Real Clear Arts

Judith H. Dobrzynski on Culture

Is It Time To Break Up Overcrowded Museums?

Hrag Vartanian, whom you may know as the editor-in-chief and co-founder of Hyperallergic, had a very interesting opinion piece published on Al Jazeera America the other day. The headline was Break up the major museums to save them, with a deck saying “August institutions should build more outposts rather than cloister themselves in big cities.” 

LouvreQuite a proposal. His thoughts seem to have been triggered by attendance at the Louvre (12 million a year by 2025), and the experiences of many museum-goers — who can barely get near the art because the galleries are so crowded. He recapped some of the complaints contained recently in a New York Times article,  Masterworks Vs. the Masses, which noted “soaring attendance has turned many museums into crowded, sauna-like spaces, forcing institutions to debate how to balance accessibility with art preservation.”

Most of the comments agreed that conditions for real art-lovers are now horrible. Vartanian went beyond “us,” though, to look at museum reviews on Trip Advisor, where he found that the “masses” tended to agree. Wrote one of the Vatican Museums: “Seriously, it would only take one person to trip or to cause some kind of mild panic or corridor rage … it doesn’t bear thinking of.” And another of the Louvre: “There was absolutely no way that myself and my family members could enjoy the museum. There are so many people that all you have time to do is make sure you aren’t trampled by the mass coming at you from every direction.”

Hence his proposal: “I’m suggesting not that museums sell off their collections but that more museums consider aggressively building outposts or prioritizing longer-term partnerships with smaller or newer institutions that could benefit from such relationships.”

But that’s like destroying the village to save it. I disagree, mostly, but not entirely:

  • Building outposts is not the answer for virtually all museums. I admit to a few possibly exceptions, perhaps cities that not only have little art but that have no viable museum building. But most do. We don’t need more museum buildings, for the most part. As Vartanian himself wrote in another part of his commentary, “We need to fight the idea that museums must keep growing to stay relevant or survive.” Amen to that.
  • Rather, I prefer the sharing model — but not necessarily in long-term partnerships. I believe that strong museums, like the Metropolitan and the Modern here in New York, the National Gallery of Art, the MFAs, etc., need to remain strong and universal, special places that both locals and tourists will go to and return to, again and again, because of what’s dependably inside (not because of some event).
  • But they could easily share some more with museums that own less spectacular art. I know, art should not travel that much. But some art can — some works can be special visitors, perhaps “on tour” or in a single-picture exhibition; some can remain on extended loans (12 months?). Making these loans a special occasion — unless a museum truly has a spectacular collection in storage, which is doubtful, but which could be lent long-term — adds to their allure in attracting visitors.

Museums talk so much these days about “new audiences” and about “experience.” Judging by the commentaries I read and the press releases and emails I receive, every museum in the country seems to be trying to attract more visitors and to create more experiences.

I wish, as this opinion piece indicates, they would focus more on the experience of the art their current visitors are getting. A lot of art-lovers are truly unhappy with it — and, just to ward off the criticism comments like that seem to provoke, there’s nothing elite about being an art-lover. They can be — and are — anyone and everyone.

Photo Credit: Courtesy Daily Mail

 

Good News From The Middle East

I’m still catching up with news that occurred while I was away on vacation, and since this qualifies and it happened in the hapless Middle East, I thought I’d report it: in mid-August, it seems, the Iraqi National Museum reopened two renovated halls that display ancient sculptures. Mainly life-sized ones, according to a report by the Associated Press.

IraqMuseumIt said that the new galleries “feature more than 500 artifacts that mainly date back to the Hellenistic period (312-139 B.C.), some of which were retrieved and renovated after the looting of the museum following the 2003 U.S.-led invasion,” and cited Qais Rashid, head the state-run Museum Department, as the source.

Unfortunately, the article continued:

The museum chronicles some 7,000 years of Mesopotamian civilization, including the ancient Babylonians, Sumerians and Assyrians, but remains closed to the general public out of security fears.

Iraq is grappling with a re-invigorated Sunni insurgency that has seized large swaths of the country’s north and west since June. The Islamic militants leading the insurgency have destroyed a number of historical and religious monuments they view as un-Islamic or idolatrous.

But the museum inauguration in Baghdad was packed with visitors eager to glimpse relics from happier times.

