Lee Rosenbaum's cultural commentary

In case you missed the live webcast, some YouTube videos have been posted from Tuesday night's packed town hall meeting, held at Brandeis University's Rose Art Museum, where the community provided reactions and recommendations concerning the possible repurposing of the Rose and sale of its art. The Boston Globe's report of that meeting is here.This video clip contains some of … [Read more...] about Rose Art Museum’s Town Hall Meeting: Videos, Photos and the Rose’s Roses

Patrice Walker Powell, NEA's acting chairman, left (photo by Kevin Allen)Carole Watson, NEH's acting chairman, right Part of the reason why culture is getting short shrift during this economically and politically sensitive moment may be the continuing vacuum of leadership at the top of the federal arts and humanties hierarchy. Notwithstanding the opinion of Obama arts … [Read more...] about Federal Arts Leadership: A Vacuum at the Top

Bill Ivey, arts operativeTwo weeks ago, I chatted during an NYU conference break with Bill Ivey, a former chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, who is President Obama's team leader for the three federal cultural agencies---NEA, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Ivey is currently director of Vanderbilt … [Read more...] about Art Politico: My Interview with Bill Ivey, Leader of President Obama’s Arts Transition Team

You can watch the live webcast of the Rose Art Museum's town hall meeting here.[UPDATE: It's concluded. But you can view videos and photos from the event, here.] … [Read more...] about Live 6:30 P.M. Webcast: Watch the Rose Art Museum’s Town Hall Meeting

Bertha and Edward Rose, founding donors of the Rose Art MuseumI have just obtained from a member of the Rose family an e-mailed message sent on Jan. 27 to Michael Rush, director of the Rose Art Museum, by Jane Moss, whose grandfather was a first cousin of Edward Rose. With his wife Bertha, Edward was a founding donor of the eponymous museum that opened at Brandeis University in … [Read more...] about The Roses of the Rose: Donors’ Family Members Protest

Sen. Tom Coburn, R-OK: No stimulus funds for the arts or "zero-gravity chairs"As the mega-billion economic stimulus package nears a vote in the Senate (with the final version to be determined by private House-Senate negotiation), it's beginning to look like the arts will be among many worthy supplicants sacrificed to placate Republican critics of wasteful spending. Both bills … [Read more...] about Stimulus Calculus: Final Bill May Subtract the Arts UPDATED

Andrew Taylor, Rocking BloggerAre great ideas contagious? Earlier this week, Kennedy Center announced its timely new initiative, Arts in Crisis, which will offer "free consulting from both Kennedy Center President Michael M. Kaiser [aka The Turnaround King] and members of the Kennedy Center's executive staff" to "provide emergency planning assistance" to performing arts … [Read more...] about Michael Kaiser’s “Arts in Crisis”: Similar Visual Arts Rescue Program Also Needed

It took a while, but the NY Times today finally gives us a proper obit for Olga Raggio, the Metropolitan Museum's formidable chairwoman of European sculpture and decorative arts. And their photo is much better than the one I managed to find for the brief homage that I posted more than a week ago.As noted by Times writer Margalit Fox, Raggio's exhibitions included some of the … [Read more...] about Metropolitan Museum’s Olga Raggio Gets Her NY Times Obit

Jehuda ReinharzArt-lings, you really are not paying me enough (or, for that matter, anything) for four major posts in one day. But this "mea culpa" missive from Brandeis President Jehuda Reinharz just hit my inbox, and I simply must share. You might also be interested to know that in a Boston Globe podcast, Reinharz said he is NOT closing the Rose Museum (just repurposing it), … [Read more...] about Taking Some Rose Blows: Brandeis President, in Apologetic Letter, Admits He “Screwed Up”

Jackson Pollock, "Mural," 1943, University of Iowa Museum of ArtYesterday there were rumors that Iowa state legislators were "quietly talking about ordering the sale" of the University of Iowa's Jackson Pollock to raise funds for education.Today, it's not so quiet. Jennifer Jacobs of the Des Moines Register reports:The [university's] famous "Mural" painting is insured for $150 … [Read more...] about The Unreal McCoy: State Senator Calls for Sale of Iowa’s Pollock

Charles Deas, "The Long Jakes, Rocky Mountain Man," Denver Art Museum and Anschutz CollectionThe Association of Art Museum Directors needs to revisit its entire policy on deaccessioning, as I recently recommended here. This imperative seems all the more urgent in light of the statement released by AAMD today, implicitly criticizing what it described as "the Denver Art Museum's … [Read more...] about AAMD Issues Statement Against “Fractional Deaccessions” to Private Buyers

One of these sponsors is not like the others. The Guggenheim Museum's The Third Mind: American Artists Contemplate Asia, 1860-1989 was a great idea in search of a masterful curator. Inspired by the laudable ambition to present a sweeping overview of Asian influences on American art, this conglomeration of diverse works---some strongly influenced by Asian art, philosophy or … [Read more...] about Pay to Play? Curator Brings Own Funding to Guggenheim’s “The Third Mind”

Remember my Don't Drop that Duccio! post, where I poked fun at the publicity image, below, of the Metropolitan Museum's then director, Philippe de Montebello, caressing the mega-million Duccio with his bare hands?Well, now that the museum has initiated the "It's Time We Met" advertising campaign, it's time Philippe met Chris Canahui, who posted this photo on the museum's own … [Read more...] about Met 2.0: Philippe Ogles Etch-a-Sketch; Tom Wants You to Ape the Art

Telfair Museum, Savannah, GA, originator of the "Dutch Utopia" showIt's not nice to fool CultureGrrl.When someone is stepping up to a higher position and seems smart, well-spoken but under-experienced, you search for things he's done that indicate he's ready for the Big Move.That's what I did when I recently interviewed Eric Lee, who ascends in March from the directorship of … [Read more...] about Eric Lee, Kimbell’s Director-Elect, Aces CultureGrrl’s Quiz, Gets Caught Cribbing

No more postings until tomorrow...maybe. With my right column again empty, I'm disinclined to fill the left column. You can fix this.But I must warmly thank one CultureGrrl reader who, having nothing himself to promote, responded to my CultureGrrl Ad Drive by purchasing an "ad" without posting one. Phantom ads...now THAT'S a fan! I guess I'll have to write for him tomorrow. … [Read more...] about A Day Without Ads; A Day Without CultureGrrl