Courtesy of Artsjournal.com is an article on a topic I have covered before. (And yes, I know I started that entry the same way.)
The Chicago Sun-Times did a story on the benefits and pitfalls for museums presenting blockbuster art shows. While the temporary traveling shows bring in large crowds, more money and help fill out the museum membership, it also creates expectations from the public.
The question became, ‘What’s on at the museum right now?’ Well, what’s on at the museum is the extraordinary works of the permanent collection, which in their totality are better than any that can ever be brought here from someplace else.”
Blockbusters, in Cuno’s view, prepare people to visit the Art Institute in a specific time frame and then vanish until the next big show — which doesn’t allow for the sustained visits over time that are necessary to engage with art in more than a touristic way.
In another part of the article, the director of the Museum of Contemporary Art likens the touring shows to the quick fix one gets from drugs like cocaine or heroine. You feel good immediately after the show, he says, because your attendance numbers are up and you are flush with money. But then the next year, you don’t approach those attendance numbers with your regular exhibit and you go looking for another blockbuster.
Yet the more special shows you do, the more you dilute the value of what you offer every day in the eyes of the community.
Others like Field Museum CEO John Carter feel that the competition for discretionary income and time necessitate making mission subservient to market forces. “You’ve got to build an argument as to why they should come and participate in this experience, and if you’re only offering your permanent collection, there’s no call to action,” McCarter says.
Since my background has been in performing arts where every season offers different shows from the last, I am probably not in a position to speak with any expertise. However, it seems like the mere existence of your facility should be a call to action. Every museum I have been to and returned to has been because it is there. I have never been to a blockbuster show. (But then again, I hate crowds.)
I suspect though that the real impetus behind programming blockbuster shows is the cost of staying open. Just depending on members of the community to return every handful of years probably doesn’t bring in enough money. Museums need blockbuster shows to bring the same people back on a consistent basis every year or every other year.
Another worrisome development for museums is that big corporations like Clear Channel Communications are getting into the business of handling these blockbusters for a cut of the gate. While it reduces the museum’s financial risk, it also means the museums have to hand over control of their building to the corporations.
However, in recognition of the fact that the whole process may not be healthy for the museums in the longrun, some are taking steps to gain control over their ravenous addictions. The director of the Art Institute is
“…going to be a weaning of the museum off of exhibitions of a narrow range of subject matter with all the attendant hype around them,” he says. “Instead, we’re going to have exhibitions of a different kind, attracting fewer people in number, where the emphasis is on the benefits of scholarship and the patron experience over that of financial return.”