Hasta La Ideas

Shortly after the Indianapolis Museum of Art made the move last week to fire 53 staff members in an effort to restructure their security, while simultaneously announcing the hiring of students to fill work-study positions at a rate slightly lower than the just-let go staff had made, the university these students were coming from, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, put the breaks on the plan. As reported by the Indianapolis Business Journal, the university’s concern rests in the fact that students may be used to fill positions, but not when a business fires their existing employees to replace them with a less costly workforce. Thus, the university has started a review to make sure they’re in compliance with government rule. Meanwhile, the museum has said that the firing and hiring wasn’t an outright swap, that these new work-study employees aren’t to have security roles. Though one can understand how the possible confusion came about, given this entry on the museum’s blog about the change, which included mention of the new student workers in the “What is the new program?” section (implying they were replacing “the old program,” which was security). Will be interesting to see how it all plays out.

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From left, Guggenheim curators Maria Nicanor and David van der Leer, architect Yoshiharu Tsukamoto of Atelier Bow-Wow, and graphic designers Sulki Choi and Min Choi of Sulki & Min at today’s press conference announcing the BMW Guggenheim Lab (Photo: UnBeige)

It’s official: the Guggenheim is taking its curatorial program on the road. In what Richard Armstrong, director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation and Museum, described at this morning’s press conference in New York City as “one of the most exciting projects the Guggenheim has ever undertaken,” the museum has partnered with BMW to launch a global initiative that will bring “labs” that are part architectural installation, part think tank, and part event hub to nine cities around the world over the next six years. “The BMW Guggenheim Lab is the largest and most ambitious cultural collaboration in the history of our company,” said Frank-Peter Arndt, member of BMW’s board of management. “It will develop solutions and concepts for cities of the future.”

Conceived as a vast and deliberately open-ended R & D project, the program will consist of three globe-hopping mobile structures, each with its own distinct theme, architecture, and graphic identity. The first 5,000-square-foot BMW Guggenheim Lab will be designed by Tokyo-based architecture firm Atelier Bow-Wow, which David van der Leer, co-curator of the project, praised for its “very witty way of dealing with everyday design challenges.” The Seoul-based firm of Sulki & Min will create the graphic identity of the first lab. It will be installed late next summer in North America, where it will present its programming (site-specific workshops, public discussions, performances) through the fall before moving on to cities in Europe and Asia. The structure will also present the responses of the BMW Guggenheim Lab Team (four early- to mid-career professionals identified as emerging leaders in their fields) to the first theme: “Confronting Comfort: The City and You.” At the conclusion of each structure’s three-year world tour, it will be the focus of an exhibition at the Guggenheim in New York City.

Many details remain sketchy, but here’s a handy diagram of how the first cycle will go and (posted below) a video explaining the project.

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While we continue to hear stories like yesterday’s news of the Indianapolis Museum of Art firing its security staff to save money, the Field Museum forced to cut jobs, or earlier this month finding the Seattle Art Museum asking to borrow $10 million from its endowment to help pay its bills, finally here’s something in the opposite direction that’s hopefully a sign of things to come. This week, the Milwaukee Art Museum announced that the department store chain Kohl’s has donated $2.7 million to help continue a program for children, one it originally helped fund and launch two years ago. This new money is the largest donation for educational initiatives the museum has ever received. While great for this individual museum, following two years of severely depleted corporate donations, from which money once poured like an open faucet that museums heavily relied upon, Kohl’s gift to Milwaukee is sure to perk some interest in seeing if this is just a one off benefit or a larger indicator that struggling corporations are starting to loosen up the purse strings again to support cultural institutions.

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It seemed like everything had been coming up pretty rosy for the Seattle Art Museum following the rug being pulled out from under them back in 2008 when the now-defunct Washington Mutual and JP Morgan abandoned their shared new building, leaving them in the lurch for millions at a time when museums across the board were struggling. Either because of that news and/or strong exhibitions, the SAM was suddenly swarmed with visitors, they picked up a new director, Derrick Cartwright, and Nordstrom announced they were stepping in to fill up a healthy portion of their building’s available empty space. But while it seemed things were on the up and up, apparently the museum is still hurting, with heavy debt lingering and a decline from that initial boost of visitor popularity. They’ve just released a statement saying they’ll be cutting 15 staff members, reducing executives’ pay by 10% (Cartwright himself will be taking a larger reduction), and perhaps most alarming, will be closing their doors for two weeks next year, from January 31st to Feburary 13th. Here’s a bit about the news from Cartwright:

“We are taking steps to remedy a tough situation. There is nothing more difficult about my role than saying goodbye to valued colleagues. The decision to reduce staff is especially hard since SAM has a talented workforce. Unfortunately, since personnel expenses represent a significant portion of our expense base, the only way to bring operating costs to sustainable levels is through staff reductions.”

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Say what you will about Eli Broad, the man knows how to build tension and generate some press. After what seems like decades of talk about his new museum and where it’s going to go, pitting architects and whole cities against one another in the process, it feels like we’re very nearly there in getting some solid facts out of the teasing billionaire. The LA Times have broken the story that Broad has selected two finalists to design the new museum, meaning it’s now Rem Koolhaas vs. Diller, Scofidio & Renfro in the last lap to land the gig. And since they were both tasked to create something based on Los Angeles’ Grand Avenue Project space, it also seems likely a decision about location has finally been made. Although we’re nearing the end, all of this buzz over the past bazillion years was even enough for the NY Times‘ resident critic Nicolai Ouroussoff to brave the elements and talk about something happening on the competing coast. Besides presenting some interesting details here and there about Grand Avenue and the architects-in-waiting’s plans, there’s nothing we haven’t been reading since the beginning of time since this Broad first announced his plans back in, well, November of 2008. Ah, how young we all were back then. Good times.

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