Real Clear Arts

Judith H. Dobrzynski on Culture

Museum Funding-Fundraising

What Lesson Will Grand Rapids Draw From Princess Diana Show?

How does a museum define success? Too often, it’s by attendance — which brings me to the case of the Grand Rapids Museum of Art, which I chastised here about two years ago for presenting Diana: A Celebration, a display including her wedding gown, her tiaras, 28 designer dresses, personal momentos and “rare home movies.” GRAM charged $20 for adult admission.

Now we see the repercussions: Diana attracted “more than 97,600 visitors, helping attract over 318,000 visits and bringing the roster of museum members to 4,572 in the museum’s 2010-11 fiscal year,” according to MLive. That was up from 138,800 visitors and 3,196 memberships in 2009-10. This year’s total dropped to 265,000 visitors and 3,431 members. 

Individual exhibitions in the past year did not fare any where near as well as Diana. Warrington Colescott: Cabaret, Comedy, and Satire attracted about 11,300 visitors (Oct. 28, 2011 - Jan. 15, 2012) and an exhibit of works by Robert Rauchenberg borrowed from the Whitney Museum, the first in a series of loan shows, attracted 30,700 between Feb. 3 and May 20. A show called Cities in Transition got 24,000 between June 1 and Aug. 26. Those are small fractions.

The Grand Rapids Museum benefited most from ArtPrize, which brought  153,100 visitors this year.

Meantime, contributions to the annual fund dropped to $1.5 million in 2011-12, from $1.9 million a year earlier.

What does this tell us? Art, with the possible exception of a contest, couldn’t compete with Diana. Then again, it shouldn’t have to.

What the museum does now is key: does it look for other Dianas (a traveling exhibition that, elsewhere, was not staged at art museums but in other spaces) to fatten its stats and its coffers?  Or does it return to a past that included a world-class exhibition (many years ago) of Perugino? Me, I’d rather see things like Diebenkorn’s Ingleside, above, which is in the museum’s permanent collection.

In July, 2011, the museum got a new director, Dana Friis-Hansen, from the Austin Museum of Art. Maybe he wouldn’t have done the Diana show. Now he must resist the temptation those numbers no doubt present.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of GRAM 

 

 

Taubman Museum News: Another Lifeline, But No Stability

The Taubman Museum of Art in Roanoke, which started out in a shiny new building in late 2008, but was struggling for survival by fall 2010, is still clinging to life — by the threads. The other day, Nick Taubman, who just stepped up to become chairman of the board, promised he wouldn’t let the museum “…go broke,” according to the Roanoke Times.

That puts the Taubman family squarely back in the picture. In 2010, his wife Jenny had resigned from the board and (kind of) washed her hands of it.

 Taubman and other community leaders just made a cash infusion of $1.5million “to help it cover operating costs for the rest of the year” and he apparently told the paper that “the arrangement will continue as long as it needs to.” While the new move is admirable, it’s still not a way to run a museum, which has an annual budget of about $3.4 million and has been operating in the red.

Meanwhile, the museum needs a new director: CEO David Mickenberg just resigned. He had been leading the charge to change from a real museum to a community arts center, announced in fall 2010. Taubman says that drive will continue, and the search for a new director will soon commence.

But this art center is struggling, even after a raft of loans from benefactors were forgiven.

The Roanoke Times has more of the gory details — it’s just painful to watch any museum, or arts center, tread water publicly this way.

When will communities take seriously all these cautionary tales of overreaching?

Is The Corcoran Inching Toward A Solution?

It’s remarkable, in a way, that a three-sentence statement issued at 5 p.m. on Friday by the Corcoran Gallery of Art and College of Art + Design qualifies as good news — but it does. Here’s what it said:

The Corcoran Gallery of Art and College of Art + Design is in conversation with both the National Gallery of Art and George Washington University. These activities are in keeping with the Corcoran Board’s stewardship and commitment to explore and secure potential sustainable options for the future of both the gallery and the college. No further details will be released at this time.

