Little did I know when I was writting about the lack and/or poor quality of data-based information in the arts (here, here, and here) that The New York Times was about to provide
reinforcement. It came in the form of a Page One article in yesterday’s paper, which for most of the day and even now is the most-emailed story: “For Today’s Graduates, Just One Word: Statistics.” It doesn’t mention the arts or culture, but it does say this:

“We’re rapidly entering a world where everything can be monitored and measured,” said Erik Brynjolfsson, an economist and director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Center for Digital Business. “But the big problem is going to be the ability of humans to use, analyze and make sense of the data.”

The new breed of statisticians tackle that problem. They use powerful computers and sophisticated mathematical models to hunt for meaningful patterns and insights in vast troves of data.

Clearly, other sectors of the economy and the culture at large are moving far ahead on collecting and data-mining numbers. Yet my posts have been met with two reactions: 

• Maybe, but — arts groups don’t have the time or the money to do this, so forget about it.
• You’re right to call attention to this, but it’s never going to change, and no one takes the
  numbers seriously anyway.

True, some do laugh at the numbers — but the cultural world is laughed at when people read or hear these crazy numbers. If arts groups don’t start getting more numbers savvy, they’re going to be left further and further behind in a very sophisticated culture.  

A recent trip to the Guggenheim got me thinking about one organizing principle for exhibitions that’s seems to be going around — showing works acquired by, or during the term of, a museum’s director. The trend seems to stem both from happenstance and anniversary-marking. The Metropolitan Museum honored Philippe de Montebello on his retirement; the Philadelphia Museum of Art honored Anne d’Harnoncourt soon after her sudden, unexpected death. The Cleveland Museum of Art recently opened an exhibition honored its legendary former director, Sherman Lee, who died last year. And the Guggenheim, which just turned 50,
is showing The Sweeney Decade:Acquisitions at the 1959 Inaugural.

Sometimes, this idea clearly does not work — at the Guggenheim, for example. The Sweeney show simply doesn’t shine. James Johnson Sweeney, who headed the museum from 1952 to 1960, acquired many works by artists whose names are well-known today: Jackson Pollock (that’s his Ocean Greyness, 1953, at right), Willem de Kooning, Eduardo Chillida, Antoni Tapies, William Baziotes and Hans Hartung, among them. The press release suggests he bought works by artists “whose work emphasized the emotional aspect of abstraction.” That wasn’t apparent to me. The works are boring, the reviews have been mixed, and the Frank Lloyd Wright exhibition nearby seemed to me to be generating more interest.

But it’s not just the works that matter. I liked the way the de Montebello exhibition was organized — chronologically, according to the year they were acquired. That meant works of all styles were shown side-by-side, which is a great way to train your eye. But curators at the Met have told me that the public did not like the show.  

[Read more…] about Good Or Bad? The Trend Toward Director-Based Exhibits

Americans for the Arts, the advocacy group, has a lot on its plate, including, once a week, sending out an email of news items called ArtsWatch. Last week’s edition, which arrived on
Wednesday, July 29, has been nagging at me. The numbers in the articles just don’t make sense. I’ve written the press office asking for an explanation, but have received no reply. So I’m posting the three items here — perhaps I’m crazy, and the numbers are right; if so, please explain. If not, these are more examples of funny numbers in the arts that don’t exactly inspire confidence (not to mention some pretty lazy reporting and/or writing).

Under the heading, “The Arts In Recession”:

Iowa: Federal Stimulus Funds Save Over 300 Arts Jobs
Quad-City Times, 7/22/2009

Nearly $500,000 in federal stimulus money is being spread to 18 arts organizations in 10 cities, preserving a total of 323 jobs according to Gov. Chet Culver’s office.

AND, from the same article/item:

The National Endowment for the Arts also approved $150,000 in stimulus money for arts organizations in Amana, Cedar Rapids, Des Moines, and Dubuque. The governor’s office said the stimulus money preserved 34 full-time and 104 part-time jobs, as well as 185 contract positions.”

