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Judith H. Dobrzynski on Culture

MIA Reverses Course On Facebook: It Asks Visitors Questions

Another post triggered by Facebook today: And frankly, I am of mixed mind about this one.  

MIA-FB.jpgToday, instead of letting people ask curators questions on its Facebook page (as it does once a month, with curators sitting in a conference room with their laptops), the Minneapolis Institute of Arts turned the tables and had its curators ask questions of people visiting its page.

Some of the questions were, to me, beside the point — for example, “What’s your favorite place to eat when you’re visiting the MIA?” and, just behind it, “Which part of the Asian art gallery is your favorite?” Ok, such questions humanize curators, I suppose, and create a little relationship, but it’s a shallow one and hardly worth a curator’s time.

Other questions were middling — “Who else at the MIA, besides the curators,  would you all like to direct questions to on facebook?” I was pleased to see someone wanted to hear from the volunteers.

Others asked for exhibition suggestions, favorite craft artists, and so on.

I think the one that drew the most interesting answers was about acquistions — “…Assuming we had 7 million dollars, who are the top three artists we should acquire?”

It also drew the most comments, I think — 21. The answers seem a bit surprising. Among the suggestions: Twombly, Rubens, Schiele, Dix, Poussette-Dart, Richter, Caillebotte, Sargent, Rothko, Pollock, Homer, Friedrich (!) etc.  

These are classics; they are not the hot artists pulling down gigantic prices in galleries. Of course, great works by them are also hard to get, and expensive — though $7 million could buy something good/great.

But the answers are unlikely to have any impact on the acquisitions committee, and they shouldn’t. So what’s the point? The answers are too few to be meaningful to the museum, and it shouldn’t be polling visitors about acquisitions anyway. So it’s just fun, and there’s nothing wrong with fun, unless people think they are having a say.

One commenter is already a little angry; he wrote: “I suggest you not acquire the same artists that every other museum is exhibiting. The international Tour de Museums is starting to resemble the tourist districts of every urban center, offering your average expected fair; Starbucks, Victoria’s Secret, ad nauseam…. There have been many competent artists who aren’t getting the recognition they deserve. Establish yourself as ahead of the pack, not one of the pack.”

All this tells me that the MIA, and other museums, are still figuring out how to use social media — and will, probably, for a long time.

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About Judith H. Dobrzynski

Now an independent journalist, I've worked as a reporter in the culture and business sections of The New York Times, and been the editor of the Sunday business section and deputy business editor there as well as a senior editor of Business Week and the managing editor of CNBC, the cable TV

About Real Clear Arts

This blog is about culture in America as seen through my lens, which is informed and colored by years of reporting not only on the arts and humanities, but also on business, philanthropy, science, government and other subjects. I may break news, but more likely I will comment, provide

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