What was the first thing Thomas P. Campbell did last January when he assumed his new job as head of the Metropolitan Museum*?
That was one of the questions Campbell encountered on Wednesday night, when he addessed a forum sponsored by the Alliance for the Arts and the New York Times. Campbell spoke — and showed slides — for 25 minutes, give or take, and then opened the floor. I was eager to see what the public wanted to know, but truth is this public seemed to consist mainly of people from arts institutions or already deeply involved in the arts.
And Campbell is a diplomat, as we’ve already learned. Asked, for example, what three art works he’d take with him if stranded on a desert island, he responded that there were representatives from more than three Met departments in the audience and therefore couldn’t say. Then he added that he’d “slit my wrists” if there were only three.
To me, the most interesting comment he made was that he already had his eye on what the museum should be in 2020, its 150th anniversary — when he will be just 58 and presumably still at the helm. “I challenge myself to see the Met then,” he said.
Here are the bits of information, some new, he disclosed:
- The Met website gets 34 million visitors a year.
- More than 40% of visitors visit the website before going to the museum.
- 31% of its visitors are international.
- The issue is “not that visitors know less about art history” than they used to, but that they have learned no art history.
- He’s committed to remaining a leading publisher of scholarly art books, though the museum has to look hard at the balance between online publication and traditional publication.
- He “rather” likes the unfinished facade, though discussions about completing it continue.
Mostly, Campbell repeated things he has said before: the Met will have fewer exhibitions, more drawn from the permanent collection, more “dossier” shows like that built around “The Milkmaid,” a redesigned website, better signage and interpretive materials to “enliven, inform and invigorate” the “visitor experience,” and so on.
One oddity: In his talk, Campbell used the category of jewelry to illustrate the breadth of the Met’s collections.
And back to that question about his first deed: He said he took down everything in the office he inherited from Philippe de Montebello, put it on a table, and asked the staff to take it all away.
Photo Credit: Courtesy Colbert Nation
*I consult to a foundation that supports the Met.