Displaying items by tag: visitors

The Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, PA has reopened its modern and contemporary art galleries following a major reinstallation. The updated galleries will be part of the Carnegie International, which is slated to open October 5, 2013. This year’s International will bring together 35 artists from 19 countries and will include a major exhibition of international art, the presentation of the museum’s collection, and a series of events organized in cooperation with the city of Pittsburgh.

Curators Dan Byers and Tina Kukielski helmed the reinstallation of the Scaife Galleries, which hold the Carnegie’s modern and contemporary art collections. Together they selected over 200 objects, many of which had been acquired through past Internationals, and redistributed them throughout 8 galleries.

Industrialist Andrew Carnegie founded the Carnegie Museum in 1895. Determined to build a bold collection of modern art, Carnegie organized annual contemporary exhibitions and sought to educate visitors, promote international understanding of art, and attract the world to Pittsburgh. Through acquisitions made from these yearly exhibitions, Carnegie built the museum’s impressive collection. The Carnegie International became an annual occurrence in 1896 and is the oldest exhibition of international contemporary art in North America and the second oldest in the world.

The 44^th edition of Art Basel closed on Sunday, June 16, 2013 after welcoming a record 70,000 visitors. Exhibitors at the highly anticipated fair reported exceptionally strong sales throughout the show’s six-day run and patrons were impressed by the quality of the works offered.

This year, Art Basel hosted 304 international exhibitors at Messe Basel, a venue situated at the border of Switzerland, France and Germany. Among the offerings were paintings, drawings, sculptures, and photographs, which drew strong sales across the board. The buying frenzy began during the fair’s two-day VIP opening, which lasted from June 11^th through the 12^th and saw the $12 million sale of Alexander Calder’s (1898-1976) Sumac (1961) by London’s Helly Nahmad Gallery.  

Next year, Art Basel will be held from June 19-22, 2014.

The Georgia Museum of Art at the University of Georgia is hosting the show Deaccessioning Bernard Smol (1897-1969), which is putting a unique spin on the standard museum exhibition. Due to limited storage space and an evolving collection, the museum has decided to deaccession all but one of Smol’s works. Visitors to the exhibition will vote for the piece that they would like to remain in the museum’s collection and curatorial staff will work this feedback into their final decision.

The process of deaccessioning artworks is lengthy and closely regulated. A museum must make the public aware of its intent and the museum’s collections committee and Board of Advisors must approve that intent. Only when all parties are on board is a work able to be removed from a collection. Oftentimes, the artwork heads to auction and the proceeds from the sale are used for future acquisitions that will bolster the museum’s collection.

Deaccessioning Bernard Smol presents five oil paintings by the French artist, which have not been shown at the Georgia Museum since their initial exhibition in 1959. The Georgia Museum was inspired by DePaul University’s exhibition, The Good the Bad, and the Ugly, which helped them decide what works to deaccession from their own collection in 2010.

Starting today, May 1, 2013, the Museum of Modern Art in New York will be open seven days a week. The Metropolitan Museum of Art made a similar announcement in March and will implement their week-round schedule in July.

After considerable renovations in 2004, MoMA has seen its annual visitor numbers climb from 1.5 million to 3 million. The seven-day-a-week schedule will help accommodate the museum’s growing audience. MoMA, which is located in Midtown Manhattan, is home to one of the most renowned collections of modern art including works by Paul Gauguin (1848-1903), Frida Kahlo (1907-1954), Jackson Pollock (1912-1956), Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009), and Pablo Picasso (1881-1973).

MoMA has been closed on Tuesdays since 1975, when officials introduced the tactic to cut back on museum spending. Prior to that, the museum had been open seven days a week since it’s founding in 1929.

The Columbus Museum of Art in Ohio is the only art museum to receive a 2013 National Medal for Museum and Library Service. The Columbus Metropolitan Library received the award back in 2011, making Columbus the 16^th American city to receive the medal twice. The National Medal, which is the highest honor for museums and libraries, will be presented to the city at a celebration in Washington, D.C. on May 8, 2013.

The Columbus Museum of Art, which was historically focused on European and American art through the early modern period, has placed more emphasis on contemporary art and photography in recent years. The museum has also made a substantial effort to engage visitors in creative ways as well as reinvent itself as a hub for social and creative happenings in the Midwest. The institution has partnered with 30 Ohio counties as well as Columbus city schools to create various programs that are aimed at engaging visitors of all ages in innovative ways.

