Hasta La Ideas

Some random movement in the museum world for this week. First, the Carnegie Museum of Natural History has added a new Deputy Director to their ranks by picking up Ellen McCallie, who will join the museum come March 9th, largely helping to “set priorities and focus on programs and fund raising.” On the other side of the country, Christopher Mount, who left the Museum of Modern Art last summer to become the executive director of the Pasadena Museum of California Art has already left, with the museum’s spokesperson issuing a very cryptic statement that Mount had “left in mid-January ‘to pursue other things.’ Very curious. And finally, not human related, but still in the museum sector, Long Island’s Vanderbilt Museum is preparing to put up their prized collection of fiberglass dinosaurs for sale, made back in 1993 to help promote the film Jurassic Park, in order to raise money so that they can keep their doors open. Who would be buying such a thing, we have no idea, but if the museum can’t find a way to force some money back in, they might soon be available, despite detractors from within even the museum itself:

Suffolk lawmakers, faced with a $800,000 museum budget gap, voted to raise park fees to keep the Vanderbilt afloat, but say the help will last only one year, though museum has forecast several years of shortfalls until a new planetarium projector is up and running.

However, Carol Hart, the museum’s executive director, said the Vanderbilt cannot afford to give up the T-Rex. “In museums, there are only a few blockbuster attractions – a Monet, a mummy or dinosaurs — and we have two out of three,” he said.

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