Archives for March 2009

Sunil Iyengar, the National Endowment for the Arts' director of research and analysis, responds to Artists' Jobs: Even Worse than NEA's New Report Suggests (and I respond to his response, below):I wanted to try to clarify our team's perspective on two important issues you raise:First, know that we would have welcomed a chance to run a comparison of fourth-quarter 2008 … [Read more...] about BlogBack: NEA’s Research Director on Artists’ Employment and Fellowships

You can read it online now. But do you really want to? The NY Times' special section on museums in tomorrow's (Thursday's) newspaper may be your thing if you're fascinated by institutions with a pop-culture focus (Motown, chocolate, Woodstock, mobsters), efforts to appeal to untraditional audiences (children and Alzheimer's sufferers) and, of course, strategies to cope with the … [Read more...] about Tomorrow’s NY Times “Museums” Section Today

Maxwell Anderson at the IMAMaxwell Anderson, director of the Indianapolis Museum of Art, responds to my call (in yesterday's post, Deaccession Heaven: Indianapolis Museum of Art Does It Right) for him to make the technology behind his state-of-the-art deaccession database "available to the entire field immediately...if not sooner":We are committed to the use of open … [Read more...] about BlogBack: Max Anderson on Indianapolis’ Deaccession Database

I just got this save-the-date invitation from Bernard Tschumi Architects, so I guess the much-delayed New Acropolis Museum in Athens really IS set to have its "public opening ceremonies" on June 20.Here's my CultureGrrl photo essay of the museum-in-(slow)progress, from my visit last March, at which time the announced opening date for the facility (which had been intended to be … [Read more...] about New Acropolis Museum, Finally!

NY State Assemblyman Richard BrodskyNY State Assemblymen Richard Brodsky and Matthew Titone are about to introduce legislation to regulate deaccessioning by museums in the state. Brodsky, a veteran assemblyman with a longstanding interest in oversight of museums and art auctions, told me that the bill will most likely be introduced tomorrow.Disposals by most museums in the … [Read more...] about Brodsky Bill: NY Assemblyman Targets Desperation Deaccessions UPDATED

Targeted for sale: Bernard Buffet, "Paimpol," 1968, Indianapolis Museum of ArtEstimated value: $50,000I can't believe I'm seeing this. Have I just died and gone to Deaccession Heaven?No, I haven't myself been deaccessioned (yet) and the Indianapolis Museum of Art's newly launched Searchable Database of Deaccessioned Artworks truly does exist in real cyberspace. It's everything … [Read more...] about Deaccession Heaven: Indianapolis Museum of Art Does It Right

I haven't heard why the video feed didn't work from last night's Rose Art Museum Symposium, which featured the opening salvo in the War of the Roses, but here's the next-best thing---television coverage of the proceedings by New England Cable Network. That's family spokesperson Meryl Rose, whom you see below: … [Read more...] about Video from Last Night’s Rose Rally/Symposium

I've linked to this "live" video feed several times and embedded it below, for good measure, only to discover that it's not working. Guess we all should have traveled to Waltham. We'll  have to check what happened by reading the subsequent news reports. Is anyone tweeting?If you haven't already seen it, here's the Rose Family Statement that was to have been presented at … [Read more...] about Watch the Rose Museum Symposium Live on CultureGrrl UPDATED and DOWNRATED

The Forebears: Bertha and Edward Rose, founders of the eponymous museumBelow in its entirety is the statement signed by 67 members of the family of Edward and Bertha Rose, founders of the endangered Rose Art Museum. These demands were to have been delivered, shortly before this posting, to Brandeis University's president, Jehuda Reinharz. A Rose Museum board member, Meryl Rose, … [Read more...] about War of the Roses: Family Decries “Plundering of the Rose Art Museum and Its Collection”

Robin PogrebinIn her National Academy update in Saturday's NY Times, Robin Pogrebin lost me at the first sentence:In December the National Academy unleashed a firestorm of controversy when it announced that it was selling two important Hudson River School paintings to pay its bills.Announced??? As anyone who has followed this controversy surely knows, the Academy never … [Read more...] about Correction Please: NY Times’ National Academy Story Riddled with Errors UPDATED

Michael Rush showing CBS-TV's Martha Teichner around the Rose Art Museum, aired yesterdayMichael Rush, embattled director of Brandeis University's beleaguered art museum, responds to yesterday's post, in which I criticized his "million-dollar babble" during his conversation with correspondent Martha Teichner on CBS-TV's Sunday Morning show:I respect your passion about sale of … [Read more...] about BlogBack: Michael Rush, Rose Art Museum’s Director, on His CBS-TV Soundbite

UPDATE: One gentle reader has affirmatively and generously answered the call of this post's headline. Thanks to my new benefactor, I'm up and blogging. And the rest of you...?I hate goading you, art-lings. But whenever I try to wake up and shake down my devoted readers, someone actually realizes that he does value what I do, and decides that it's high time to show support.Could … [Read more...] about It’s 12 a.m. Do you know where CultureGrrl’s “Donate” button is? UPDATED

Michael Rush taking CBS-TV's Martha Teichner on a tour of the Rose Art Museum (aired today)This just in from the kin of Edward and Bertha Rose, founders of Brandeis University's Rose Art Museum:More than 50 members of the Rose family have come together to condemn the actions of the current Brandeis administration in closing the Edward and Bertha C. Rose Art Museum and selling … [Read more...] about More Than 50 Rose Family Members Condemn Vitiation of Brandeis’ Rose Art Museum

The Met's satellite store at New York's JFK Airport, Terminal 8Last month, the Metropolitan Museum announced that it was closing 15 of its "under-performing satellite shops around the country" and had also "instituted a museum-wide hiring freeze." (Eight of the 15 stores had already closed.)The action seemed counterintuitive, because shops are supposed to help the bottom line. … [Read more...] about Shops Flop: Met’s Bottom Line Hurt by Unprofitable Retail Operations

As you can see from the prior post, I'm (very happily) back in the blogging business, after having endured Medical Wednesday and Thursday at the hospital. Putting my mother through a difficult test was tough, but had a happy ending: We had indications that she might have had a recurrence of something no one wants to recur, but, so far, this appears to have been a false alarm. … [Read more...] about In Case You Missed Me…