Bloomberg published an article the other day about the pay afforded by some large museums, and although the reporter, Philip Boroff, was measured, the story obviously raises questions about whether such pay is appropriate. As it happens, Charity Navigator just released its own pay survey for non-profits, including arts groups, that put the Bloomberg piece in context.

To review, according to Bloomberg, Glenn Lowry, director of the Museum of Modern Art* (left, in 2005), took home the biggest pay-and-benefits packet last year: $1.32 million — “down from $1.95 million the year before, as the museum cut costs amid the recession.”

Elsewhere:

• Philippe de Montebello was paid $818,935, up 7 percent, in his last year running the Metropolitan Museum.*
• James Wood pocketed $1.1. million as CEO the J. Paul Getty Trust in the year through June 30, 2008.
• James Cuno received $626,175, as president of the Art Institute of Chicago.
• Malcolm Rogers was paid $719,621 to run the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.*

How does that stack up against other non-profits and other arts non-profits? 

[Read more…] about Are Museum Directors Paid Too Much? UPDATED

What can one say about an exhibit — Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures From the National
Museum, Kabul — that has been on tour in the U.S. since May, 2008, and on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art*, its last stop, since June 23? Newspapers, magazines and other AJ bloggers have written about this show, too, including Chloe Veltman in Lies Like Truth (here), who described the poignancy:

To stare at the soberly-lit glass cases filled with such objects as a glowing pair of gold shoe soles found in the tomb of a nomadic princess or the smooth clay head of a temple sculpture from the Greek-influenced royal city of Ai Khanum, is to begin to grasp the deep heritage of a country that seems, owing to its near-constant presence in current new headlines, to have no past — just a destructive present.

But I just got there over the weekend, and I am moved to say something about this not-to-be-missed show. Every one of the 200-plus items is stunning. One of my favorites pieces is the ceremonial plaque of Cybele, Greek goddess of nature, riding in a chariot driven by Nike, above.

The only thing I question about the Met’s version is the gallery filled with the “Bactrian hoard” jewelry. Along the upper walls are sweeping photos of the desert, which is ok — though it feels more like a natural history museum than an art museum. The vitrines, however, are set among swirling maze-like partitions that separate them, each section representing a tomb where the objects on display were discovered. The partitions, to me, interrupted the flow, and I almost missed an entire section, which would have been a shame.

[Read more…] about Hidden Treasures From Kabul Is A Real Treasure

You know that line about the Federal Reserve Chairman — that it’s his duty to come along and take away the punchbowl just as the (economic) party is revving up? That’s how I feel right
now.

Much of the arts community is euphoric about what Rocco Landesman told The New York Times the other day (link): It was straight talk; he said many things that needed saying; with a few remarks, he extracted the cultural world from the defensive crouch arts organizations always seem to be in. Artists do need to be considered in economic policy matters, though Landesman shouldn’t ignore the fact that investing in arts generally doesn’t have as large an economic multiplier effect as
investing in manufacturing (until and unless studies prove otherwise, but I won’t get started on that. Just see here).   

Yet as much as I agree with most of what he said, Landesman took a very big risk with that interview. Washington, as I wrote over the weekend in a commentary for Forbes, demands respect and often chews up people who don’t play by its rules. His remark about Peoria, even if true, will come back to haunt him surer than the “wise Latina” remark messed up Sonia Sotomayor. It’s going to make budget requests and hearings much more difficult.  

So while Landesman is right to try to alter the national debate about the arts, I hope his cocky first interview doesn’t hurt the cause, rather than help it.

 

Friday’s marvelous You’ve Cott Mail tipped me off to a very provocative conversation about
experimentation in theater that’s going on simultaneously on two websites. The debate could easily apply to all of the arts disciplines.

It all began last Monday when the Lark Play Development Center* blog invited playwright Theresa Rebeck to write a post called “Can Craft and Creativity Live on the Same Stage?” The headline doesn’t really do her commentary justice, however.

Here is what David Cote, writing on Time Out New York’s Upstaged blog, called “the money quote” from Rebeck’s essay:

This is my worry, honestly: In the current environment, when young writers are being encouraged to stay away from anything “conventional” are we perhaps falling in love with a kind of playwriting that frankly just doesn’t work? Are we judging too harshly plays that do work? And how does the audience fit into this discussion? Does it?

To which I would add two questions Rebeck asks a little later in the essay

Do we think that theater is art only if people don’t understand it?
Can art be serious and popular at the same time?

Cote then revved up the intensity:

I would rephrase this as: Playwrights who don’t learn the fundamentals of story and structure default to experimentation. Or: Those who can’t do, experiment.

Thoughtful and remarkably civilized discussion is taking place on both websites — take a look.

Cote, smartly, also took the conversation into the visual arts realm, remarking:

[Read more…] about Does It Have to Be Experimental to Be Art?

We have chairmen! The Senate today confirmed the nominations of both Rocco Landesman (right) to
be chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts and Jim Leach to be chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Apologies for reporting earlier this week (here) that the NEH confirmation was moving along faster than the NEA. My only excuse is that’s what sources told me. So they were wrong and so was I.

The NEA posted this press release earlier today (link) and posted his bio, too (here). (I’m a little late catching up because I’ve been downtown in criminal court on jury duty — which is a pretty good excuse.)

I do not see the news on the NEH website yet, but the press office there did send me an email announcing Leach’s confirmation.

Both still need to be sworn in, but that is expected to happen within a few days.