It’s almost spring, and therefore time for the special section on Museums in The New York Times, published tomorrow (Thursday). I will be weighing in later on what people said, giving raspberries of disapproval and strawberries of approval, as I did last year, once I’ve read the whole section.
For now, I’m simply going to send you to my article in the section, “The Art of the Deal Helps Spread Great Art.” It’s about museum partnerships, focusing on the High Museum in Atlanta, where Michael E. Shapiro (right) has proven to be at the forefront of this trend. And I do think it will become a trend, increasingly, for museums that lack great art and need to find a way to bring it to their constituencies.
I spoke just today with Brian Ferriso, director of the Portland Art Museum, and he gets it completely — among several others.
My story is pegged to the High’s recent deal with the National Galleries of Scotland, which will bring two great Titians plus other Venetian masterpieces to Atlanta next fall. Shapiro — now very attuned to the idea of partnerships — explains how many other people were at the same meeting of the Bizot group where he learned of the need of John Leighton, director of the NGS, to raise as much as £50 million to save a Titian, Diana and Callisto, at left, from being sold. Shapiro was the only one to approach Leighton.
Good for him. As I have mentioned before, when writing about the Fresno Metropolitan Museum, many people in the U.S. live in areas that have little art, usually because the cities weren’t around, or weren’t rich, when American museums began forming their collections a century or so ago. We have to figure out a way to bring great art to those populations, too. Partnerships can help.
And here’s a final point Shapiro made, which I had no room for in the article:
For museums to pursue this kind of programming strategy it really requires that the director – and curators and even the board – be open to letting go of their assumptions and about how museums are supposed to work. It means that we need to be willing to challenge the established practices and be open to exploring new ways of working with other institutions by understanding their needs. Sometimes just “letting go” can move things forward in new ways. This may sound obvious but as we have seen in so many other industries, changing the status quo is never as simple as it seems it should be.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of the High Museum (top) and National Galleries of Scotland (bottom)