Art in the city

The fading rural mueum

Bruce Courson, director of the Sandwich Glass Museum in Sandwich, MA, has a good article in the Wall Street Journal opinion page on the dying rural museum, why they're dying, and what can be done to turn things around.  Check it out here.

Comic book art gets some respect

The Hammer Museum and The Museum of Contemporary Art  are jointly presenting Masters of American Comics, an exhibition presentating work by 15 artists who shaped the development of the American comic strip and comic book during the past century.  This exhibit will run until March 2006, and then travel to Milwaukee.  It will hit New York and New Jersey in mid-September. 

Art of Novgorod

And check out this review of "Sacred Arts and City Life: the Glory of Medieval Novgorod", an exhibition that's running in Baltimore's Walters Art Museum until February 12.

Russia!

Great article in the New York Times on "Russia!", the latest exhibition at the Guggenheim.  Read it here.  Get details on the exhibition here.

Podcast museum tours at Slate

I wrote this post little over a month ago about people putting together their own personal museum tours and putting them out as podcasts.  Looks like Slate.com is starting to do the same thing.  They're starting with Lee Siegel, Slate's art critic, touring the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Modern Art Gallery.  Click here to see what they're up to.  The great thing that Slate is doing is providing maps of the Museum so that you can find your way around to the works that Siegel discusses.

Hirshhorn Art Nights

The Hirshhorn Museum has a series of free concerts going on this month every Thursday night.  Next Thursday, July 7, they'll be having the Rumba Club.  Click here for more info and to see the schedule for the rest of the month.

The sky might not be falling...

...but the roof is.   Check out this article in the WaPo about how the Smithsonian is in a general state of disrepair.  I work at a non-profit institution. I know the difficulties that face development offices when they try to sell to potential donors the idea that plumbing, roofing, painting, and general upkeep are vital parts of the every day life of an institution.  Donors don't see the glamor in that.  They see the glamor in building new wings to old art museums, new buildings on a revered school campus.  Getting their names on those buildings and wings is a big deal for them.  There aren't too many people who want to see a plaque stating "This S-pipe is possible from a generous donation from Marty Guggenhilton."  Or "The Class of '57 generously reroofed the gymnasium".  I can't say that I know what the answer is to this problem (how about the guy who gets the toilets fixed is the guy who gets to name the building), but you'd think that since this a problem that faces every non-profit institution out there that maybe all that brain power in all those development offices would be able to come up with something that would better address it.

Now I have a reason...

..to go to Minneapolis.  Monday May 9th, the Museum of Russian Art, which will be dedicated to preserving and exhibiting Russian art from the Soviet era, will be open to the public.  See the ArtDaily article here and the Museum's web site here.