Sex, food, drugs, art–are they all the same? Do they provide the same kind of pleasure and engagement? No, says Julia F. Christensen, a neuroscientist at the Warburg Institute, University of London. She says–and I seriously hope she is correct–that art engages the brain in a special way that can “help overwrite the detrimental effects […]
Artificial Intelligence Invades The Museum and Art Worlds
October 30, 2016 by
“It’s a massively ambitious project.” That is Tony Guillan, a multimedia producer for the Tate museum, in the U.K, speaking. Guillan manages the IK PRize, which the Tate Britain has awarded for the last few years to projects that use digital technology in an innovative way to promote the exploration of art at the Tate Britain […]
The Arts: By The (National) Numbers
February 16, 2016 by
A few years ago, when the National Endowment for the Arts said it would join with the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis to determine how much the arts contributed to the economy, I applauded. When the very first data was released, I even tried to sell an article to about the beginning of this worthwhile effort. […]
What’s Up With The Met’s Lauder Center?
March 19, 2015 by
That was the question on my mind when I proposed a story on it for the annual New York Times special section on museums, which was part of today’s paper. The result is headlined A Gift That Could Rewrite Art History in the paper (it’s different–and too “newsy” a headline on the web–bt that’s journalism today. Interestingly, […]
NEA Reveals The Real Targets For Art Museums
January 12, 2015 by
The National Endowment for the Arts released three reports today on arts participation, barriers to it, the impact of the arts and culture industries on the economy–all information from 2012. There’s much to digest. Here’s the link to them. But I’m going to paste here just four charts from them that speak to one aspect […]
Once More Into the Storerooms >> Discoveries!
October 21, 2014 by
Now it’s the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh’s turn to find fantastic art works in its storerooms, as many other museums have done. Among the newly discovered pieces: a hand-painted enamel bowl with roundels of butterflies from the Yongzheng period, a “bizarre googly-eyed dragon bowl” and cinnabar lacquer panel (below right) from the Qianlong […]
The Future Of Art Book Publishing Is Here
August 7, 2014 by
Wow! Today I had a look at the first digital-only publication of the Museum of Modern Art,* and I can really see — even after only a short time of experimentation — how much digital technology can do for art books. The book, Picasso: The Making of Cubism 1912-1914, comes in iPad or PDF form. Here’s the […]
Try This NYT Web App To Track Art Coverage Trends
August 6, 2014 by
Who is mentioned more often in pages of The New York Times from its start in the 1850s through 2011? Michelangelo or Leonardo da Vinci? Van Gogh, Degas or Gauguin? Joan Mitchell, Louise Bourgeois or Mary Cassatt? Impressionism or Modernism? Monet or Manet? You can see for yourself how the Times chronicled art trends — or […]
“No Time To Think” — Are Museums Part of the Problem Or Antidotes?
August 5, 2014 by
Has the worm turned? Are people weary of multi-tasking, interactivity, overcommitment, overextension and too tied to mobile devices? If you read an article in the July 27 edition of The New York Times headlined No Time to Think, you learned two things. First, the answer is no. As the article said: In 11 experiments involving more […]
How Many Museums Is Too Many?
May 27, 2014 by
Some people would say there can never be too many museums. I would rephrase that to say there can never be too much art, but there can be too many museums. The U.S. may be there now. According to recently released information from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the U.S. has twice the […]
