“Come And Join Our Community of Culture Shoppers.” That’s one of the taglines employed by the new British site, CultureLabel.com, now in beta, which is self-described this way:

Hello! CultureLabel.com is the first online platform to curate and showcase the best artist-designed and limited-edition products from over 60 leading galleries, museums, artists and culture institutions.

Though most brands on the site are British, it has invited cultural institutions from around the world, and it looks as if the Museum of Modern Art has signed up, but isn’t present yet. You can read more about CultureLabel in The Art Newspaper, which recently posted an article on its website about it, and the Wall Street Journal, which published an article several days ago.

Sounds like a good idea to me, especially for small museums, but I decided to put Five Questions to an expert on museum merchandising, Rena Zurofsky, who — as you can see on her website — has advised clients like Lincoln Center and the Philbrook Museum.

1) How important are store sales to American museums, and how are sales doing during this recession?

 

Museum stores have become expected amenities. They support educational missions by selling catalogues and books and…they are considered tools for extending the “brand.” … Whether they actually enhance income or not depends on quite a few factors, not least of which is the level of traffic to the institution itself.  Also important will be the popularity or notoriety of a given exhibition. Web sales will enhance the bottom line, but again, generally only if on-line shoppers know to look for that institution. Many shops probably operate at break-even rather than significant revenue-enhancement.

[Read more…] about What’s So Great About CultureLabel? Five Questions

1962: Lincoln Center, New York.

2003: Disney Hall, Los Angeles.

2009: AT&T Performing Arts Center, Dallas.

What a progression, from a president to an entertainment executive to a phone company.

Yesterday, the country’s newest and self-described “most significant” new performing arts complex to be built since Lincoln Center, nee the Dallas Performing Arts Center, announced that it would henceforth bear the name of AT&T. It will open on schedule on October 12, and the website URL has already been changed to www.attpac.org.

The “naming sponsorship” with AT&T does not involve a gift to the capital campaign for the $354 million complex, which is still short more than $30 million, according to The Dallas Morning News. The city contributed just $18 million to the huge project, though, and the PAC has done well to raise what it has. AT&T is contributing operating funds for the complex.

This is a tough fundraising climate, and it’s understandable that the Dallas center would take the money it needs wherever it can get it, even if it means a corporate name. (I regret it, but I understand it.) What I do not understand is why the center will not say how much money is involved, according to the News. And neither will the company. 

[Read more…] about Dallas Performing Arts Center Goes Corporate: Let’s Hear The Details

The New York Times has just named a new culture editor, and it’s Jon Landman. It’s a great choice. Jon, currently a deputy managing editor, has spent the last four years or so
overseeing the the integration of the print and Internet newsrooms at the Times. But before that he spent a “transitional year” — as Executive Editor Bill Keller wrote in his email to staff — “presiding over the [Culture] department, implementing a sweeping overhaul of the department and grooming new leadership” for it, namely Sam Sifton, whom he now replaces.

Jon has done plenty of other things at the Times, including run the Week In Review and Metro sections. If memory serves, he also worked in the Washington bureau and has worked at the Daily News, Newsday and the Chicago Sun-Times. He went to Amherst and the Columbia School of Journalism.

He answered readers’ questions in the “talk to the newsroom” web feature in 2006 here and his Wikipedia entry is here.

What gets measured gets done: it’s an old management maxim, and it’s often the, or at least a, reason that businesses go wrong. If you pay CEOs by how many people they manage —
as the U.S. once did — they will bloat their staffs. If you pay them by the price of their company’s stock, they will take measures that drive up that price now, often at the expense of the company’s longterm prospects.

The pay of museum directors and curators isn’t related to attendance figures — I don’t think. But they, trustees, funders and the media pay a lot of attention to foot traffic, myself included. The “gate” doesn’t generally contribute all that much to a museum’s earned income, but we all still use attendance as a measure of success.

And it should be, partly.

But a visit to the Morgan Library & Museum* on Sunday afternoon got me thinking about other measures of success. I had heard, incorrectly it turned out, that the Morgan’s attendance this year was down by a show-stopping 38%. So I was paying close attention when I went through three shows.

Pages of Gold: Medieval Illuminations From the Morgan was packed, possibly because it was the last day. But something else was going on: people were really, really looking hard at these beautiful manuscripts (that’s Scenes From the Life of David, from the Winchester Bible, above). The average time people now spend before museum pictures is said to be 3 seconds, down from 7 seconds about a decade ago. Not here.

[Read more…] about Extra Credit For The Morgan Library

G. Wayne Clough, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution since July 2008, has given another interview, this time to the Associated Press. And for at least the third time, he hasn’t said much about art at the Smithsonian. In fact, the 19 museums he oversees are barely mentioned in the articles, and when one is it’s often the Air & Space Museum or the National Museum of American History.

This is starting to be worrisome.

In the latest interview, Clough puts a little meat on themes he has mentioned in the past. For example, he says he has secured a $1.3 million gift that will allow him to hire a Smithsonian-wide education director, with a particular focus on K-12 curriculums. He’s working to forge a research collaboration deal with the University of Maryland and has done a deal with George Mason University to pair students with researchers at the National Zoo. Climate change, education and immigration remain his priority issues.

Clough also repeated a theme he has made in speeches — that he wants to use technology to share the Smithsonian’s 137 million artifacts and specimens with the public. Well, at least that references the art museums. In July, he told the National Press Club that he would soon hire “a new media person who will capture the creativity going on across the Institution” for posting on YouTube.  

Clough seems to be operating with a policy of benign neglect toward the art museums; he is, after all, a science-engineering guy. For that to work, the museums need strong leadership — and perhaps aggressive leadership. Clough has embarked on a $1 billion capital campaign, and the art museums need some of that money, too. If Clough’s head is elsewhere, what happens to the art?

Here’s a link to the AP article, and, if you want to refresh your memory, to the New York Times and Washington Post articles from a year ago.

The Smithsonian’s Board of Regents holds its annual public meeting on Sept. 21 — details are here. It’s seeking questions and comments — send to comments@si.edu. It’s time to pin Clough down on art, and if reporters aren’t doing it, others may have to.

Photo: Courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution