Real Clear Arts

Judith H. Dobrzynski on Culture

Museums

The Hidden News Behind The Saudi Museum Boom

The other day, The Art Newspaper reported that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has plans to spend “more than $1.7bn on building 230 new museums as part of a programme to promote the country’s culture.”

Mada'in Saleh…At a conference held in Oxford early in April, entitled “Green Arabia”, the influential HRH Prince Sultan bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, nephew of King Abdullah and president of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities (SCTA), said, “We have entered a new age; we have transitioned. Antiquities are the seat of a continuum to bring the life and history of Saudi Arabia closer to the hearts and minds of the people of the Kingdom—particularly the young.”

Building has already begun on 14 of the new museums, which will not only contain antiquities but the latest Saudi contemporary art….

But the real news, in my mind, came lower in the article: Saudi Arabia has completely reversed its stance on excavating in the peninsula. Previously, all sites dating before Mohammed, or about 610 AD, was scarce. “…little pre-Islamic research has been done in the country because of opposition from religious scholars, who claim it is ungodly,” the article said. “Now, however, clerics sit on the committee of the SCTA [Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities] advising on the new cultural programme.”

TAN said that about 30 archaeology teams from around the world have signed contracts with the Saudi government “to carry out research into the desert land and to uncover exhibits.” It continued:

…if we only research the history of Saudi Arabia post 610AD [the year in which Mohammed had his vision and began to preach] and say nothing about our history before then, we are belittling Islam, [HRH Prince Sultan bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, nephew of King Abdullah, said]. 

“We believe our people were Bedouins and the caravans that went to Mecca 400 years before Islam led into the rituals of going on Hajj that still prevail today.”…

…Antiquities dating back 10,000 years or more demonstrate that Saudi Arabians stem from a line of wealthy tribes who transported frankincense and other precious materials to the north, west and east of the peninsula. “We are not, as many might think, nouveaux riches,” joked Prince Sultan. “Throughout history, Saudi Arabia has been at the crossroads of civilisations. People will be completely surprised and overwhelmed by the depth of civilisation of this country.”

This development, obviously to be applauded, reminds me of the traveling exhibition called Roads of Arabia: Archaeology and the History of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which was on view at the Freer-Sackler and other museums recently. I didn’t see it, but from afar it looked quite engaging, and I wonder if its reception around the world influences the Saudis.

One site, Mada’in Saleh (pictured here), is well-known, and dates back some 2,000 years.

As for the museum, well, the plan strikes me as excessive. By the most recent count, Saudi Arabia has about 30 million people. That’s one museum per 130,000 or so inhabitants. Saudi Arabia, so far, doesn’t get many tourists. I suppose the Kingdom can choose to support the museums, but I doubt they’ll have enough visitors to stand on their own.

 

 

Disturbing: More News About the Corcoran

JaymeMcLellanAfter I wrote my previous post about the recent details of the deal dismantling the Corcoran Gallery of Art, I received more disturbing news from Jayme McLellan,  of Save the Corcoran, and a former Corcoran College of Art and Design professor. They need no introduction — I’ll just list them, verbatim. McLellan (at right) says:

  • All staff, including curatorial, except faculty were given 90 day notices on Monday.
  • As of Aug. 16th, the Corcoran will have no employees but programming runs until Oct.
  • Lauren Garcia, (Corcoran COO and Harry Hopper’s next door neighbor  – hired w/no prior museum experience) told staff not to put anything negative on social media because they were being watched. “Stay professional, we are watching you and you might not get hired by GW or NGA if you are negative.” ….
  • NGA will not issue contracts to the curatorial staff until Cy Pres [court approval] happens.
  • And David Julyan, Corcoran Chief Counsel, gets paid by the hour.

I did not attempt to verify this with the Corcoran staff. In the past, Save the Corcoran had pretty good information.

Corcoran

The Corcoran Saga: Strange, Sad

And so the deal to end the Corcoran Art Gallery as a separate entity is “closed,” as the Washington Post reported last week and as the National Gallery of Art, which later put out a press release, said. All of this still requires court approval to change the mission, but that is probably perfunctory.

CorcoranFirst a few of the basics. This “historic collaboration,” the release said,

…will maintain the historic Corcoran building as a showplace for art and a home for the Corcoran College and its programs, creating a global hub for the arts at [George Washington University]. The collaboration also will safeguard the Corcoran’s collection and increase access to it as a public resource in Washington, D.C.

…The National Gallery will maintain 15,000 square feet of exhibit space on the skylit second floor of the Corcoran building’s most historic section. That is less than half the 37,000 square feet of current exhibition space. One room will be a “Corcoran Legacy Gallery” with key works of the collection, and other rooms will feature more contemporary work, from the National Gallery and elsewhere. Instead of the current $10 charge at the door, admission will be free.

…The National Gallery is likely to select more than half the Corcoran’s 17,000 artworks, “to make a logical marriage of the two collections that enhances both of them,” [Rusty] Powell [the NGA’s director] said. The rest will be given to other museums, with priority granted to local galleries.

Meantime, GW gets the Corcoran building, and

…the university also will take responsibility for preserving the famed Salon Doré, the 18th-century French period room on the first floor; the 16th-century French mantel on the first floor; and the Canova Lions out front. GWU will sell the Corcoran’s classroom building in Georgetown and use the proceeds for renovations of the main building.

However, as the Post reported, “The Corcoran Gallery of Art will contribute about $48 million of endowment funds and proceeds from a previous sale of precious rugs to help finance the new arrangement.”

