Uh-Oh. Smithsonian 2.0

Put the Smithsonian on the Web and everyone can help curate the collections. What could be wrong with that?

Plenty.

The Institution held a “gathering” recently, Smithsonian 2.0. It was an updated cabaret version of a bigger production staged eight years ago at the museum’s 150th birthday party. There seem to have been no Smithsonian 2.0 speakers who would not personally benefit if the Smithsonian bestowed its blessing on “Web 2.0″ measures.

Sadly, most models proposed at the meeting were antithetical to the “increase and diffusion of knowledge,”  the Smithsonian’s mission. Unless, that is, the Smithsonian now interprets “diffuse”  in its adjectival sense, “being at once verbose and ill-organized” (Merriam-Webster).

Will the Rose Close?

Artists across the globe have downed camelhair brushes, picked up pitchforks and torches, and are marching on Brandeis University to join the crowds of angry students. Behind them is a larger mob of alumni and art fanciers, who’ve traded teacups for tar and feathers. The Brandeis leadership had threatened to close down the Rose Museum of Art and sell off  the collection. Brandeis may be changing its tune as the angry noise of the approaching mobs gets louder.

Did Brandeis think it could play “chicken” with this threat, shocking funding out of a failed economy? University trustees surely know that dumping art at the bottom of the market would violate both fiduciary and  moral obligations. The law faculty surely knows that a sell-off can’t raise emergency funds — donors and heirs would  tie up deaccession plans in the courts for years. As you read this, alumni art patrons are surely writing Brandeis out of their wills.

Worse yet, on purely economic grounds, the numbers do not justify the action.

What was Brandeis thinking?

Outrage grows daily; Tyler Green is valiantly keep up with it on his blog. Recent developments:

One Museum is Hiring

Mike Licht: Vincent’s Bedroom, after Van Gogh

Unlike other museums around the country, the New Museum of Contemporary Art is hiring. The New York City institution will pay women $10 an hour to sleep in an exhibition during museum hours (noon to 6 PM Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday; noon to 9 PM Thursday and Friday).

“The Generational: Younger Than Jesus” installation is by artist Chu Yun, who “creates a human sculpture by inducing sleep,” according to NewYorkology.com. It opens in April and runs through mid-June, but competition should be keen, so don’t fall asleep at the switch. Get your résumé in now.

 

 Hat tip: Roy Edroso, Village Voice.

Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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Superbowl Veg-Out

This Sunday we the people will remain faithful to the ideals of our forebears and true to our Tostitos. On that day we plant ourselves like torpid tubers on every upholstered surface of our land because we have chosen hope and beer over fear, unity of purpose and bean dip over conflict and discord.

This year we spectate amidst gathering clouds and raging storms. The challenges we face are real. The Steelers? Sure. But Arizona? St. Louis in exile? Puh-leez. What’s up with that? Perhaps Nobel laureate Al Gore can explain it; not us.

That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood. Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of sports handicappers. Sunday’s point spread was clearly devised by AIG, Citibank, and Bernard Madoff.

Final Score, Illinois Senate vs. Blagojevich

The final vote in the Illinois State Senate impeachment trial of Rod Blagojevich ending in a rout: 59 for conviction, zero for acquittal. Mr. Blagojevich was removed from office and barred from state politics for life. Lieutenant Governor Pat Quinn was sworn in to replace Mr. Blagojevich (was that a new suit?).

Rod Blagojevich now enters the record books as the first governor in the ethically-challenged history of the State of Illinois to be removed from office while living. Start engraving those brass plaques.

Here’s the post-game chatter:

Fox News: Illinois Senate Kicks Blagojevich Out of Office

Ground Report: It’s Endgame For Rod Blagojevich As He Is Unanimously Impeached

Wichita Eagle blog:Blagojevich gets the boot

Eastern Market Schedule

Eastern Market is bustling along as always as Capitol Hill’s  place for fresh food shopping, schmoozing and art, but reconstruction of the fire-gutted original  1873 building seemed stalled and unlikely to meet the planned  June completion date. 

In home remodelling, medicine, or automotive work, once you get under the hood you find problems you didn’t expect. Historic restoration is no different. Deteriorated flooring, corroded steel beams, and weakened brick arches slowed progress, Bill Rice of  DC’s Office of Property Management told Michael Neibauer of The Examiner.

OPM has extended construction hours so market business can blossom in the  spring. Workmen will be on the job from 3:30 PM to midnight weekdays, 6 AM to 3:30 PM Saturdays (never on Sundays) until May.

Blagojevich Defies Critics

Defying his harshest critics, embattled Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich actually located the state capital and travelled there today.

Although he prefers working from his Chicago office and not the Statehouse, Mr. Blagojevich was in Springfield only two weeks ago. The Illinois Constitution required the governor to swear in new Senate President John J. Cullerton and the other senators so they could conduct his impeachment trial.

While he was in Springfield, Mr. Blagojevich spoke a few words to state senators about those nasty things they have been saying about him.

He didn’t stay for questions or coffee and kolaches. It’s a long trip back to Chicago.

 

Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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The Mummy’s Curse

Brandeis University is closing the Rose Art Museum and selling off 6,000 works of art. The University of Pennsylvania would never do anything so crass. Penn is keeping the valuable antiquities in the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (founded: 1887) and “deaccessioning” the staff.

Museum brochure.

Online petition.

Governor Blagojevich and Mother Teresa on TV

Governor Rod Blagojevich isn’t appearing at his impeachment trail in the Illinois State Senate, but he is appearing on your television set, on Good Morning America, The View, Larry King Live, The Today Show, and Good Morning America.

In an interview for NBC’s Today Show, he said:

“You can conceivably bring in 15 angels and 20 saints led by Mother Teresa to come in to testify to my good character, to my integrity and all the rest. It wouldn’t matter.”

Happy Birthday Jackson Pollack

If you used Google on Wednesday, January 28, 2009, in place of the Google logo, you saw this:

Google celebrated the birthday of  painter Jackson Pollack (1912-1956).  Google wished happy birthdays to René Magritte, Marc Chagall, and Piet Mondrian. Stephanie Murg of UnBeige says the Pollack homage is “likely the work of Googler and graphic artist Dennis Hwang [Hwang Jung-moak]” with permission of the Pollack-Krasner Foundation and the Artists Rights Society (ARS).

You can celebrate, too. Be Jackson Pollack (be sure to move and click).

Mr. Pollack had a readily-identifiable abstract expressionist style. If you need help identifying the artist, look here.

 

 Download a copy of the Pollack ID tool here and this post’s top image here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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