Archives for August 2009

The Getaway CarToday I'm nursing sore feet and basking in the afterglow of my son's and daughter-in-law's(!) wonderful wedding, for which the sun miraculously appeared (vanquishing the threat of Tropical Storm Danny), just as our guests were arriving.Also miraculous was the ability of a hair dryer to vanquish the dark stains from an entire glass of vodka and orange juice, … [Read more...] about Post-Wedding Haze (and classified information) UPDATED

Update on my son's wedding, this Saturday evening on Long Island: NO-O-O-O-O!!! … [Read more...] about Family Wedding, Long Island-Style (hurricane edition)

Blogging will hereby be suspended, as we excitedly approach Wedding Weekend---our son Paul's marriage to the fabulous Lisa. The only writing I'll do over the next few days will be (mercifully brief) remarks for the rehearsal dinner and the Main Event. The only website I'll be anxiously scanning is this one. ("Thunderstorms LIKELY"?!?)Saturday, you'll find me at the chuppah, not … [Read more...] about Panoply Under the Canopy (Mother of the Groom edition)

Send me a micro-donation of either $1.50 (for the day) or $15 (for now through September), via my "Buy Now" button, below, and I'll shoot you these links: Georgia O'Keeffe Museum's new director; arts under Obama---"tool of the state"; upcoming arts-related conference call with White House and NEA; Rocco Landesman's second interview as NEA chair; Jerry Saltz's NYC wanna-sees; … [Read more...] about Lee’s List: What CultureGrrl is Reading Today

Knox Martin, "Venus," 1970 Back in the 1970s, an organization called City Walls, precursor of today's Public Art Fund (both of which were founded by the late Doris Freedman), sponsored the creation of site-specific public artworks to enliven New York's streetscape. One of those was Knox Martin's 12-story-high mural, "Venus," above. That hard-edge abstraction has always had a … [Read more...] about Knox Nixes Nouvel: Octogenarian Muralist’s Stealth Protest

Janet Landay, executive director of the Association of Art Museum Directors, responds to AAMD Examines the Value of Art Museums to Society (What About the Art?):All of us at AAMD [Association of Art Museum Directors] agree with your assertion that the focus of art museums is and should be on art. AAMD, however, is a membership association of art museums. One of our roles is to … [Read more...] about BlogBack: Janet Landay on Art Museums’ “Community Impact Reports”

Send me a micro-donation of either $1.50 (for the day) or $15 (for now through September), via my "Buy Now" button, below, and I'll shoot you these links: company facilitates micro-donations for bloggers; aborigines successfully protest Sotheby's sale; deaccession plans jeopardize government funding for a British institution; big sale of Sotheby's stock by auction firm's CEO … [Read more...] about Lee’s List: What CultureGrrl is Reading Today

Jade disc (bi), Eastern Zhou Western Han Dynasty, 3rd-2nd Century B.C., Metropolitan MuseumWhile I was looking for updates on the website of the Association of Art Museum Directors, I surfed over to what has, for many months, been a one-object Object Registry of "archaeological material and ancient art [recently acquired by AAMD member institutions and] lacking complete … [Read more...] about AAMD’s Objects Registry: Metropolitan Museum Adds Three Sculptures with Incomplete Provenance

Janet Landay, executive director of AAMDEven more besides-the-point than defending the worth of art museums on the basis of economic-impact arguments (how much financial activity they generate in their communities) is defending them as social service agencies. But that seems to be the thrust of a new initiative just announced by the Association of Art Museum Directors.In his … [Read more...] about AAMD Examines the Value of Art Museums to Society (What About the Art?)

NY State Assemblyman Richard Brodsky The recently released proposed final regulations governing deaccessions by museums and historical societies chartered by the NY State Board of Regents are a big step in the right direction. But they don't go far enough. What's missing is a key provision of the bill introduced in the State Legislature (and later revised) by Assemblyman … [Read more...] about Deaccession Database: What’s Missing from the Proposed NY State Regulations

James Dawson, chair of the NY State Board of Regents' Cultural Education Committee, which oversees museumsGet ready to draft your comments, deaccessionistas!The NY State Board of Regents has just come out with its Proposed Permanent Amendment that would govern deaccession practices of museums and historical societies chartered by the Board. (Institutions chartered before 1890 … [Read more...] about Deaccession Obsession: NY State Board of Regents Issues Proposed Final Regulations

UIMA@IMU: University of Iowa Museum of Art's temporary, renovated new digsIn the continuing saga of the University of Iowa Museum's recovery from the devastating June 2008 flood, its new "visual classroom" elsewhere on campus, displaying more than 500 works (including about 250 works on paper), will open for student previews this Saturday. On Sept. 8, it will begin its schedule … [Read more...] about Iowa University Museum’s Flood Recovery: New Art Space Opens

Michael Govan talks lobster at last year's opening of LACMA's Broad Contemporary Art Museum The short answer to the question in the above headline? Yes. The LA Times has been casting a harsh spotlight on the compensation of Michael Govan, director of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, who reportedly is receiving nearly $1 million this year in salary, deferred … [Read more...] about Is Michael Govan Worth a Million Bucks?

Are you ready for this new experiment in my quest for micro-donations?Several of you have told me that paying $1.50 for one day's worth of CultureGrrl Links is too cumbersome. You can, of course, streamline matters by creating your own PayPal account (at PayPal.com), so the payment process becomes more efficient, rather than a form-filling nuisance.But here's another option: … [Read more...] about Lee’s List: What CultureGrrl is Reading Today (and a new pricing plan)

Don BacigalupiRepeat after me: "BAA-chee-ga-loop-ee."That's the new director of the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Don Bacigalupi, who held a press conference yesterday in Bentonville, AR, primarily for local and regional publications. Afterwards, he initiated some one-on-one phone chats with other journalists, including CultureGrrl.A three-time art museum director … [Read more...] about Bacigalupi Goes Bentonville; Crystal Bridges Goes Glocal