Bland, huh? But I take it — inferring volumes, perhaps — that the board of Corcoran, which in June said the place was in such dire straits financially that it might sell its beautiful building and move to the suburbs, is coming to its senses and realizing that it just can’t treat the Corcoran like a chess piece, moved to a “better” location in Alexandria, Va., where the board has looked for space. Or taken to Maryland. Or mismanaged into oblivion. That statement, which came a bit out of the blue, was necessary only because the board and museum executives were inept at fundraising and management.

That’s why I suggested a merger/takeover right then and there in June. Since then, there’ve been other developments, including the formation of a group called “Save the Corcoran,” which last Tuesday sent a nine-page letter (Letter_to_Corcoran_from_Gibson_Dunn) written by its lawyers at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher citing, in the group’s own words, “leadership failures including potential charter violations, corporate waste, potential conflicts of interest and fundraising collapse.” The letter demanded:

1. The Corcoran will end all corporate waste associated with an unlawful move outside of Washington, D.C., and publicly announce that the Corcoran will not move outside of the District;
2. The Corcoran will fill the three current vacancies on its Board of Trustees with nominees selected from the Save the Corcoran Coalition’s Advisory Committee (response requested by October 19).

Seems to me that the group, like the Corcoran board, is overplaying its hand, at least on #2.

On the other hand, a takeover of the Corcoran’s school by GW could be a good thing, especially if GWtakes full responsibility for managing the school and raising money for it. Make it like IFA at NYU.

The Gallery is another matter, and neither the Corcoran nor the NGA are talking about the content or dimensions of their discussions. The Corcoran gallery also needs better leadership and more funds, which the NGA can supply. And the NGA believes it needs more space. It could be a good match, even though the NGA may undergo its own transition in the not-too-distant future: Earl A. (Rusty) Powell III — the director since 1992 — turns 70 in 2013. 

Still, at this point, I’m still with my initial gut reaction — the Corcoran needs new hands at its helm. A merger with the NGA would be less disruptive than hiring a new director, sweeping out the in-over-their-heads Corcoran trustees, and finding many new deep-pocketed board members for the Corcoran.

 

 

What Do You Do As A “Mellon Curator-At-Large?”

It was in the spring of 2011, I believe, when the Indianapolis Museum of Art announced that it had appointed two “curators-at-large” funded by a grant from the Mellon Foundation. The museum selected James Watt, who had stepped down from his position as Senior Curator in the Metropolitan’s Department of Asian Art, and Mahrukh Tarapor as the first two.

Now it has announced another: Amy Poster (below), Curator Emerita of Asian Art at the Brooklyn Museum as well as an independent curator and consultant specializing in South and East Asian art.

For some strange reason, the museum is a little secretive about these posts. The press release announcing Poster says she began her work in July, 2012 — but it’s just announcing the appointment now. And it never mentioned Tarapor, who delayed her arrival in Indianapolis and then, last April, gave it up when the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, appointed her senior advisor for international initiatives there.

If Indy is embarrassed, it shouldn’t be — these things happen and it’s no reflection on the museum, in my mind.

The question is, what are they doing?

Watt, who began his one-year term in November, 2011, has been quite busy on his visits. According to the press release, he

has analyzed the IMA’s Chinese ceramics, jade and most of the bronzes in storage and currently on display. As part of his work, Watt certified the dates and periods on several works of art, and in some cases corrected dates of the objects. Through additional research in Hong Kong, Watt hopes to concretely authenticate some works from the IMA’s ceramics collection that may prove to be older and more precious than previously believed. Additionally, Watt is assisting Teramoto in planning for the reinstallation of the IMA’s permanent Asian galleries, opening in 2014.

Kathryn Haigh, the museum’s deputy director for collections and exhibitions, also said that he plans to reinstall the Chinese objects thematically, thus highlighting “the history of porcelain making in China among other things.” And “James is currently researching a pair of chicken cups that may rival similar objects in the imperial collection, which is very exciting.”

