The Bloch Collection – amassed by one of the co-founders of H&R Block and containing works by Van Gogh, Monet, Gauguin, Cezanne, Seurat, and Pissarro – is now on view in specially renovated galleries at the Nelson-Atkins Museum.
Category: visual
The Desert Project That Christo Has Been Planning For 40 Years
“Comprising 410,000 multi-coloured aluminium barrels,” – the Mastaba, to be erected at an empty desert site in Abu Dhabi – “would be the largest sculpture in the world, and, unlike many of Christo’s projects, permanent.”
A Social Media Challenge: Should Your Museum Have A Personality?
“Should I say “we” instead of “I”? Am I pretending the museum is actually speaking? What would it say? How would it say it? Can I make jokes? How funny is my museum? Is Wellcome Collection sarcastic, staid, sombre, sassy? Some of the answers to these questions are found in the history, themes and approach of the institution (also expressed through branding). But social media has a range of functions and a certain tone; it offers museums a chance to sidestep outdated perceptions or subvert expectations.”
The United States Government Wants Its Art Back – And Here’s How It’s Getting It
Of the hundreds of thousands of artworks created under the WPA’s programs during the Depression, a surprising number have gone missing (or at least have been lost track of). Matthew Blitz meets the Special Agent charged with tracking that art down.
How America’s University Museums Are Drawing In Students
“Across the country, museums associated with universities are organizing social events: The Princeton University Art Museum in New Jersey holds evenings when graduate students meet curators, for example. Beyond that, museums directors are seeking ways students can play a role in curating and experiencing artworks.”
The Museum Admission Fee Is Too Damn High (So Here’s How To Lower It)
How are museums supposed to attract younger, more diverse audiences when they charge $20 or more to get in? (Except for, maybe, three hours one day a week.) Daniel Grant suggests a source of funding (granted, a controversial source) to cut or eliminate those admission fees.
Will The Ambitious Art In American Embassies Program Continue Under Trump Administration?
Virginia Shore, the programme’s acting director, told Town & Country magazine last year that the value of works on loan to the AIE has risen to a half a billion dollars in recent years, up from around $10m under President George W. Bush.
As It Was Hemorrhaging Money, Met Museum Paid Big Bonuses To Senior Execs
“The Metropolitan Museum of Art doled out hefty pay raises and six-figure bonuses to top executives despite a looming deficit that threatened to reach $40 million, records show.”
Ancient Black Granite Statues Of Amenhotep III And Lion Goddess Unearthed At Luxor
The sculpture of the pharaoh is just over eight feet tall, two feet wide, almost 3½ feet deep, and very well preserved, and there are dozens of fragments of statues of the goddess Sekhmet. (in English)
Louvre Sets Up Shelter For Art And Antiquities Caught In War Zones’ Crossfire – But Ends Up In Crossfire Itself
In light of catastrophes ranging from the Taliban’s destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas to ISIS’s trafficking in looted antiquities, the French government has offered a conservation facility it’s building in northern France as a haven for artifacts recovered from the battle-scarred Middle East. Yet some curators and archaeologists are fighting the plan, saying that it would stir up an entirely different hornets’ nest of problems.