What has not been said, according to people much more familiar with this than I am, is what happens to some $40 million in the Corcoran’s acquisitions fund. That’s a good question.

Another one: the announcement said that joint advisory committees with GW and also with the NGA “will consult and advise on programs and activities in the 17th Street building and will promote contemporary art and artists.” Who will be on them? One would hope NOT many of the people who ran the Corcoran into the ground.

Jayme McLellan of Save the Corcoran has other thoughts about this — hat tip to a friend who wishes to remain anonymous — which I publish part of here:

I can only hope that history, and perhaps DC superior court, pay homage to the original vision of the Corcoran – an institution that was not meant to be a tangent consumed by two behemoth institutions. It was not meant to have a portion of its collection – a time capsule of art and American history -  placed into the National Gallery of Art, with the rest scattered to other institutions.

The building was not meant to be given away to the largest holder of real estate in Foggy Bottom.

The Corcoran was meant to be an independent voice that encourages American genius. And at $48,000 a year for tuition, the artists enrolled in GW’s Corcoran had better be geniuses at earning a paycheck.

In the deepest most fundamental sense, I believe that the Corcoran was not understood by the board. They didn’t get the real value. The board that made these decisions did not look into the faces of the staff for months. They made deals in secret, sold assets not belonging to them, and hired unqualified executives to do their bidding. And a lot of people suffered, and continue to suffer in the face of this uncertainty. I guess if the moral arch of the universe is as long as they say, and it bends toward justice, maybe the true story will come out one day. It will start something like this: Harry Hopper wanted to sell the building and have a purpose built facility erected on the waterfront in Alexandria. And he never considered for a minute that the community would care as much as they did about that old building…. but they weren’t going to get in his way.

I have sympathies for this point of view — however, given the makeup of the Corcoran board and management in recent years, I don’t think it was possible to save the Corcoran as it was. A reluctant conclusion, but a realistic one. This deal, bad as it is in some respects, may be the best outcome at this point.

 

Griswold’s Toughest Task As Cleveland’s New Director

I’ve been so busy the last few days, and today I was completely away from my computer, and so I’ve missed commenting on several art-world development — like the Corcoran deal — and now the announcement this morning that the Cleveland Museum of Art had chosen William Griswold, current head of the Morgan Library and Museum,* as its new director.

WGriswold

Griswold is an excellent choice in many ways (Perhaps with advice, he made his own video already — see it here), not least because he really wants the job. Though he has done well at the Morgan, he confided to me months ago that he missed being in a general museum. Cleveland is also a good fit because Griswold is a scholar with an affinity for Cleveland’s smallish but gem-like collection.

He can also be a soothing presence — he’s no bull in a China shop — and Cleveland, after the disruptive tenure and departure of David Franklin (now, reportedly back in Canada, from whence he came), who was fired last fall, needs someone to unite people in the museum. That will be his first, or maybe second, priority.

The other, tougher priority is fund-raising, an issue I have not yet seen raised in any of the press coverage of the announcement (though, naturally, I have not read it all).

Cleveland’s expansion, with a new Rafael Vinoly wing, cost some $350 million and the museum has not raised all the money, In January, when I provided an update on the museum here, I called the gap “substantial.” No one objected. I believe the gap is in the neighborhood of $50 million, but some of that may have been raised by now. Equally important, though, I have heard that Cleveland — i.e., the city’s donors — is tapped out. The museum has gone to all the big donors not once, but twice, and still hasn’t come up with all it needs.

Franklin had gotten permission to dip into its acquisition endowment funds — though he also promised me that would not be necessary, that he would raise the money. He did not.

Griswold raised money for the Morgan; let’s hope he can do it in Cleveland.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of the Cleveland Museum

*I consult to a foundation that supports the Morgan

 

“Museums In A Changing World” — The Video

Earlier this year, I was invited to address the Seton Hall University students in museum studies and the Institute for Museum Ethics there, and I proposed a conversation instead of a speech. The title was “Money, Market, or Mission? Museums in a Changing World,” and here was the precis:

Ongoing economic challenges have caused museums to question accepted ways of doing business and to look for new models that involve entertainment as much as education. How can museums respond to current trends in the market and build their audiences without compromising their educational and scholarly purposes? Should the preservation and care of museum collections take a backseat to providing community programs that will attract visitors to the museum? Judith Dobrzynski and Sally Yerkovich lead the discussion around how museums are attracting visitors in this changing time.

The event took place in early March (when I was still in my arm cast) and a while back Seton Hall posted the video of the session on YouTube. It’s here.

SetonHallWe get into a number of issues about which I have written here several times — whether it’s ethical to stage dance parties and other events purely to raise money in a museum instead of trying to get people interested in art; a conservation about [reMastered] at the Worcester Art Museum; how museums “train” audiences; and other things. And there are some issues I haven’t (yet) explored here. One good point I made, when discussing communities and museums, was the difference between art centers, like the Walker, and art museums, like, say, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, which should be more about its collections. They can and probably should have different strategies. But, whatever each does, “make it about the art” in some way.

And another thought, which came up in the conversation about deaccessioning and specifically about Detroit: the more we turn museums into entertainment centers, as opposed to art cathedrals/repositories/education centers, the harder time we will have convincing people — including the courts — that museum collections are inviolate and cannot be treated as assets.

You might enjoy the video — skip to the 5 minute mark to avoid the introductions.