The rest of the report was not so great. The current band of rebels, breakaways from Al-Qaida, that is taking over huge swaths of Iraq — ISIS or ISIL — is imposing laws that do not allow depictions of the human form. Therefore, according to the story, which sourced the comment to Tourism Minister Liwa Smaysin, “hundreds of Iraq’s archaeological sites located in militant-held areas are under threat of being demolished, including a number of old mosques and shrines,” though “Iraq was working with UNESCO to try to protect them.”

How thrilling, as the photo shows, that Iraqis are coming out to the museum, no matter the prohibition by ISIS.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of the AP

 

The Importance Of Having A Watchdog – UPDATED

The Asheville Art Museum seems to have a watchdog on its tail, probably in a good way — in fact, in a way such that it makes me wonder if, say, the Corcoran Gallery of Art might have survived as it was had it had someone similarly watching its every move.

In Asheville, the watchdog is a man named Ken Michalove, the former mayor and city manager.  He says the museum “is headed for bankruptcy unless it ramps up its own fundraising, sticks to its original goals and stops trying to adjust its game plan and financial reports so as to qualify for city and county money,” according to a recent article in the Asheville Tribune. The museum needs to raise $24 million, a goal originally set in 1996.

AshevilleArtMuseumMichalove’s other main points:

  • Investment income has plummeted: “The art museum lists its 2013 investment income as $789,357, reduced by $768,701 from the previous year. Of this difference, Michalove says, $775,000 was listed on the 2012 Form 990 as “Gross amount of sales other than inventory.” Michalove says he has repeatedly asked what “sales” made up that figure but has received no response from the art museum. Without its inclusion in the grand total, the museum’s investment income would only come to $34,357.
  • “In January, 2014, museum executive director Pam Myers made a presentation to the Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority (TDA) in order to obtain yet another extension to a $1.5 million grant agreement on which the museum had already defaulted twice. Myers indicated the museum’s number of non-student visitors had more than doubled, from 21,750 to 49,297. That number, divided into the museum’s stated admissions revenues of $71,224 yield an average ticket price of a dollar and forty-four cents, rather than the museum’s $8.00 regular admissions fee. “What’s going on with these numbers?” Michalove asked.
  • “Michalove says the museum’s projected income under its present investment strategy will fall short of its goal by $228,000 by the end of fiscal year 2017. In that case, and without a “major influx of cash” from somewhere else, Michalove says, the art museum will be staring down the barrel of bankruptcy; hence his conclusion that the museum must indeed raise “at least” the full $24 million it originally stated as its campaign goal.”

There’s more in the story.

If Michalove’s analysis is correct, there are even more questions than are explicitly asked in the article. For example, is the museum invading its endowment, or why else would investment income drop so much in an up market? And those other “gross sales” certainly do require an explanation — sales of what?

If nothing else, Michalove is showing museum management and trustees that the museum has to be responsible and responsive.

UPDATE: For another view, that from the museum, which says its finances are fine, go here: Tourism board backs Asheville Art Museum renovation

Photo Credit: Courtesy of the Asheville Art Museum 

Is This A “New” Piero della Franscesca? (Corrected)

PierodellaFrancesca“New” works by Old Masters turn up all the time in places like Italy — especially Italian churches. So it’s not surprising perhaps that one of the latest discoveries took place in St. Anthony the Abbott Church in San Polo. There, a fresco — some art historians say — is at least partly by the hand of Piero della Francesca.

San Polo is about a 165 miles to the north and west of  in the hills just above Arezzo, where Piero created his famous Legend of the True Cross frescoes. A few weeks back, the Italian press published articles, including this one, about the current theories. Those studying the work think that the face, at least, which was previously thought to be by Agnolo di Lorentino, a student of Piero della Francesca, is by the master himself. And perhaps parts of the body are too — that’s what they are working on now. 

This is study is also calling into question the dating of the Legend of the True Cross — currently c. 1452-56. There’s a thought that it may be earlier, more like 1447.

Of course, there’s reason to take this all with a grain of salt: the locals in San Polo hope that the fresco, if it is certified as as Piero, will attract tourists to the church.

What do you think? Is it or isn’t it?

 

 

I’m Away…

I’m taking a vacation, back just after Labor Day.