—Jacqueline Trescott of the Washington Post reports on protests by eight of the 25 board members of the National Museum of the American Indian over the appointment of Kevin Gover to be the museum’s next director. Gover is a lawyer with no museum experience, but with an avowed “deep interest in and knowledge of Indian history and culture.” The dissidents argue that all the board members, not just three, should have been consulted prior to the appointment. The Smithsonian says that the selection of the director is the responsibility of its acting secretary, Cristián Samper, and that the main functions of the board are fundraising and counseling the director.
Here’s what the the Smithsonian’s own Guidelines for Advisory Boards (scroll to P. 7) say:
A board should be given an appropriate role in the selection and evaluation of the director. The Secretary has ultimate authority to select the director.
—Bijan Khezri, CEO and president of the Artist Pension Trust in London, uses economic analysis to predict in today’s Wall Street Journal that the contemporary art-market bubble won’t burst. Before joining APT a year ago, Khezri was immersed in equity capital markets, merchant banking and the acquisition of “distressed, dormant and high risk assets through the application of advanced geophysical technology.” Geophysical technology? That could be a useful tool in evaluating the Hirst skull!
—Christian Viveros-Fauné writes an admiring but unflinchingly candid profile in the Village Voice of Peter Schjeldahl, art critic for the New Yorker (and formerly for the Village Voice). Who says you need a college degree to be a great art critic?
—La Tribune de l’Art, the online French art journal that led the futile charge against the Louvre Abu Dhabi, had launched an English-language version. The Art Tribune will be not be merely an English translation of the original, but will also have distinct content.
CultureGrrl
Lee Rosenbaum's cultural commentary
an ArtsJournal blog