Archives for August 2012

"We Believe in America"...but not in the artsMaybe Kevin Gover (whose name, after all, forms the first half of "Gover-nment') has gotten the Republican Party's ear. (As you may remember, his director's office at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington overlooks the Capitol.)My recent text search on the Republican Party Platform came up with no mention of "art" … [Read more...] about Powwow Power: Republican Party Platform Is Art-less (except for Native American culture)

I know this person and have always liked him: I couldn't have hoped for a nicer guy (scroll to bottom, although he's changed museums since my 2007 blog post) or a better curator to be my 5,000th follower on Twitter. Thanks, Jim! … [Read more...] about Meet My 5,000th Twitter Follower (Couldn’t have been a nicer guy!)

[UPDATE: Meet my fabulous 5,000th---a veteran museum curator, as it happens---here!]At this writing, I stand at 4,999...If you're not following me on Twitter, you're missing an important supplement to CultureGrrl coverage. At some point, I expanded from merely providing links to my blog posts to providing outside links and quick commentary on news tidbits that I have no time to … [Read more...] about Twitter Blitz: Who Wants to Be My 5,000th Follower?

Still Standing: Kenneth Snelson, "Virlane Tower," 1981, in the New Orleans Museum of Art's Besthoff Sculpture Garden News reports from the South indicate that Hurricane Isaac has spared two art museums in its path that were both devastated seven years ago by Hurricane Katrina.Doug MacCash of the New Orleans Times-Picayune reports:The New Orleans Museum of Art...was … [Read more...] about Hurricane Watch: Isaac Spares New Orleans Museum, Ohr-O’Keefe Museum

You can't change your organization's name on its homepage and expect people not to notice. If you surf over right now to the URL of the website that was formerly the homepage of the American Association of Museums, you will see this: Well, at least the AAM acronym still works. The color scheme and logo are markedly different (old logo on left, new colorful but inscrutable logo … [Read more...] about Stealth Name (and logo) Change: AAM Tiger Alters Its Stripes

Athena Tacha, "Green Acres," 1985-87The 11th-hour announcement today that sculptor Athena Tacha's "Green Acres" in Trenton, NJ, has been saved from the imminent blow of the wrecker's ball struck a welcome blow, instead, for artists' rights. But it also triggered traumatic flashbacks to a less happily resolved conflict between public art and public taste.As Ken Johnson … [Read more...] about Trenchant in Trenton: Athena Tacha’s “Green Acres” Rescued from Planned Destruction

Roy Slade, former director of the Corcoran Gallery of ArtRoy Slade, director of the Corcoran Gallery from 1972-77 and director emeritus of the Cranbrook Art Museum, responds to Corcoran Uproar: Anti-Move Protest, CEO Job Description, Next Community Meeting:The responsibility for the Corcoran's current difficulties lies with the trustees who have tried to run it without a … [Read more...] about BlogBack: Roy Slade, Former Corcoran Gallery Director, Suggests an Action Plan

The Bronx Museum of the Arts is going international (organizing the Sarah Sze exhibition for the U.S. Pavilion at the 2013 Venice Biennale) but it hasn't forgotten the needs of the economically struggling population in its South Bronx neighborhood. If you're looking for ideas to attract new, under-served local audiences, I can think of nothing better than this free-admission … [Read more...] about Bronx Museum’s Street Smarts: “If you give them free school supplies, they will come.”

All photos by Lee RosenbaumUntil my Wall Street Journal articles are actually published, I never know what their related images or headlines are going to be. I was greatly pleased when I opened today's paper to inspect my Three Prior Engagements review of the Fenimore Art Museum's William Matthew Prior retrospective. The line-up of portraits (left to right) that were chosen by … [Read more...] about My WSJ “William Matthew Prior” Piece: An Illustrated Companion

Paul D'Ambrosio, president and CEO of the Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, NY, in front of William Matthew Prior's self-portrait as a 19-year-old, at the entrance to the artist's retrospective[More on the "Prior" show, here.]William Matthew Prior, a prolific 19th-century New England folk artist, is hard to pin down. He painted portraits in three distinct styles and sold them … [Read more...] about Cooperstown Coup: My WSJ Piece on the Fenimore Museum’s “William Matthew Prior”

"Not for Sale": Logo of the Save the Corcoran CoalitionThe ad hoc Save the Corcoran Coalition recently sent a letter to the CEO of the Washington, DC, museum and art school, Fred Bollerer, its board chairman, Harry Hopper, and its board of trustees, calling upon them to "demonstrate a greater commitment to maintaining the gallery's home in Washington, DC."They suggested an … [Read more...] about Corcoran Uproar: Anti-Move Protest, CEO Job Description, Next Community Meeting

Go-to attorney for cultural capital projects: the late Samuel ("Sandy") Lindenbaum You are planning a major cultural-facility expansion project, which will require zoning variances, may rile NIMBY activists and will need an expert skipper to navigate through the perilous shoals of the New York City government approval process. Who you gonna call? For decades, there was one … [Read more...] about Attorney Sandy Lindenbaum, 77, Dean of NYC Cultural Real Estate Development

In yesterday's BlogBack, former Crystal Bridges curator Chris Crosman laid out his arguments in favor of Fisk University's $30-million sale of a half-share in its Stieglitz Collection to Alice Walton's Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. The bulk of the proceeds---some $22.5 million---is to be used to beef up the financially shaky university's endowment. Professional … [Read more...] about Reading the Fine Print: What’s Wrong with the Fisk/Crystal Bridges Agreement? CORRECTED

 Chris Crosman, former curator at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, ARPhoto by Lee Rosenbaum[Much more on the details of the final Fisk/Crystal Bridges deal, here.]Chris Crosman, founding curator of Alice Walton's Crystal Bridges Museum (who left his post on Dec. 31, after working there for six years), responds to News Flash: Court Order to Send Fisk's … [Read more...] about BlogBack: Chris Crosman Praises Fisk/Crystal Bridges Deal, Blasts AAMD’s “Myopic” Policy

Left to right: Bill Ruprecht, president and CEO of Sotheby's; Steven Murphy, CEO of Christie'sIt was more than a little astonishing to see the Washington Post trumpeting the current "boom" at the "major auction houses" in an Aug.10 art-market report---Is Collecting Art the New Gold?Three days before the publication of that bullish article by freelancer Kevin Nance, Sotheby's … [Read more...] about Sotheby’s Net Income Plummets 42%; Washington Post’s Art-Market “Boom” Is a Bust