Derek Gillman, the Barnes Foundation’s executive director, at Philadelphia Arts Commission meeting this month
If you think I was angry about having my interview with Jeffrey Deitch cancelled, you should have heard the opponents of the Barnes Foundation’s planned move from Merion to Philly, when they learned from my blog that revised plans for the site were presented and favorably voted upon by the Philadelphia Arts Commission on Jan. 6.
Several e-mailed me to demand how I had gotten advance word and they objected to the lack of general notification, saying they would have attended the meeting, had they only known about it.
I received notification the old-fashioned way: I had been told after the previous meeting that it wasn’t the final one, and I asked the public agency to notify me when it came up again on the agenda.
But fret not, Merion and Philadelphia art-lings: CultureGrrl will take you there!
Below is a video that I shot at the beginning of the meeting, showing architect Tod Williams walking the commission through various changes that were made at the commissioners’ request. I think the Philadelphia Inquirer may need to view this video too, because it didn’t report on any of the changes made, other than the one that I had blogged about—the decrease in the size of the vehicular drop-off. (The newspaper misstated the street on which that drop-off is located. It’s on 20th Street, not 21st.)
To view my video showing the prototype of a fragment of the building, located on the active construction site, go here.