Hasta La Ideas

(Photos: UnBeige)

For the past couple of nights, New York’s Guggenheim Museum has been hosting the same charity gala—an elegant affair for the apparent benefit of the “International Fund for the Arts.” The formally attired guests mingle and sip champagne for hours on end, while a more casually dressed group scurries around purposefully. They’ll be back tonight for round three. It’s not a new work by Carsten Holler but the filming of pivotal scenes in Mr. Popper’s Penguins, an upscale adaptation of the 1938 book by Richard and Florence Atwater. Directed by Mark Waters (Mean Girls), the film stars Jim Carrey as Thomas Popper, a jaded real estate dealmaker who suddenly finds himself in possession of a parcel of penguins…on Park Avenue.

We adore the dramatic stylings of the rubber-faced Carrey, but it was the prospect of penguins that beckoned us to the (closed) set this week. Faux snow blanketed the Guggenheim’s 88th Street side entrance, and in the rotunda, the pseudogala was in full swing, but there wasn’t a flightless bird in sight. “They’re adding the penguins with CGI,” said our on-set spy. “The museum didn’t want to risk it.” One unit of the production crew consists of “a bunch of guys with MacBooks.” Armed with SLRs and a lot of patience, they capture digital images of each scene from multiple angles to ensure that the addition of virtual penguins is seamless, with the shadows aligned perfectly.

Much of the filming, however, includes the real thing. The production ponied up around $25,000 each for a trained team of gentoo penguins, a crew member told us. Between scenes, they retire to a spacious frozen home at Steiner Studios in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. And Carrey reportedly has “amazing chemistry” with his avian costars.

Meanwhile, the film’s Guggenheim gala scenes sound like reason enough to see Mr. Popper’s Penguins, which Twentieth Century Fox is slated to release in August 2011. A scheming Popper attends the benefit to ingratiate himself to one Selma Van Gundy (Angela Lansbury), a Brooke Astor type who owns the Manhattan property he covets. We hear that the pair pauses to contemplate Ad Reinhardt‘s “Black Painting” of 1960–66 (or at least a facsimile of it) on an upper level of the museum before penguin pandemonium ensues when the six birds use Frank Lloyd Wright‘s famed ramp as a waterslide. The chaos continues as, according to production call sheets obtained by UnBeige, “Popper is chased by penguins as he leaves the Guggenheim and crosses Fifth Avenue.”

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Paul Strand’s “Blind Woman” (negative 1916, print c. 1920s), “Mlle. Pogany, New York (Brancusi)” (1922), and “Man Carving Chair II, Mr. Bolster, Vermont” (1943) are among the more than 3,000 works acquired by the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

It’s turning out to be a very good week for the photography holdings of major museums. Right on the heels of the Art Institute of Chicago’s announcement that it will receive more than 15,000 items from the collection of Richard Nickel comes word that the Philadelphia Museum of Art has acquired the core collection of photographs by Paul Strand (1890–1976). The museum announced today that it has received—as partial and promised gifts—1,422 images from the Paul Strand Archive at the Aperture Foundation, as well as 566 master prints from Strand’s negatives by the artist Richard Benson. The museum has also agreed to purchase an additional 1,276 photographs from the Aperture Foundation. By our calculations, that makes 3,264 works by Strand, who studied with Lewis Hine and palled around with Alfred Stieglitz in New York before hitting the road to document regional life (and the occasional fern) in communities from Quebec to Ghana. “The Paul Strand Collection at the Philadelphia Museum of Art will rank among the finest and most significant groups of works by key figures in the history of photography held by any museum in this country” said Timothy Rub, the museum’s George D. Widener director and CEO, in a statement announcing the acquisition. Planning is underway for a major Strand retrospective at the museum in 2014.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

A Grand Central pop up for shopping the National Design Museum on the go

Travelers passing through Manhattan’s Grand Central Terminal have an ideal reason to take a break from the busy commute with the Shop at Cooper-Hewitt‘s pop up kiosk, located near the Graybar Passage.

Opened this month and scheduled to remain through 31 January 2011, the Shop offers 25 design works from the National Design Museum including such items as the Eton Solarlink FR600 radio which can be charged by the sun or hand crank and is currently featured in the National Design Triennial ($80); the Brodman Blades Ping Pong Paddle Set in which the handless paddle fits like a glove ($89) and beautiful wool pom-pon hats by designer Kika Schoenfeld.

The kiosk also features Swiss-made USM modular furniture (in addition to being made of it itself) in newly-reissued orange and offers all of the pieces available through the company’s convenient Quick Ship program.

The Shop at Cooper Hewitt Grand Central kiosk is open Monday through Saturday. Four Square users receive an added bonus—simply show that you’ve checked in at the kiosk and receive one complimentary pass to the National Design Museum.

Never mind that pesky lawsuit filed back in September, the Art Institute of Chicago would much rather you focus on their positive news, like that nifty French Impressionism iPad app they’ve launched, or this week’s big news, that the organization has learned that it will be receiving more than 15,000 items from the collection of local architecture photography hero, Richard Nickel. The Chicago Tribune‘s Blair Kamin broke the story, sharing a peek at what’s in the collection, as well as the story behind its donation, from the Richard Nickel Committee. While the museum already had access to a large portion of Nickel’s photos, this huge new supply ups that tenfold, and should make for a busy exhibition once they figure out how and what to display. If you’re unfamiliar with Nickel’s work, which means that you don’t live in Chicago and don’t already have a copy of his posthumous book somewhere in your house, we highly recommend getting a copy of it immediately and also browsing what the museum has available online. You might also enjoy the Lost Buildings animation by Chris Ware and This American Life‘s Ira Glass, which tangentially touches on Nickel’s contributions to capturing Chicago’s architectural gems before they were destroyed.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

While just a few days ago we were saying that the possible comeback of the Minnesota Museum of American Art, which was one of the first large cultural organizations to close in the wake of the financial crisis, might be some sort of sign that the worst was over for museums and the rebuilding would commence shortly. Fortunately, we try never to speak in absolutes, as just this week another in a long series of museums has hit a particularly dire rough patch. The San Francisco Chronicle reports that the Asian Art Museumin that city has suddenly found itself in danger of declaring bankruptcy and possible closure as early as this week, should it not be able to work out a new deal with their bank to the tune of $120 million in loans. Though the museum has struggled for the past five years, hence the large borrowing, their lender’s decision to call in the debt so quickly has left them in a tight spot. Add to that a decrease in donors over the past couple of lean years and smaller attendance numbers and the situation seems all the more dire. The Chronicle reports that the museum will be meeting with city officials, as well as the lender, to see if a way out that doesn’t involve bankruptcy or closed doors can be found.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.