Long weekend reading

The New Yorker has been releasing content from its archives, bundling highlights into weekly blog posts. This 1950 interview of Hemingway by Lilian Ross is a mid-century gem, still smartly observed and full of quotable quotes.

Preparing for Peter Peryer's show at The Dowse meant getting to think about how the art world - and art market - has changed its approach to photography since the 1970s. This obituary/tribute in the New York Times for Sam Wagstaff - collector, curator, and patron/partner of Mapplethorpe - captures the story through the lens of a life.

To accompany the new anthology - a Wikipedia entry for Wystan Curnow, prepared by Thomasin Sleigh. This has given me a new idea, to add to the ideas we're already working on ...

How to talk about Paul McCarthy

Cat Weaver on what happens when you ignore the obvious in a butt-plug/Christmas tree.

On the radio

Today on the radio I'll be talking about the concept of post-internet art; The Light Show at Auckland Art Gallery; and the Auckland Potters Society Great Mugging event.

Restaging

A recent article in the Art Newspaper covers the trend for curators to revive or re-work historical exhibitions.

This has, of course, got me thinking about exhibitions - New Zealand exhibitions - I have missed that I'd want to see again. A quick list includes:

• Alter/Image, Tina Barton and Deborah Lawler-Dormer's 1993 show on contemporary feminism and art
• The infamous Headlands and Cultural Safety shows, landmarks of the 1990s
• Several of Colin McCahon's exhibitions at Barry Lett Galleries
• Auckland Art Gallery's 1961 Painting from the Pacific, an experiment in bringing together work from the coasts of US, NZ, Aus and Japan to see if a geographically-determined link could be discerned (it couldn't)
• Leon Narbey's opening exhibition for the Govett-Brewster
• Selwyn Muru's 1979 Parihaka show at The Dowse, when the gallery was transformed temporarily into a wharenui

Which all goes to show that really, what I want primarily to experience is the time that I missed, rather than the art.

Wikipedia workshop

The National Digital Forum conference has released its pre-conference workshops.

There's a full day workshop on digital project management, run by Dr. Lynne Siemens, Associate Professor in the School of Public Management at the University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. It looks like a really solid introduction for people new to commissioning software and website projects, and could be a great option if you or your team have a project like this on the horizon.

Meanwhile, I'm taking part in a workshop on Wikipedia and the GLAMs, coordinated by Mike Dickison, Natural History Curator at Whanganui Regional Museum with a group of representatives from the NZ Wikipedia community & galleries, libraries, museums and archives. The session is an introduction to getting New Zealand cultural content into Wikipedia, and will include hands-on editing.

The workshops will be held on 24 November at Te Papa and you can attend even if you're not attending the full conference. All the info is available on the NDF website.

On the radio

Today on the radio I'll be talking about Simon Denny's new exhibition at the Adam Art Gallery, The Personal Effects of Kim Dotcom.

Audio is up, and there's also a gallery of installation shots.

Last day

This year on 18 and 19 November The Dowse is hosting the annual Curator's Hui, a chance for people working in (and near!) museums and galleries to share ideas, updates, case studies and emerging trends.

The first call for proposals closes TODAY. We are offering a range of talk formats (from 10 minutes to an hour) and the list of topics we're interested in is long and diverse.

All the relevant info is available on our website, and if you're familiar with the hui and want to dive straight into submitting your proposal, there's a handy dandy online submission form here.

Whither the design museum

Behind the Financial Times registration wall (hand over an email address and some "details" for access), a lengthy article about the history of design museums (starting with the didactic impulse behind the first, the V&A) and their current status, as directors and curators deal with the digital age and the sense that design might actually be in and of everything.

[V&A director Martin] Roth is animated about the future of the museum. “There are three issues facing a design museum today,” he says. “First is the question of how you avoid it looking like a furniture store; how is it different to a typical bourgeois living room? Second is the problem of the inflation of design. Is it craft or is it a philosophy? Or is it lifestyle? Is everything digital part of design? Design isn’t everything and the perception that it is, is confusing and damaging to the museum. And third . . .” 

He pauses, I’m not sure whether for dramatic effect or if he’s considering if he should tell me this, “ . . . is the quality of contemporary art – which is 95 per cent rubbish.” 

I raise my eyebrows over my coffee cup. “The hyper-currency of art, the plutocrats’ purchases, these things corrupt the relationship between art and design at the same institution. They affect the future of the design museum and I worry that as contemporary art runs out of ideas it will need fresh blood . . .” He makes a theatrical sucking noise “ . . . and they will come to design.”

On the radio

On the radio this week I talked about three ceramics shows at Dunedin Public Art Gallery: The Dowse's touring Barry Brickell exhibition, Paul Maseyk's solo show, and Madeleine Child's contribution to a group show of work by Dunedin artists.

High rotate

Two songs with absolutely no connection

On the radio

On the radio today I talked about the DomPost's decision to cancel art critic Mark Amery's fortnightly column.

Fact checking

Next week I'm talking at Whitecliffe College of Arts & Design in their seminar series about careers in the art world.

I'm going to talk about my own trajectory, but I also want to tackle the question of whether we're currently in a 'golden age' of female leadership in the visual arts, or whether this could be as big a blip as 2005/06 turned out to be, when the five most powerful positions in New Zealand (PM, Governor-General, Speaker, Chief Justice and - sign of the times - CEO of Telecom) were all held by women.

As part of that I'm trying to grok some figures on museum and gallery leadership. For the purposes of this exercise I am focusing on the larger council-funded organisations (not artist-run, CNZ or university) that have been around for 25+ years.

I'm also interested in how many women have held multiple directorships across these institutions.

Corrections and additions are MOST WELCOME, either in the comments, or via email or twitter.

LEADERSHIP IN LARGER INSTITUTIONS

Auckland War Memorial Museum
8 directors, 1 woman

Auckland Art Gallery
10 directors, 1 woman (most recent)

Waikato Art Museum / Waikato Museum of Art and History
X directors, 2 women

Tauranga Art Gallery
I director, 1 woman

Govett Brewster Art Gallery
10 directors, 3 women

The Sarjeant
4 directors, no women

Whanganui Regional Museum
12 directors, 2 women

Manawatū Art Gallery / Te Manawa
9 directors, 3 women
*Note: Mina McKenzie at the Manawatu Museum pre-Te Manawa

The Dowse
6 directors, 1 woman (most recent)

Te Papa
3 directors, 1 woman

City Gallery Wellington
5 directors, 3 women (most recent)

The Suter
3 directors, 1 woman (most recent)

Christchurch Art Gallery
6 directors, 1 woman (most recent)

Canterbury Museum
10 directors, 0 women

Dunedin Public Art Gallery
9 directors, 3 women

Otago Museum
8 directors, 0 women

WOMEN WHO HAVE HELD MORE THAN ONE MAJOR DIRECTORSHIP

Priscilla Pitts - GBAG and DPAG (plus Artspace)
Cheryll Sotheran - GBAG, DPAG, Te Papa
Jenny Harper - NAG-that-was and CAG
Elizabeth Caldwell - DPAG and CGW (plus Robert McDougall Art Annex)
Rhana Devenport - GBAG and AAG
Julie Catchpole - Te Manawa and Suter

While we're on the topic: an oldie but still a goodie from Over The Net: length of director tenures.