Archives for August 2009

Come November, when the Museum of Modern Art* opens an exhibition on Tim Burton, director of Edward Scissorhands and Sweeney Todd, among other movies, it plans to try something I recommended here back in April: variable pricing.

The museum is calling its initiative “Tim Burton Tour Nights,” and it works this way: On certain nights during the show, which runs from November 22, 2009, to April 26, 2010, people can pay $75 per person for a one-hour “VIP group tour” after the museum closes to the public, and a reserved “preferred seat” at a screening of a Tim Burton film the same night. MoMA members get the same deal for $65. The tours are limited to 25 people, and reservations must be made in advance.

This is a good test — it changes almost nothing for the general public, which still gets to see the exhibition as usual during regular MoMA hours. Sure, some seats per screening are given over to premium tickets, but reserved seating is common for all kinds of performances at other places. So what?

Critics who think museums should be free all the time may blast MoMA for being elitist — I challenge them to find a better, more painless way to raise money.

For MoMA’s plan does have potential. The museum says it plans “an extensive film series spanning Burton’s 27-year career” during the five-month run of the show. Each sell-out night of private tours could yield from $1,625 to $1,875, depending on how many members buy tickets. I am not privvy to the budget, but I doubt this exhibit is cheap.

[Read more…] about MoMA Tries Variable Pricing For Tim Burton Show

I nearly hit myself in the head and asked ‘why didn’t I think of that?’ when I learned what the
University of Pennsylvania was requiring of its incoming freshman class this year. Furthermore, why didn’t anyone else who loves the visual arts? Anyone concerned with arts education? With visual literacy?

Instead of reading a common book, to be discussed on campus, freshmen have been asked to study and be ready to discuss a painting, The Gross Clinic, by Thomas Eakins. Here are the details, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer:

The portrait was chosen because it highlights historical issues, reflects academic medicine, and was done locally. Students also will look at Eakins’ The Agnew Clinic, another surgical scene, painted at Penn.

The painting project has its own Web site, complete with Penn-staff lectures on the works and how to analyze a painting, and a zoom feature that allows students to look at the work in detail.

The 2,500 freshmen are expected to study the site and be prepared to attend a presentation on the paintings on the Sunday before Labor Day, then break into small groups to discuss it with faculty members. The project is mandatory, but not graded.

How cool is that?

The Inquirer article quoted university officials saying that they believe Penn is the first college in the country to take this approach with a freshman project, and added that “national officials” knew of no other example, either.  

[Read more…] about A Brilliant No-Brainer Idea At U-Penn Focuses on Art (How Refreshing!)

Bloomberg published an article the other day about the pay afforded by some large museums, and although the reporter, Philip Boroff, was measured, the story obviously raises questions about whether such pay is appropriate. As it happens, Charity Navigator just released its own pay survey for non-profits, including arts groups, that put the Bloomberg piece in context.

To review, according to Bloomberg, Glenn Lowry, director of the Museum of Modern Art* (left, in 2005), took home the biggest pay-and-benefits packet last year: $1.32 million — “down from $1.95 million the year before, as the museum cut costs amid the recession.”

Elsewhere:

• Philippe de Montebello was paid $818,935, up 7 percent, in his last year running the Metropolitan Museum.*
• James Wood pocketed $1.1. million as CEO the J. Paul Getty Trust in the year through June 30, 2008.
• James Cuno received $626,175, as president of the Art Institute of Chicago.
• Malcolm Rogers was paid $719,621 to run the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.*

How does that stack up against other non-profits and other arts non-profits? 

[Read more…] about Are Museum Directors Paid Too Much? UPDATED

What can one say about an exhibit — Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures From the National
Museum, Kabul — that has been on tour in the U.S. since May, 2008, and on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art*, its last stop, since June 23? Newspapers, magazines and other AJ bloggers have written about this show, too, including Chloe Veltman in Lies Like Truth (here), who described the poignancy:

To stare at the soberly-lit glass cases filled with such objects as a glowing pair of gold shoe soles found in the tomb of a nomadic princess or the smooth clay head of a temple sculpture from the Greek-influenced royal city of Ai Khanum, is to begin to grasp the deep heritage of a country that seems, owing to its near-constant presence in current new headlines, to have no past — just a destructive present.

But I just got there over the weekend, and I am moved to say something about this not-to-be-missed show. Every one of the 200-plus items is stunning. One of my favorites pieces is the ceremonial plaque of Cybele, Greek goddess of nature, riding in a chariot driven by Nike, above.

The only thing I question about the Met’s version is the gallery filled with the “Bactrian hoard” jewelry. Along the upper walls are sweeping photos of the desert, which is ok — though it feels more like a natural history museum than an art museum. The vitrines, however, are set among swirling maze-like partitions that separate them, each section representing a tomb where the objects on display were discovered. The partitions, to me, interrupted the flow, and I almost missed an entire section, which would have been a shame.

[Read more…] about Hidden Treasures From Kabul Is A Real Treasure

You know that line about the Federal Reserve Chairman — that it’s his duty to come along and take away the punchbowl just as the (economic) party is revving up? That’s how I feel right
now.

Much of the arts community is euphoric about what Rocco Landesman told The New York Times the other day (link): It was straight talk; he said many things that needed saying; with a few remarks, he extracted the cultural world from the defensive crouch arts organizations always seem to be in. Artists do need to be considered in economic policy matters, though Landesman shouldn’t ignore the fact that investing in arts generally doesn’t have as large an economic multiplier effect as
investing in manufacturing (until and unless studies prove otherwise, but I won’t get started on that. Just see here).   

Yet as much as I agree with most of what he said, Landesman took a very big risk with that interview. Washington, as I wrote over the weekend in a commentary for Forbes, demands respect and often chews up people who don’t play by its rules. His remark about Peoria, even if true, will come back to haunt him surer than the “wise Latina” remark messed up Sonia Sotomayor. It’s going to make budget requests and hearings much more difficult.  

So while Landesman is right to try to alter the national debate about the arts, I hope his cocky first interview doesn’t hurt the cause, rather than help it.