For her part, Poster will help develop a long-term collecting strategy for Indian and Southeast Asian art. She is also

studying the history of the IMA’s Lockwood de Forest wall. De Forest (1850-1932) was a partner of Louis Comfort Tiffany and was well known for establishing an Indian wood-working studio in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, which produced items for the American market from the late 19th to early 20th centuries. One of the earliest Asian artworks acquired by Museum, the wall was purchased by the Art Association of Indianapolis in 1915 (a precursor to the IMA) from Lockwood de Forest. The wall has been shown in multiple manifestations over the last century.

If this was a trial for Mellon, testing the idea for possible use elsewhere, it seems to me to be a good one. With budgets stretched, some museums can’t afford full time curators in each department they have — sharing curators, using independent curators, and tapping into year-long scholars, like these, will probably spread. Kudos to Mellon for this experiment.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of the Indianapolis Art Museum 

New Money For American Art Scholars!

Here’s some good news for lovers of American art, straight out of that (until-recently) backwater of any art — Arkansas (I say that kiddingly, because I love that there’s great art in Arkansas, though some RCA readers do not): Crystal Bridges has announced a research and residency program for scholars to study and promote the understanding of American art and a prize to recognize “lifetime achievement in American art.”

Both are being funded by a $5 million pledge from the Tyson family and Tyson Foods, the chicken processing company largely expanded by the late Donald Tyson and now run by his son John (below). It’s a naming gift — scholars will be called Tyson Scholars of American Art and it’s the Don Tyson Prize.  

Crystal Bridges (a favorite wall of mine there, showing Martin Johnson Heade’s Gems of Brazil is at left) has an extensive library and manuscript collection that the scholars can mine, and the press release noted that their research “may also provide fertile ideas for Crystal Bridges’ own dynamic exhibition program,” which is good since Crsytal Bridges has always said it wants to go beyond the current received wisdom in American art. Scholars will be expected to interact with the local community via lectures, symposia, and collaborations with the University of Arkansas.

The first class has already been chosen – through an internal committee headed by museum director Don Bacigalupi and the museum’s curator of American art, Kevin Murphy. From now on, a committee of Crystal Bridges’ staff and outside art historians will sift through applications, choosing on the basis of “their proposals’ potential contribution to the field of American art.” Tyson Scholar receive stipends “competitive with other prominent residency programs,” are housed in Bentonville, and “may apply for multiple semester-length terms of residency with a stipend for research and travel expenses.”

The first class, described in detail here, include  Matthew Bailey, from St. Louis; Jason Weems, from Riverside; and Susan Rather, from Austin.

The prize is in the works, but not announced. According to the press release:

A jury of respected museum and academic art historians empanelled by the museum will recommend for recognition an individual whose work has significantly advanced knowledge in the field of American art over the course of a career.  The honor carries a cash prize as well as recognition by Crystal Bridges during an event given in the recipient’s honor. Crystal Bridges has begun the selection process for the first winner, who will be announced once the rigorous nominating and vetting process has been completed.

Begun by Don Tyson, who bought Western art starting in the 1960s, the Tyson Foods corporate collection has been expanded and diversified by John Tyson. It now includes works by “Ansel Adams, Troy Anderson, Thomas Hart Benton, Charlie Dye, Sam Francis, Harry Jackson, Frank McCarthy, Charles M. Russell, Andy Warhol and Jack Woods,” according to the release.

I’m giving the penultimate word to Bacigalupi (because I agree with him!):

American art has historically received too little attention from scholars and academic programs as a field of research. Funding for its study has been sadly limited. Here at Crystal Bridges, we have made it part of our mission to help improve that situation. Thanks to the generosity of the Tyson family and Tyson Foods, our museum will be able to develop and foster a community of scholars committed to furthering the understanding and appreciation of American art. In addition, through the Don Tyson Prize, named in honor of the late Don Tyson, former chairman and CEO of Tyson Foods, we’ll also be able to honor people who have advanced American art during their career.

This changing, no doubt about that — and this will add more momentum.