And, from:

Rhode Island: State Arts Council Receives Stimulus Money, Foundation Funds
The Providence Journal, 7/28/2009
“Governor Carcieri and members of the state congressional delegation has joined more than 100 members of the arts community to announce the arrival of nearly $300,000 in federal stimulus money for the arts. The Rhode Island Foundation contributed an additional $100,000 to the federal stimulus package, which allowed the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts to support a total of 18 organizations. The money will allow the recipients to restore or retain 77 positions in the arts, from free performances of Shakespeare in Westerly to after-school art teachers.

Do a little division, and those numbers yield salaries that are waaaay below the minimum wage, even leaving the part-time and contract jobs out of the calculation.

So, am I missing something?

It’s not Americans for the Arts’ job to correct newspaper reporting; but it doesn’t do much good to circulate silly numbers either.

You can read last week’s entire AFA newsletter here. And I’ve written about the need for better statistics and studies here.

More news items that require little or no comment — just a little underlining:

***The U.S. hosts the G-20 summit in Pittsburgh on Sept. 24-25, and the Obama Administration has chosen the occasion to make another statement about the arts.

Most prominently, Michelle Obama is taking her counterparts (read: spouses of the leaders) to the city’s CAPA 6-12, which is a magnet school in downtown Pittsburgh for the arts (left). CAPA stands for Creative and Performing Arts; it has more than 800 students who major in dance, music, literary arts, theater and visual arts. The visitors will see the school’s “state of the art” technology and a performance by students. Mrs. Obama will also host a luncheon at the Andy Warhol Museum and the First Couple will welcome leaders at the Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Garden.

*** Another day, another deaccessioning controversy,” writes Daniel Grant in the August Maine Antiques Digest. This one, which took place in 2007, was at the St. Augustine Historical Society, which sold off, unannounced and uncompetitively, 24 oil sketches by Martin Johnson Heade. It reaped $1 million. “Theodore Stebbins Jr., curator of American art at the Fogg Museum, Harvard University, and an authority on Martin Johnson Heade, this collection of 24 works represents “the only substantial group of Heade’s oil sketches in existence. Perhaps there may be a stray sketch around somewhere, but this is the main group.” (more) My thanks to Donn Zaretsky for noticing that one.

 

***Zaha Hadid’s much-delayed pavilion in Chicago’s Millenium Park, built as part of the celebration of the 100th anniversary of Daniel Burnham’s Chicago Plan, has finally opened — today. It was set to open in mid-June. The Wall Street Journal has written about the delay and the design (here) and so has the Chicago Tribune (most recently, here). If the reality matches the rendering, it looks as if it were worth waiting for.

***UPDATED: The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions is meeting this morning, and is set to approve has approved the confirmation of Jim Leach as chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities, without hearings. Given his GOP credentials and his endorsement of President Obama last August, this is all happening as expected. When the full Senate will vote to confirm, though, is unclear. Rocco Landeman’s nomination to head the NEA is not moving along as quickly.

 

 

Remember when the travel schedule of Tom Krens was enough to send speculation through the roof on the subject of the next Guggenheim branch? Krens has been sidelined on that score, but his favorite architect Frank O. Gehry has not. But it’s not the Guggenheim-Bilbao that’s the model these days;
now Disney Hall is IT.

So, let me say straight out, this is just a rumor. 

But in mid-July, Gehry was spotted in both Barquisameto and Caracas, Venezuela. His very presence, with Gustavo Dudamel, set tongues wagging about the possibility that Gehry will design a concert hall for the Orchestral and Training Center for Social Action Music West — according to local reports. (An intrepid friend, who happened to be in Venezuala, tipped me off to the sighting of Gehry.) The Inter-American Development Bank is said to be financing the hall, but there’s as yet no mention of it on the bank’s website.

There’s no official confirmation of Gehry’s involvement either, but apparently Dudamel, who has befriended Gehry, loves his new home in Los Angeles and has shown it off to influential Venezuelans, who agree. Above, Dudamel is taking Gehry to the site allocated for the center in Barquisameto, his hometown, along with Jose Antonio Abreau and Henry Falcon, the city’s mayor.

[Read more…] about Frank Gehry’s Venezuelan Visit Sparks Rumor of A New Job