Archives for August 2009

Darned if reading “And Now, An Exhibition From Our Sponsor,” the article by Robin Pogrebin that ran in Sunday’s New York Times (link), didn’t put me in a bad mood.

It described how many museums — small ones in particular, with less wherewithal, like the new Millenium Gate Museum in Atlanta, at left — were eager to show exhibitions drawn from the collection of Bank
of America, packaged (ok, curated) by the bank, and sponsored by the bank. Since B of A began this practice — a marketing tool — in 2007, it has placed nearly two dozen shows, and has another 16 set for the next two years. “And,” the article says, “there is a waiting list.”

J.P. Morgan Chase Bank, Deutsche Bank and UBS also regularly lend out shows drawn from their collections, but none has perfected the turnkey exhibition idea as much as B of A.

Now, the banks’ position is totally understandable: the practice works, drawing new customers and creating good will in the community. But the comments of several museum directors — complacency personified — are less explicable to me. Only Glenn Lowry, head of the Museum of Modern Art, and Richard Armstrong, head of the Guggenheim (whom I’ve criticized here for displaying his inner cowboy vis-a-vis museum practices), seemed to be dubious. Good for them.

Even more surprising was the neutral response of John Ravenal, the curator of modern and contemporary art at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts who recently became president of the Association of Art Museum Curators.

[Read more…] about We Don’t Need Curators Any More: We Have Banks

Last week, the National Endowment for the Humanities announced another round of grant awards, $29 million to 184 projects. They range widely in size — from $1,000 to $1 million; subject — from ancient civilizations to the whaling industry; and kind — from teacher
seminars to digital projects.

They’re worth having a look at, as I’ve said here before, because many projects are as much about the arts as they are about the humanities. Some (not the teacher education efforts) seem very promising for a wide audience. To name just two:

• Film Odyssey Inc., a Washington, D.C.-based production company, won $625,000 to make a one-hour documentary called “Butterfly: The Art and Life of James McNeill Whistler.” The company, under director Karen Thomas, also made “Isaac Stern: Life’s Virtuoso” narrated by Meryl Streep and released in 2000, according to IMDB.
• The New York Botanical Garden,* in the Bronx, received $400,000 to create indoor and outdoor exhibits, plus public programs, exploring how plants
  inspired the poetry of Emily Dickinson.

It’s good that NEH is willing to make big grants. I haven’t done an serious comparison, but the National Endowment for the Arts — except for the big grants awarded to state arts councils — seems to spread its awards more thinly, with — I think — less impact. Maybe Rocco Landesman will change that; I hope Jim Leach doesn’t change the NEH m.o.

You can see all the NEH grants from this round of awards in these three PDFs, in which grants are listed alphabetically by state. For Alabama to Maine, click here; for Maryland to New York, here; and for North Carolina to Wyoming, plus U.S. territories, click here.

Photo Credits: Whistler self-portrait, c. 1872, Detroit Institute of Arts (top); Dickinson’s Poems, 1890 edition.

*A client supports the NYBG

As I said several days ago, I’ve been away, in the Canadian Rockies, where I saw nothing in
the cultural world I can comment on — just the wonders of nature. But, ever the news junkie, I’ve been plowing through the week’s newspapers — which are saved for me — and emails, and have discovered a few things. Here’s one:

Christie’s has apparently decided against starting an art-investment fund and art-lending unit, according to an article by my friend Lindsay Pollock on Bloomberg. She writes:

The move is another sign that the global economic slump is hurting the once-booming art market. At least seven employees working on Christie’s financial projects have been fired or have left the London-based auction house since December, the people said.

A Christie’s spokesman declined to comment.

There’s little disputing that Christie’s caution indicates that demand for art isn’t booming: first-half auction sales in New York at Christie’s declined by more than 50%.

But that’s not necessarily bad, long-term. The market will be better off if it rises slowly, rather than take off like a rocket. Smart investors know that a stock market that climbs a “wall of worry” often fares better, its rally lasting longer, than a market that jumps and jumps into bubble territory.

Photo Credit: Courtesy Christie’s

ArtPrize, a contest for visual artists with a $250,000 first prize, came in for some criticism when it was announced last spring. Not from me — I wrote here saying it was a worthy experiment, partly because it seemed destined to create a lot excitement about art. The public, not critics or curators, would vote to determine the winners. More important, to compete for the ArtPrize — created by Rick DeVos, a scion of the family that founded Amway — artists had to display their entry somewhere in downtown Grand Rapids.

There were a few drawbacks, I said — only people who visited the Grand Rapids displays and registered could vote, and artists had to get themselves and their art to the city.

Others felt strongly the $500 $50 entry fee was too steep and, much worse, they didn’t like that ArtPrize wanted to the right to broadcast, publish, use, etc. the entries without compensation.

So much for those hurdles. By the end of last week, more than 1,000  1,261 artists from 24 countries and 44 states had met the deadline for registering to compete. Assuming they all wrapped up venue agreements by Saturday — and 900 had done so by last Wednesday — they’ll soon be assembling their work within a three-mile-square district in downtown Grand Rapids. Visits and voting take place between Sept. 23 and Oct. 7.

There’s a two-step voting process: in the first week, voters may cast a ballot for as many works as they want, though only one vote per work. The top ten will then be announced.  In the second week, voters have just one ballot. But all top ten win something: $250,000, $100,000, and $50,000 for the top three — and $7,000 each for the rest.

Who knows what the art will be like? Who knows what the public will like? On Oct. 8, when the winners are announced, we’ll see how good this experiment is.

ArtPrize didn’t answer one question I asked — whether any well-known artists intend to participate.

But organizers are proud of the interest they’ve stirred up: As one measure beyond the artist participation, they say “ArtPrize.org is now averaging about 90,000 page views each day and the Facebook page has more than 5,200 fans.”

***This will likely be my only post for the week of Aug. 17-23. I’m away, and not likely to see much art while I’m gone. 

 

NEA chairman Rocco Landesman’s coming trip to Peoria, having insulted its theater scene in
an interview with The New York Times, is Culture Grrl’s story not mine. But Kathy Chitwood, executive director of the Eastlight Theatre in Peoria (whose current production is RENT — pictured at left), just posted a comment on my commentary about Landesman’s cocky, risky remarks that made me smile and exhibited exactly the right attitude. So I am sharing here, as well as in the comments on my Monday post.

In response to Mr. Landesman’s NY Times interview, Suzette Boulais, executive director of ArtsPartners, and I extended invitations to the new NEA chairman to visit Peoria to attend a production at Eastlight Theatre (one of Peoria’s theatres). He immediately responded by email his gratitude for the invitation and that he will come.

Tuesday afternoon on his first day in office, I received a call from Mr. Landesman confirming that he is excited about visiting our community to experience our arts scene. Our goal is for Peoria to represent all of the smaller communities in the nation that are doing worthy and worthwhile work in the arts.

In homage to the “The Beer Summit,” we are lovingly calling this visit, “The Lemonade Stand,” not because that is what we drink, but because that is what we do in Peoria — we take lemons and turn them into lemonade.

That’s the spirit!

Photo Credit: © Peoria Journal-Star