"If the postmodernism of the 1980s considered the museum to be in crisis and contemplated its “ruins,” today many see these same institutions as frustratingly intact, as bulwarks against change, citadels to be stormed. (Even ten years ago, the Left’s critique of museums was simply that they had transformed from civic sites to experiential fun houses. “The late-capitalist museum”...
Archaeologists "were hopeful of unearthing something of interest because the area has been occupied for more than 3,000 years. But nothing prepared them for the excitement of discovering an extended iron age settlement, with the remains of more than a dozen roundhouses dating from 400BC to 100BC – as well as an enormous Roman villa built in the late third to...
Not for nothing - for a new museum of contemporary art. But ... really? "'We invited the Department of Cultural Affairs,' Carrie Wood, a member of a campaign to save the mural called Keep Santa Fe Multicultural, said of the planned peaceful gathering that took place last weekend, 'but they didn’t respond to our email, or even take the time...
Or they might, soon. London needs "infrastructure week," but for real, and for much longer than a week. Take Hammersmith. "It’s obvious whom to blame: politicians are guilty to varying degrees of buck-passing, posturing, point-scoring, broken promises and inaction. The problem is that they are in different parties and different authorities." The results are disastrous. - The Guardian (UK)
Artists need studios, and usually studios with light ... and churches often have that. "Places of worship are typically built to outlast their parishioners. The steepled Protestant churches in upstate New York are often the oldest buildings in their towns — repositories of local memory, even as their congregations have dwindled." - The New York Times
In 2016, when the Seine flooded its banks, museum workers toiled 24 hours a day to haul thousands of artworks out of underground storage for their protection. Cut to now: "For more than 16 months, a stream of trucks has quietly hauled treasures from the museum’s central Paris basement, and other sites, to the Louvre Conservation Center, a fortress...
The problem isn't earned income lost to tourism (that is, no tourism). The problem is the trustees. "Met trustees established a special fund to deal with the pandemic crisis. So far, according to the museum’s spokesperson, the board has raised 'just north of $25 million.' That is, in a word, pathetic. Since the pandemic began, America’s billionaire class has...
Each lockdown has meant something different for the staff, especially of science and natural history museums. For instance, James Maclaine, senior fish curator at London's Natural History Museum, has to keep the flesh-eating beetles alive and make sure the freezers are running. "We have a lot of material in freezers which we haven't been able to process yet and...
The explanation of the current CEO and director of the Indianapolis Museum didn't, perhaps, help. Charles L. Venable said that "the decision to use 'white' had been intentional, and explained that it had been intended to indicate that the museum would not abandon its existing audience as part of its efforts toward greater diversity, equity and inclusion." -...
Women Artists for Revolution (W.A.R., of course) weren't shy about their rallying cry in 1969. "The group ignited a robust movement against gender discrimination within, and widespread exclusion from, New York City’s patriarchal art industry, particularly by galleries and museums who saw art made by women as inherently illegitimate and therefore ineligible for serious consideration." - Hyperallergic
Not that left-wing art-lovers can't sympathize (and a socialist mayor in another town is planning to defy the national orders as well), but ... well, honestly? This is another seemingly bizarre restriction. A member of the Louvre's board: "Right now, you can go and buy lingerie! ... But how come museums — something that is paramount for social cohesion,...
Dear Gavin Newsom, this makes no sense at all. Signed, a lot of LACMA and other art-lovers in California. Weirdly: "LACMA can open its Resnick Pavilion gift shop but not the galleries within the same Resnick Pavilion — even though the two share a front door and a ventilation system. The same goes at the Huntington Library, Art Museum...
Its diameter of 110m is identical to the ditch that encloses Stonehenge, and it is aligned on the midsummer solstice sunrise, just like the Wiltshire monument. A series of buried stone holes that follow the circle’s outline has been unearthed, with shapes that can be linked to Stonehenge’s bluestone pillars. One of them bears an imprint in its base that...
The site, which the City of Federal Way annexed in 1994, has been lauded over the years for the pioneering way it intertwines building and landscape. Today, it is caught up in controversy over plans to build massive warehouses that opponents say would disrupt the balance with nature but that the property’s new owner says are necessary to pay...
"Researchers discovered the breakfast area within the ruins , and it reveals how the emperor and his wife began each day with an impressive display of power. They believe the emperor would have sat on a raised marble platform, flanked by fountains. … Both Hadrian and his wife were positioned as if on thrones, with retractable bridges further setting...
