Architectural Rendering of the New Detroit Institute of Arts Believe me, I'm as much against "dumbing down" museum installations as the next cultural snob. I rant about this regularly. So when I attended a press lunch last September in New York, presided over by director Graham W.J. Beal, describing plans for the expanded and renovated Detroit Institute of Arts (closing May 27 … [Read more...] about Memo to Detroit Detractors: All We Are Saying Is Give Keyes a Chance
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Departing Philly: Timothy Rub Joins the Exodus of Major Museum Officials UPDATED
Who wants to be an art museum director? The list of major museums searching for new heads is growing, with the news that one of the leaders whom I've most admired over the years---Timothy Rub of the Philadelphia Museum of Art---is packing it in, effective "early 2022," according to the museum's press release. He's 69 and it's a self-styled "retirement," but I wonder if he … [Read more...] about Departing Philly: Timothy Rub Joins the Exodus of Major Museum Officials UPDATED
What Should Be on the Syracuse Symposium’s Agenda: The Urgent Need for Museum Deaccession Regulations
What this week's Deaccessioning After 2020 symposium, on Zoom from Syracuse University, should ponder (but probably won't) is a proposal that art disposals by museums be formally regulated. Museum professionals have instinctively recoiled at the thought of government interference in their activities, insisting that they can police themselves. But from the National Academy in … [Read more...] about What Should Be on the Syracuse Symposium’s Agenda: The Urgent Need for Museum Deaccession Regulations
Govan’s Folly? Stuck in the LACMA Quagmire
In decades of covering new, expanded and renovated museum buildings, I've mostly refrained from "reviewing" a building that hasn't gone up yet. That's why I've hung back from weighing in on the Los Angeles County Museum of Art's self-destructive (literally) capital project-in-progress, which has now leveled most of the museum's longstanding buildings (designed by William … [Read more...] about Govan’s Folly? Stuck in the LACMA Quagmire
Baltimore Museum Gets a Formal Letter Calling for a Halt to Planned Sales; Ex-Director Lehman Piles On
The list of opponents to the Baltimore Museum of Art's (BMA's) deplorable deaccessions keeps growing (now some 150 strong). One particularly notable addition is very well known to CultureGrrl readers---Arnold Lehman, former director of the BMA and, subsequently, of the Brooklyn Museum. Here's his recent photo, as found on the current website for Phillips Auction House, … [Read more...] about Baltimore Museum Gets a Formal Letter Calling for a Halt to Planned Sales; Ex-Director Lehman Piles On
Diversity Diversion: Plumbing Museums’ “Pipeline” Problem in Hiring Minorities
It's easy to say that art museums ought to be hiring more minority candidates, and it's also easy to get museums to agree that they should do so. Nevertheless, NYC's cultural institutions have been slow to fulfill those good intentions, according to the NY Times' pesky assessment by Sarah Bahr---Is New York’s Arts Diversity Plan Working? It’s Hard to Tell. Bahr examines the … [Read more...] about Diversity Diversion: Plumbing Museums’ “Pipeline” Problem in Hiring Minorities
AAMD Sanctions Berkshire Museum and La Salle University Art Museum (& what it should do next)
We knew this was coming (for what it's worth). The Association of Art Museum Directors today issued this statement: The Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD) announced today that its Board of Trustees has voted to impose sanctions on the Berkshire Museum and the La Salle University Art Museum. This follows the decision made by each institution to use the proceeds from … [Read more...] about AAMD Sanctions Berkshire Museum and La Salle University Art Museum (& what it should do next)
Deaccession Dejection: Court Allows Berkshire Museum Sales (UPDATED 5Xs)
Justice David Lowy of Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has just handed down a lamentable decision that rubber-stamps the devil's bargain between the Attorney General and the trustees of the Berkshire Museum (the details of which I previously reported here). Maybe we'll finally learn the identity of the nonprofit museum that has made an unspecified offer for the star … [Read more...] about Deaccession Dejection: Court Allows Berkshire Museum Sales (UPDATED 5Xs)