The other National Medal-winning museums for 2013 included the Boston Children’s Museum; the Delta Blues Museum in Clarksdale, Mississippi; the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County; and the National Czech and Slovak Museum and Library in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Pickpockets have always been most prevalent at locations that attract a high volume of tourists such as the Louvre. However, the pickpocketing problem at the French museum has gotten so severe that 200 members of the institution’s staff staged a walkout earlier this week in protest of the pickpocket gangs that target visitors. The museum reopened to the public on Thursday, April 11, 2013 with a squad of approximately 20 uniformed police officers patrolling the grounds.

The police officers were recruited in response to staff concerns. Many Louvre employees have endured violent altercations with pickpockets including being spat at, insulted, and hit. Many of the criminals return to the museum repeatedly after being barred from the premises. Museum officials hope that a strong police presence will deter pickpockets from setting up shop at the Louvre, which sees about 10 million visitors each year.

The Board of Trustees of the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. announced an upcoming partnership with the National Gallery of Art. The three-year agreement allows the Corcoran to exhibit works of modern and contemporary art from the National Gallery’s collection while the museum’s East Building is under renovation. The Corcoran is working on trimming expenses and has been battling rumors that it will sell its landmark Beaux Arts building due to financial troubles. During the Board’s announcement, officials scrapped any speculation by confirming that the Corcoran will not be moving.

The Corcoran has collaborated with the National Gallery in the past but their new partnership is the most expansive to date. Earl A. Powell III, Director of the National Gallery of Art, said, “We are very pleased to be able to share works from the nation’s collection of modern art with visitors to the Corcoran while our East Building is closed for renovations. We have a history of lending works to the Corcoran, but the larger number of works addressed by this agreement and the increased length of their exhibition at the Corcoran makes this a new development in our long relationship.”

The National Gallery of Art is expected to close for renovations beginning next year.

The Louvre has been on the hunt for a director since the current chief, Henry Loyrette, announced his resignation in December 2012. Today, April 3, 2013, French President Francois Hollande announced his decision to appoint Jean-Luc Martinez, a French specialist in Greek, Roman, and Etruscan antiquities, as the museum’s new director.

Martinez, who has worked with the Louvre since 2007, is currently helming the restoration of the museum’s famed sculpture Winged Victory of Samothrace. He has participated in a number of other projects at the museum including the creation of the Louvre’s outpost in the French city of Lens as well as the museum’s expansion in Abu Dhabi.

Martinez, 49, has signed on for a three-year term and will take over operations in mid-April. Loyrette, who has been the Louvre’s director for 12 years, leaves behind a lasting legacy. During his time at the museum Loyrette nearly doubled the Louvre’s annual attendance. By the end of 2012, approximately 10 million people were visiting the museum each year, making it the busiest museum in the world. Loyrette also implemented the museum’s contemporary art program, employed a policy that relied on crowed-sourced fundraising, and launched a number of successful public campaigns.

The search for a new chief was extensive; for the first time in the museum’s 220-year history the Louvre considered hiring non-French candidates for the role of director.

Officials at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam announced that the museum will reopen to the public on April 14, 2013. The Rijksmuseum, a Dutch national institution devoted to arts, crafts, and history, has been closed for 10 years as part of a massive renovation and modernization project.

The museum is currently working to reinstall around 8,000 masterpieces from the national collection spanning from the Middle Ages to present day. While the Rijksmuseum’s main building was closed, the institution sent a selection of 400 works, including their most famous painting, Rembrandt’s (1606-1669) The Night Watch (1642), to the Philips Wing, a previously renovated “fragment building” belonging to the museum. The works formed a major exhibition titled Masterpieces of the Dutch Golden Age, which saw approximately 1 million visitors during its run.

The Rijksmuseum renovation cost approximately $481 million to complete and included restoring all eighty of the museum’s galleries with their original decorations and paintings as well as implementing the most up-to-date technologies and applications. The project was expected to reach completion in 2008, but a series of contractor issues and planning problems delayed progress.  

Museum officials expect attendance to increase significantly after the institution reopens; prior to the Rijksmuseum’s closure, it saw approximately 1 million visitors each year. The museum is also planning to stay open 365 days a year, which would make it the first national museum in the world to be open every day.

Starting July 1, 2013, New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art will stay open seven days a week for the first time in over forty years. The museum is currently closed on Mondays with the exception of holidays that fall on a Monday. Opening hours will also be moved from 9:30am to 10am.

Thomas Campbell, the Met’s director and CEO, made the announcement on Thursday, March 28, 2013. The goal of the increased hours of operation is to make the museum more accessible to patrons. A record 6.28 million people visited the Met last year and Campbell hopes to maintain the museum’s ongoing success.

The changes also apply to the Cloisters, the Met’s museum of medieval art and architecture located in Fort Tryon Park in northern Manhattan.