hood (plus: his Chagall show)

Dan Monroe, executive director of the Peabody Essex Museum and incoming AAMD presidentThis is very good news.At its annual meeting next week (June 5-8) in Raleigh, NC, Dan Monroe, executive director and CEO of the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA, is to be named president of the Association of Art Museum Directors, of which he is currently vice president. He has a proven track … [Read more...] about News Flash: Dan Monroe to Be Named Next AAMD President

"Hide/Seek" substitution: David Hockney, "Adhesiveness," 1960, Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth It's great that the National Portrait Gallery's landmark, gay-themed Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture (which closed Feb. 13) will travel---something that I've been urging since Dec. 8. It's particularly commendable that the two venues on the tour---the … [Read more...] about Wojnarovicz Glitch: Touring “Hide/Seek” Perpetuates Curatorial Concoction

Rendering of the planned Gehry-designed Guggenheim Abu Dhabi Abu Dhabi's Tourism Development & Investment Company (TDIC) today announced that PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has been appointed "as an independent auditor to monitor its contractors' and subcontractors' performance in the area of worker welfare" for construction projects on Saadiyat Island, including the … [Read more...] about Workers’ Rights Monitor Appointed for Guggenheim Abu Dhabi

As you consider various outdoor alternatives for enjoying Memorial Day weekend, here's a suggestion for those in the NYC metropolitan area: a pleasant ferry ride from the tip of Manhattan to Governors Island, where a gloriously sited exhibition of 11 sculptures by Mark di Suvero---from large to monumental---awaits. Governors Island Ferry Terminal at the Battery, Lower … [Read more...] about MeTube: Marvelous Mark di Suvero Conquers Governors Island (and me)

The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art has just released photos of preliminary renderings by Snøhetta, the Oslo- and New York-based architectural firm, of its planned 225,000-square-foot expansion, to be completed in 2016. Constricted by its site to a long, narrow footprint, it appears to tower and glower menacingly over the fanciful Mario Botta building, which it exceeds in … [Read more...] about SFMOMA’s Expansion Renderings: Notta Botta

There was much speechifying at today's "groundbreaking" for the Renzo Piano-designed Downtown Whitney, with the architect, Mayor Bloomberg, Whitney director Adam Weinberg, museum trustees and the Manhattan Borough President taking the podium. Piano lofted an all-white model of the building, calling it a "25,000-pound meteorite" (still looks like an ocean liner to me) that will … [Read more...] about Renzo Piano’s “Meteorite”: Downtown Whitney Fly-Through