Tag: 10.07.07

“The museum’s striking new $75-million home in the heart of Michigan’s second-largest city not only gives visitors another reason to explore the revitalized downtown, but it’s also environmentally friendly. The three-story building could become one of the world’s first art museums to receive Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.”

“In the age of the networked computer, museums are being fundamentally challenged in the same ways that other bastions of education and entertainment — from libraries to the music industry — are being rocked to their cores. The arguments swirl. Are museums in the bone-and-pigment business, reliquaries of the past? Are they in the theater business, telling stories through sensational lighting, presentations like stage sets and costumed interpretive actors?”

“Splashy, attention-getting buildings can start to matter more than what goes on inside them; curators complain that architectural splash can actually make it harder to present the art or take it in. Many of the resource-draining new additions aren’t even meant for showing art — they’re all about making room for bigger, more profitable shops and cafes and other non-art options for the visitor. Even with such new ‘profit centers’ coming online, it’s become almost commonplace to hear that a recently expanded museum has had to lay off staff to pay its ballooning expenses.”

Have museums lost their way? Become too big? Philippe de Montebello sounds a caution: “A lot of institutions have strayed more and more, when, from the top down, it becomes increasingly difficult simply to maintain the highest standards, because there are so many conflicting demands.”

“Whether it is an Egyptian artifact looted from a grave during the swashbuckling days of early 20th-century archaeology, or antiquities from Peru sitting in an Ivy League museum, or a Native American object that still has sacred power within a living cultural tradition, there is increasing pressure on established museums to consider the return of art that, in many cases, has helped define them as institutions for decades.”

“Since 2000, museums in Washington DC have uncorked $1 billion for erecting new buildings and refurbishing old ones. It’s been an unprecedented building boom, expanding the sizes and types of museums, expanding choices for residents and tourists alike. And Washington is not alone. Museum fever has spread through the United States, as well as places from China to Dubai.”