2015 was, for me, a high point of my CultureGrrl “career”—the only year when my dogged blogging was generously compensated, thanks to the munificent Art Writers Grant from Creative Capital | Warhol Foundation. This windfall temporarily suspended my internal debate over whether it was time to move on to more sensible activities, like increased mainstream-media work and more energetic grandmothering (which, if all goes well, will become more intense beginning in April).
Barring some miraculous benefaction, my internal debate about future professional directions will resume in the New Year. I expect that I will continue to post, but at reduced frequency.
With all my Best Wishes for an Art-Full New Year, here are CultureGrrl’s Top 20 Stories for 2015, in chronological order, with an emphasis on the controversies that we’ve been following:
—Bridging the Scholarly/Administrative Divide: My Q&A with Daniel Weiss, Metropolitan Museum’s Next President—Part I and Part II
—Extolling Viñoly: Q&A with Bill Griswold on Cleveland’s New Additions & How He’ll Pay for Them
—“One-Way Ticket’s” Missed Connection: Lawrence’s “Migration” Show at MoMA Bypasses a Crucial Stop
—Parsing Pasternak: What Were the Brooklyn Museum’s Trustees Thinking?
—Bubble Alert: Are Third-Party Guarantors Inflating the Art Market?
—Crank It Up: Thomas Heatherwick’s Contrarian Contrivances at the Cooper Hewitt (with video)
—Pay-to-Play: Cosbys Bankrolled Their Show at Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art
—The Smithsonian’s Cosby Debacle: Take Down that Exhibition, Dr. Skorton?
—Tawdry Cosby (Continued): Smithsonian Secretary Skorton Supports the Controversial Show’s Run
—MoMA’s “Picasso Sculpture” Blunder: Mr. Lowry, Put Up Those Labels!
—$600-Million Endowment?!? My Q&A with Salort-Pons, Detroit Institute’s New Director—Part I and Part II
—“Danae” Downpour: Metropolitan Museum & Yale University Shower Dealer Richard Feigen With Gold
—Taubman’s Revenge? Sotheby’s Gavel-Busting $515-Million Guarantee
—Sotheby’s Buyout Bombshell: Turning Towards the “Less-Tenured”
—Leaked Release: National Academy’s Feel-Good Statement on Carmine Branagan’s Departure
—Picasso at MoMA, Stella at Whitney: One Grand Retrospective Informs Another
—Canon Fodder: Will MoMA’s New Generation of Curators Intercept Barr’s Torpedo? (with video)
—Motley & Oller (Part I): Whitney & Brooklyn Museums Embrace Black & Latino Cultural Forebears (with video) and Part II
I’ll be off-blog for the rest of this week, but there are many hot topics still on my CultureGrrl to-do list. We’ll explore some of those in the New Year!