Museums

The Tampa-St. Petersburg area is getting another art museum, courtesy of Tom James, chairman of the brokerage firm Raymond James, son of its founder and chairman of the nearby Dali Museum.

The other day, James, who is 72 and still active at the firm, said he would commit up to $75 million to build a museum that will house his collection–a number he calculated based on the new, $40 million Dali, which opened in 2011–plus $30 million to endow it.

James reportedly owns about 2,500 works of art; he has been buying since he was a student at Harvard; his collection is described this way by the Tampa Bay Times:

Though his collection includes other genres, it’s best known for its Western and wildlife art and about 400 of the best examples in that genre would make up the permanent collection that he would give to the museum. Assessing the value of art is always a moving target, but James estimates that the group would probably be valued between $20 million and $25 million….

…He continues to collect art but with an eye toward a museum collection. Much of his Western and wildlife art is modern and contemporary so he is rounding it out with examples from the 19th century when the West became better known through artists who traveled there and created mythic, romantic images of it. No big names — Albert Bierstadt, for example — but he’s monitoring the auction houses and galleries for possible sales.

James is looking at sites in downtown St. Petersburg, near the Dali, the Museum of Fine Arts and the Morean Arts Center; says he’ll decide the location by next June 30.

The Tampa Bay Business Journal said the museum “would be about 35,000 to 40,000 square feet and house about 400 museum-quality works of art from the James collection.”  Some of it is now being shown at the Raymond James headquarters, as pictured.

We’ll see what the collection has, but this area is certainly strengthening its visual arts scene.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Raymond James via the Tampa Bay Business Journal

Some things in the museum world are truly shocking, and what happened this summer at the Hirshhorn Museum–which is now just coming to light–is truly a shame. The museum, it seems, decided it no longer needed its docents. Why? Because they’re generally older women, and they “are for the most part being replaced with younger volunteers who are interested in museum careers,” according to an article in the Oct. 30 Washington Post.

The article continued:

Hirshhorn officials say the change was needed to keep up with the times. Visitors don’t want formal tours anymore; they want casual interactions with staff who can talk about the work and ‘help them understand it better. And guides need to be in the gallery frequently to do this well.

Kristy Maruca, the museum’s manager of education, described the change as a merger of the docents and “interpretive guides,” a group of four younger volunteers who work 12 hours a week, some for college credit. She received 20 applications for the first four-month Gallery Guide cycle, which requires volunteers work 15 hours a week. Ten were accepted, including three students earning college credit. So far, three have dropped out.

“It’s the best thing for our visitors,” Maruca explained, adding that she no longer has the time to run both programs.

But here may be a rub:

“It was done in a very rude, very uncouth way,” said Florence Brodkey of Arlington, a docent for 12 years who said the volunteers were called to a meeting in August and told of the changes that would go into effect the next month. “It was disrespectful and insensitive.”

“There are women who are still there from the first class of docents, lots of old-timers who love the collection and love the museum,” said Laurie Nakamoto of Arlington, a docent for 35 years.

More details at that link. The volunteers don’t seem to be completely blameless here. Maruca said that they averages just a few hours of volunteering a month. That is too little. Most volunteer opportunities that I know of require a half-day a week, sometimes more.

Back in 2009, I heralded the work of volunteers at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, some of whom seemed to exhibit an almost cult-like devotion. At the time, the Met very much appreciated its volunteers, and I can only hope it still does. They were required to work one day a week, however. The commitment was real on both sides.

Meanwhile, the Post offered this for comparison:

Many other Smithsonian museums continue to have docent programs… The National Air and Space Museum is recruiting for a docent class that will begin training in the fall of 2015. After completing 11 weeks of training, volunteers must agree to sign on for two years of at least eight hours a month in the galleries. The Freer and Sackler Galleries just recruited a new docent class that will train from September until next June. After passing a qualifying tour next summer, docents must commit to two years of at least 24 tours a year, as well as attending two-hour training sessions several times a month. The National Museum of African Art asks docents to give 60 hours a year; the National Postal Museum requires 20 hours a year and a two-year commitment. The National Museum of American History offers weekday and weekend docent programs that require a year commitment and one 90-minute shift each week or two weekend shifts a month.

Whatever went wrong at the Hirshhorn, it could, perhaps should, be fixed–though with more commitment from the volunteer docents.

When Paola Morsiani  became director of the Neuberger Museum of Art at Purchase College in summer 2012, she told The New York Times, referencing the 2010 death of Roy Neuberger: “The principal visionary originator of this institution has passed the baton on to us. On one side, we will continue his legacy, but it is my role to find the courage to initiate new ideas based on new needs.”

It looks as if she could not find the right way to change, at least in the eyes of the Neuberger’s trustees. Today, after I inquired about rumors that she had been dismissed, I was told that she is being replaced by Tracy Fitzpatrick, Chief Curator of the museum, on Nov. 1.

Morsiani, “at the request of the Purchase College Provost, is now working to develop key strategic initiatives involving the museum’s external partners in New York City and Albany,” the museum said in a press release emailed to me.

Morisiani had been curator of contemporary art at the Cleveland Museum of Art before taking the Neuberger job; she was also a 2008 fellow of the Center for Curatorial Leadership, which trains curators to take on larger roles (hopefully, becoming directors).

Get ready for another real estate deal museum, this one in Miami. Somewhere on Biscayne Boulevard, art collector Gary Nader plans to build a museum for Latin American art. It doesn’t yet have a site, but it has a design by Mexican architect Fernando Romero, a collection (600 modern and contemporary pieces Nader owns), and an exhibition program:

The first year of programming will feature a retrospective of works by Fernando Botero and a Brazilian art exhibit, along with individual shows of works by Latin American masters Roberto Matta, Wifredo Lam, Frida Kahlo and her husband, Diego Rivera.

That’s according to an article published about a week ago in the Miami Herald: Miami Art Collector Unveils Plans for Latin American Art Museum.

I wish Nader well, but wonder about a few assumptions. For example, the cost of the “90,000-square-foot museum, expected to open in early 2016,” was given as “about $50 million.” That seems somewhat optimistic to me, as does the timing. Nader is still assessing three sites. Getting all the paperwork and construction work done in a little over a year? Well, it wouldn’t happen in a lot of big cities, that’s for sure.

And btw, there’s another complication: Nader told the Miami Herald he’s still talking to three potential development partners. (He owns a gallery in Wynwood.)

Nader has taken the route that the Museum for African Art in New York, now called  The Africa Center, tried (among others): he plans to pair the museum with condominiums in a $300 residential tower. The units, perhaps 300 in all, will go for $2 million to $20 million. If they can subsidize the museum, great!

Fernando Romero is, as you’ll recall, the son-in-law of multi-billionaire Carlos Slim, for whom he designed the Soumaya Museum–which when it opened in 2011 was set to be an anchor for a development intended to include offices, apartments and shops. I’m not sure what happened to that.

Romero, who apprenticed with Rem Koolhas, made an interesting exterior statement with the irregular, sloping, lopsided Soumaya. But it got mixed reviews as a museum. His idea for Nader’s museum is at left.

If you are going to Art Basel Miami Beach this year, you can get a look:

During Art Basel and through January, Nader will display the rendering and a model of the museum at his gallery, 62 NE 27th St. Guests can also see a preview of some of the Latin American art in Nader’s collection on the second floor of his gallery until the museum opens in 2016.

Please report back!

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Gary Nader via the Miami Herald