Hasta La Ideas

After unveiling the plans and renderings around this time last year for the Robert A.M. Stern-designed George W. Bush Presidential Library/Center on the campus of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, then watching it balloon in size, we thought for certain that construction was underway already, but apparently not (we suppose raising money and lining up contractors does take some time, after all). However, while the Library in its current state is just an empty lot and drawings on paper, groundbreaking is set for November 16th, with a completion date expected sometime in 2013. To kick off the construction, this Saturday the university’s Meadows Museum opened “Breaking New Ground,” an exhibit showing off a handful of the collection that will go into the new building once it’s complete. Running until early February, it will also display the architectural plans for the Center. Here’s a few items from the collection that they’ll be showing:

The pistol retrieved from Saddam Hussein upon his capture in Iraq

A letter from Bono to President Bush regarding AIDS relief in Africa

The silk dress and bolero jacket designed by Oscar de la Renta and worn by Mrs. Bush at the White House dinner with Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

A bronzed football commemorating the University of Texas Longhorns 2005 National Championship win, given as a gift to President Bush

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Although ground was broken this past March on “the other” Eli and Edythe Broad museum (the one in Michigan, not the higher-profile, just-started one in Los Angeles), it looks as though the project might have hit its first hurdle. While the Lansing State Journal reports that Michigan State University is having a major growth spurt fueled by millions in donations, the student paper, the State News reports specifically on the Broad Art Museum, saying that school officials are having a tough time raising the last $6 million needed for the Zaha Hadid-designed project. While the school doesn’t seem overly concerned, believing that once the building starts to take more of its final shape, the donations will come pouring in, that hasn’t stopped them from fanning out their donors to find other like them to help pitch in:

During the summer, officials met with about 10 to 15 alumni couples at a national and statewide level to raise funds, [Director of Principle Gifts, Mark Terman] said. He expects fundraising to intensify and continue until the museum’s opening once people witness “tangible” results on the northeast edge of MSU’s campus, he said.

“We have two years of construction here, (and) we have done sufficient planning with the cash flow,” Terman said. “Project payments are offsetting the construction costs.”

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Seemingly plagued by controversy, so much for a positive run from start to finish again for Ai Weiwei. Last week, you’ll recall we told you about the opening of his huge exhibition at the Tate Modern in London, which put to use 100 million sunflower seeds hand-painted in his native China. For its first few days the seeds were accessible to the public to pick up, walk on, or even steal a couple. Since then, the Tate has decided to rope off access to the piece, citing safety concerns over the dust kicked up as people walked around on it. Said the NY Times‘ Roberta Smith in her review of Weiwei’s installation, where she says she saw it both before and after it had been closed. “…the piece looked like an upper-respiratory disaster waiting to happen,” she writes, having seen “little clouds of dust” following the visitors around as they wandered. She also explains what exactly the dust is, a certain type of liquid clay that doesn’t quite stick strongly enough to withstand the wear and tear the original concept required. And while Smith thinks this locking down of the piece, barring interaction, has damaged its core draw, the Guardian‘s Jonathan Jones thinks the opposite, saying, “So what if we’re not allowed to get down on the Turbine Hall floor…This vast, grey sea of humanity is made for thinking about, not touching.” For whatever it’s worth, we think assembling 100 million of anything and sticking it all in one gigantic room is impressive even just in photos. So roped off or otherwise, we’re still impressed.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

More news on the Chelsea Art Museum front. Despite a decision to make a few needed bucks as a Fashion Week venue during their self-imposed “temporarily shut down” last month, it appears that the hurdles keep growing for the indebted organization. The Wall Street Journal reports that the museum “failed to meet a bankruptcy-court deadline” and thus the deed for its property has been handed over to the property’s lender, Hudson Realty Capital, essentially taking the building completely out of the hands of the museum and its founder, Dorothea Keeser. The paper reports that Keeser has argued that the lender hadn’t first gone into foreclosure proceedings, and that they had also found a new buyer for the building, which their original bankruptcy filing had stipulated as a requirement for buying them some time. However, even with a deadline extension, the museum still missed the dates they were to bring the buyer forward. Now it appears the next long step will be this legal battle. Though even if Keeser and the Chelsea comes out winning the case, they’ll still be in the same precarious financial position they were before. We’re not yet ready to make the mistake we made back in 2008 when we predicted that the museum was on its last breaths, but the bad news certainly has been piling on of late.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Former Getty antiquities curator Marion True is now officially two for two in fighting off illegal buying/collecting/removing charges. Back in 2007, she won her freedom in Athens after authorities there had accused her of “knowingly purchasing looted antiquities,” something she continues to deny. Her escape route there? The judge threw the case out, saying the statute of limitations concerning the possible crimes had expired. Now the exact same thing has happened in Italy, where she was facing similar charges. The LA Times reports that “a three-judge panel halted the proceedings,” again stating that the limitations had expired and their hands were tied. Fortunate on both counts, yes, but the paper reminds that she once again had a Getty-funded legal team battling it out on her behalf. And while the five year-long True saga has finally come to an end, in its wake there’s been massive change within the American museum industry, with not just the Getty deciding that they might be in for a fight if they a) continued to purchase looted items or b) didn’t give back what had long ago been looted, something that now seems to happen so regularly that it’s almost an afterthought when you read about just a small handful of pieces getting sent back to from wherever it came. So in the end, maybe True’s alleged criminality actually wound up doing some good.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.