Seattle Tattle—Part I: Riffing with Rifkin

I can’t blog about the expanded Seattle Art Museum (as I have previously mentioned), until I publish my upcoming piece about it in the Wall Street Journal. But what I can do is dish some tasty tidbits that I was fed by the artworld gadabouts who landed in Seattle last week for VIP events at collectors’ homes and for Saturday night’s gala celebrating the museum’s expansion
Since we’ve all become Smithsoniologists, let’s start with Ned Rifkin, who, as the Smithsonian Institution’s undersecretary for art, is one of those anointed in the press as a possible successor to Lawrence Small, who abandoned the secretary-ship under a compensation cloud.
Rifkin told me unequivocably that he has zero interest in becoming the next secretary of the Smithsonian, because he is interested only in art and also because the job needs someone with more of an appetite and aptitude for politics.
As for the recent report on the Smithsonian’s art museums by a specially appointed advisory committee of major museum figures, Rifkin seemed sympathetic to the group’s criticism of the Smithsonian American Art Museum (particularly regarding the deficiencies of its contemporary art collection), even as he was dissenting from the group’s criticism of the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum.
About the Cooper-Hewitt, he had just told Robin Pogrebin of the NY Times:
I’m extremely bullish about their ability to pull themselves forward. They’ve certainly given us a clear indication that they’re determined and capable of reaching their goals.
As for SAAM’s spotty but improving contemporary art collection, I’ve already had my say here and here.
Just as Rifkin is “bullish” on the Cooper-Hewitt’s Paul Thompson, I’m still bullish on Broun’s ability to turn things around. She too has given a “clear indication,” with the recent appointment of two contemporary art curators, that she is ready to take on new initiatives at her renewed museum (which was closed more than six years for a Small-mandated top-to-bottom makeover).
I hope that, like Thompson, Broun gets the chance.