Archives for December 2008

It's official: The NY State Board of Regents' Cultural Education Committee this afternoon voted in favor of revised rules (described here), which would prohibit most museums and historical societies in the state from using deaccession proceeds to defray debts, operating expenses, and most capital expenses. The proposed revisions will go before the full board at its meeting … [Read more...] about NY State Regents Cultural Education Committee Votes for Stringent Deaccession Guidelines, UPDATED

Ford Bell, president of the American Association of MuseumsA forcefully worded letter sent Friday by Ford Bell, president of the American Association of Museums, to the NY State Board of Regents may well have been crucial in turning the tide against the Regents' now aborted proposal to allow museums and historical societies to sell collection objects to defray debts. (Christine … [Read more...] about AAM Lambasts Desperation Deaccessions: Text of Its Letter to NYS Board of Regents

"You helped focus everyone in the field on this," Dewey Blanton, head of media relations for the American Association of Museums, told me this morning about the decision of the NY State Board of Regent's Cultural Education Committee to withdraw its Emergency Amendment that would have allowed museums and historical societies to sell objects from their collections "for … [Read more...] about NYS Regents Reverse Course on Desperation Deaccessions

Renderings of the new Tyler School of ArtYou can hear me now, in a brief soundbite about the new Wolgin Prize in the Arts, to be awarded by Temple University's Tyler School of Art, which is moving next month to new digs (above) designed by Houston architect Carlos Jimenez:This is a prize with lots of money, but (as of today) no director, nominators or jurors. We are promised … [Read more...] about My WHYY Radio Podcast on the Richest Prize for Artists

Given the intense interest in this topic, I'm going to print in full the letter sent today by Carmine Branagan, director of the embattled National Academy, to museum directors who are members of the Association of Art Museum Directors, in which she asks AAMD to "rescind its public censure" and reconsider its deaccession rules. I should note that the views of the letter writer … [Read more...] about National Academy Counterattack: Text of Letter Sent Today to AAMD Members

This is an issue on which the AAMD, AAM and museums in New York State will surely want to take IMMEDIATE action, by e-mailing comments to David Palmquist, head of museum chartering for the NY State Board of Regents. (He will forward comments to the board):The NY State Board of Regents is primed to take action this Monday and Tuesday to approve an Emergency Amendment Relating to … [Read more...] about NYS Regents to Vote on Measure Permitting Desperation Deaccessions UPDATED

Jack WolginI got a heads-up yesterday from Temple University's Tyler School of Art about today's annnouncement of the astonishing new Jack Wolgin International Competition in the Fine Arts, which will award a whopping $150,000 annual prize to "a professional artist of international stature." The winner's work is to be shown at the art school's new facility on Temple's main … [Read more...] about My Commentary on Richest Artist’s Prize Ever, This Morning on Philadelphia Public Radio

Better late than never, the Wall Street Journal's esteemed architecture critic, Ada Louise Huxtable (above), administers a good spanking to the NY Times' Nicolai Ouroussoff, in her much-awaited review today of architect Brad Cloepfil's reclad and reconfigured Museum of Arts and Design.As you may remember, Ouroussoff in September consigned Cloepfil's just completed MAD to his … [Read more...] about Lollipops Revisited: Ada Louise Huxtable on the New Museum of Arts and Design

Carmine Branagan, named director of National Academy, New YorkThe National Academy story is playing out in a confrontational manner that I never would have predicted.I had anticipated that the Association of Art Museum Directors under its new activist president, Michael Conforti, might kick the Academy out of the fold for flouting its professional standards. The inviolable rule … [Read more...] about National Academy Counters Punitive AAMD Action, Appoints Permanent Director

First page of Peru's complaint against Yale, filed Friday in U.S. District Court (click to enlarge)Remember when Yale and Peru had supposedly reached an accord, more than a year ago, over artifacts excavated in the early 1900s by Yale scholar Hiram Bingham III? That was then. Now Peru is suing.Paul Needham of the Yale Daily News today reports:The Republic of Peru has quietly … [Read more...] about Peru Sues Yale Over Machu Picchu Artifacts, in U.S. District Court

David Dearinger, above, chief curator of the National Academy Museum from 1996 to 2004, general editor of its collection catalogue for paintings and sculpture created between 1826 and 1925, and now curator of paintings and sculpture at the Boston Athenaeum, responds to Stealth Deaccessions: National Academy Sells Major Works by Church and Gifford: The sale by the National … [Read more...] about BlogBack: National Academy Former Chief Curator on the Importance of the Sold Church and Gifford

Crystal Bridges construction site as of October 2008This just in from Sandy Edwards, associate director of the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR. Edwards was responding by e-mail to my repeated queries about whether Alice Walton's planned museum was the place where the works sold by the National Academy would eventually be publicly displayed (as per … [Read more...] about National Academy Sales Update: Crystal Bridges Declines to Say Whether It Bought the Church and Gifford

The Eli and Edythe L. Broad Lobby of LA MOCA, Grand AvenueThe question of what to do about the MOCA mess is addressed in dueling articles by Tim Rutten in Saturday's LA Times and by Roberta Smith in today's NY Times. Rutten wants director Jeremy Strick's head and recommends throwing out the entire governing board along with him. He wants the city's mayor and city council … [Read more...] about MOCA Poker: How the LA Museum Should Play Its Cards

Francis Guy, "Winter Scene in Brooklyn," 1818-20, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art Francis Guy, "Winter Scene in Brooklyn, ca. 1819-20, Brooklyn MuseumAlice Walton's planned Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art has just announced another acquisition---Francis Guy's "Winter Scene in Brooklyn." This one will grace its holiday greeting card.It is one several paintings by … [Read more...] about Crystal Bridges Holiday Greetings: Francis Guy’s Brooklyn from Alice Walton’s Arkansas

Dara Mitchell, Sotheby's executive vice president and head of its American paintings deparment, which brokered the secret sales of the National Academy's Church and Gifford paintings to a private foundation, responds to Stealth Deaccessions: National Academy Sells Major Works by Church and Gifford: While Church's "Scene on the Magdalene" is an important and rare painting I am … [Read more...] about BlogBack: Sotheby’s Head of American Paintings on the National Academy Sales