The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston opens its new Art of the Americas wing to the press today, the start of the runup to its public opening on Nov. 20.
So there will likely be many articles and blogs and other news reports in the next week. I’ve already tried to get ahead of them (here and here), and here’s one more. This morning, Andrea Shea of WBUR, the public radio station in Boston, weighed in. She interviewed me, among others, and I got to make a few more points about the campaign.
One, as I put it conversationally:
You know the MFA was very ambitious here, but at the same time a bit conservative by going for a building fund and an endowment fund at the same time. I shouldn’t say conservative. I should say responsible here.
And another point:
You’ve hit on a very important question for most museum expansions, which is sustainability. Usually the first year and sometimes the first year-and-a-half, two years, people come to see the new building, it’s exciting, the question is whether they keep coming back year after year.
Here’s the link to Shea’s full report.
That’s Copley’s Paul Revere above; it has a place of honor in the new wing.
Photo Credit: Courtesy, MFA