AAMD’s Response to Metropolitan Museum’s Renegade Reorganization: “Guidance to Consider”
In last week's post---Metropolitan Museum as Renegade: Reorganization Defies AAMD’s Professional Standards---I noted that Met President Daniel Weiss' designation as his museum's CEO, with the yet-to-be-named new director as his subordinate, ran contrary to the professional guidelines (P. 5) of the Association of Art Museum Directors. I also predicted that AAMD's reaction to the … [Read more...] about AAMD’s Response to Metropolitan Museum’s Renegade Reorganization: “Guidance to Consider”
Out-of-Towner Downer: Metropolitan Museum Considers a Xenophobic Admission Policy
Saul Steinberg's famous New Yorker cover portraying how Manhattanites view the rest of the world came to mind when I read Robin Pogrebin's NY Times article about the Metropolitan Museum's tentative (to my mind, wrongheaded) proposal to discriminate against out-of-towners in charging admission fees. Especially at a time when our President is fueling his supporters' … [Read more...] about Out-of-Towner Downer: Metropolitan Museum Considers a Xenophobic Admission Policy
“Tidal Wave of Change”: The Sudden Turnover of U.S. Art Museum Directors (towards contemporary)
While the annual meeting of the Association of Art Museum Directors (in Cleveland through tomorrow) focuses on ways "to increase diversity throughout the field," Kaywin Feldman, director of the Minneapolis Institute of Art and former AAMD president, has noticed a major change among her fellow attendees at the directors' conclave. She tweeted this insight: Majority of … [Read more...] about “Tidal Wave of Change”: The Sudden Turnover of U.S. Art Museum Directors (towards contemporary)
Bedford in Baltimore: Christopher is Third Contemporary Expert Recently Tapped to Lead a Major Art Museum
Are we seeing a trend here? Anne Pasternak at the Brooklyn Museum; James Rondeau at the Art Institute of Chicago; now Christopher Bedford at the Baltimore Museum of Art. In all three recent cases, a contemporary art specialist was chosen for the top spot at a museum with distinguished historic collections. (Notably bucking that trend were the Detroit Institute of Arts and … [Read more...] about Bedford in Baltimore: Christopher is Third Contemporary Expert Recently Tapped to Lead a Major Art Museum
A Milwaukee Walk: Photo Companion for My WSJ Review of the Milwaukee Art Museum
As promised in my last post, below is my illustrated companion for In Wisconsin, a Museum Reborn---my review in today's Wall Street Journal of the reinvented Milwaukee Art Museum, which gave me a very warm welcome on a single-digits day: The words in italics, below, are excerpted from my WSJ article. MAM's holdings are not only better preserved, but also shown off to … [Read more...] about A Milwaukee Walk: Photo Companion for My WSJ Review of the Milwaukee Art Museum
Another Erratic Outing: My Live Tweets on the Taubman Old Masters Sale at Sotheby’s
I've asked Sotheby's to explain a puzzling assertion that its spokesperson made to me and also to the NY Times' Robin Pogrebin at the end of tonight's sale of the late A. Alfred Taubman's old masters: "The success of tonight's sale," according to a Sotheby's email, "reduces our estimated auction guarantee shortfall by half, to approximately $3 million [from $6 million]." In … [Read more...] about Another Erratic Outing: My Live Tweets on the Taubman Old Masters Sale at Sotheby’s
Sotheby’s Eats Crow from the Taubman Sales: $6-Million Guarantee Loss & $6-Million in Expenses UPDATED
Taubman totals updated here. It's official: Sotheby's assumption of the risk for the consignment of more than 500 works from the estate of its former chairman, A. Alfred Taubman was no coup. It was a flop. In a conference call with securities analysts this morning, Tad Smith, Sotheby's CEO, said his firm expects to lose "approximately 1%, or $6 million of the guaranteed … [Read more...] about Sotheby’s Eats Crow from the Taubman Sales: $6-Million Guarantee Loss & $6-Million in Expenses UPDATED