Tag: 04.23.03

“Museums love blockbusters and, judging by the lines, so does the public. But the lines themselves signify the difficulty museums have solving the blockbuster math: let too few people in and the show becomes impossible for everyone to see; let too many people in and the art becomes impossible to see. To some extent, museum officials regard gallery traffic as a problem to be coped with, not cured.”

The democratization of the American art museum has in some ways increased the visual insecurity of viewers. You’re standing there judging the work, but instead it feels like the work is judging you. If you’re stumped, you are less likely to blame the artist than yourself. You may even assume you are an indolent person who has failed to make the requisite intellectual effort, which in turn can unleash a chain of negative thoughts about straying from your diet, neglecting to send a sympathy card and other unforgivable failures of will.”

Two weeks after Iraq’s National Museum was looted, some observers are wondering where all the art ended up. “Despite scattered rumors of artifacts turning up from Tehran to Paris, not a single one of the 90,000 or 120,000 or 170,000 plundered artifacts – no one knows for sure how many – is known to have been offered for sale anywhere in the world. And investigators and legitimate art dealers think they know why.”

Bosnia’s National Museum was at the center of heavy fighting during the civil war. “The National Museum, a quadrangle of four Italian Renaissance buildings surrounding a quiet botanical garden, is wedged between what was the war’s front line and the broad avenue that became a target for snipers. But the staff that stayed on during the war stood guard at night. They hauled exhibitions to the basements and bulwarked bigger pieces with planks and sandbags. Ultimately, the museum was among the few cultural institutions in Bosnia to survive relatively intact. Now, more than seven years after the war’s end, the museum is struggling to reclaim its position as a showcase of Bosnia’s history.”

Two years ago the Taliban in Afghanistan destroyed the ancient Bamiyan Buddhas. So what’s become of the site? “Earlier this year, the United Nations’ cultural arm, Unesco, persuaded the Afghan government to reject proposals to install replicas of the ancient Buddhas in the towering cliff niches in which they used to stand.” But repairs to the niches – “which have begun to crumble as rain has seeped into cracks left by the explosions” – have been slow to get underway. “Unesco officials said that that project would get under way when security conditions improve, using $1.8 million given by Japan and special scaffolding from the Messerschmitt Foundation of Germany.”

The Toledo Museum in Ohio, is cutting $1.3 million from its budget, and reducing staff by 14. “Our income from our endowments is down and annual giving, both corporate and individual, is down. Grants are harder to get, and our Ohio Arts Council grant – usually about $200,000 – has been cut twice since it was announced a few months ago.”

While big museums such as the Guggenheim, Whitney and Los Angeles County Museum have cancelled or postponed plans for big expansions, Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts and Institute of Contemporary Art are going ahead with their plans. “The MFA is looking to raise $425 million for the project, the first phase of which is projected to be complete in the spring of 2007. With that phase, the museum will grow from 531,000 to 677,000 square feet, according to the MFA. The ICA’s new building, designed for Fan Pier on the South Boston Waterfront, has been featured in an article in Newsweek and a sketch in The New Yorker. ICA officials say they’ve raised about $17 million of the $60 million they’re looking to bring in for the project; an additional $7.5 million to $8 million should be available when the ICA sells its Boylston Street building.”