“I've seen seven art fairs in the space of four days, so the 'current state of the art world' is making my brain explode,” I told grad students at Rutgers recently, when asked to assess the contemporary field of fine art. Not that art fairs should necessarily affect our ability to see art, the issue is just that they increasingly do. Certainly the fact that the Armory Show raised its entrance fee 33% and nobody said a word speaks to the value people place on shopping. Let's keep in mind that the already steep $20 MoMA admission is now $10 cheaper than a $30 day pass at this fair.
Three years ago, when MoMA first increased its entrance fee, critics claimed the expansion would be lost to lower-income classes due to the prohibitive price. Sadly, no such debate transpired when the Armory hiked its rates, presumably because commercial enterprises claim no responsibility in making salable art available to the public. This isn't to say they don't, but it's not unreasonable to assume that this year's increase in admission was a calculated decision to thin non-buyers from the giant crowds experienced in 2007. After all, the move facilitates sales, benefiting everyone involved but the poor.
The whittling away of the public's ability to view art, however, doesn't stop here. One aspect of art fair dominance I have yet to see addressed by critics is the fact that every time a series of works is exhibited for the first time at an art fair, its sale shrinks the public viewing time, while charging us for something we'd have previously seen for free. Sure, this art may be seen again on the secondary market or in exhibition, but tracking down a complete suite of works that may have been sold to a number of different clients often requires more resources than a space has at its disposal.
To read the whole piece click here.
{ 21 comments }
If attending the Armory Show is important to you, you can start saving $1. per week to get a $50. four-day pass for the 2009 edition…The folks at MoMA probably figured out that people visit the museum four or fewer times per year or dozens of times a year; the projected admissions revenue analysis probably yielded a result of $20. per visit and $75. per year; the Metropolitan Museum of Art has been setting suggested admissions amounts in connection with needed projected revenues for almost 40 years; they don’t just pull numbers out of hat…Concerning viewing opportunities, the number of people seeing a work of art at a four-day fair is often much higher than the number who see a work during a month-long gallery exhibition….
If attending the Armory Show is important to you, you can start saving $1. per week to get a $50. four-day pass for the 2009 edition…The folks at MoMA probably figured out that people visit the museum four or fewer times per year or dozens of times a year; the projected admissions revenue analysis probably yielded a result of $20. per visit and $75. per year; the Metropolitan Museum of Art has been setting suggested admissions amounts in connection with needed projected revenues for almost 40 years; they don’t just pull numbers out of hat…Concerning viewing opportunities, the number of people seeing a work of art at a four-day fair is often much higher than the number who see a work during a month-long gallery exhibition….
Nobody said they were pulling numbers out of a hat. Glenn Lowry said 20 bucks was the lowest number that gave them a balanced budget for the programming they felt they needed, and I believe him. But I don’t think that’s the end of the issue, because it’s Museum’s are having problems drawing in young people – those are the people who a) can afford the least, and b) are the museum’s future benefactors. Tyler Green wrote about MoMA a while ago and said pretty much the same thing.
Nobody said they were pulling numbers out of a hat. Glenn Lowry said 20 bucks was the lowest number that gave them a balanced budget for the programming they felt they needed, and I believe him. But I don’t think that’s the end of the issue, because it’s Museum’s are having problems drawing in young people – those are the people who a) can afford the least, and b) are the museum’s future benefactors. Tyler Green wrote about MoMA a while ago and said pretty much the same thing.
Nobody said they were pulling numbers out of a hat. Glenn Lowry said 20 bucks was the lowest number that gave them a balanced budget for the programming they felt they needed, and I believe him. But I don’t think that’s the end of the issue, because it’s Museum’s are having problems drawing in young people – those are the people who a) can afford the least, and b) are the museum’s future benefactors. Tyler Green wrote about MoMA a while ago and said pretty much the same thing.
Nobody said they were pulling numbers out of a hat. Glenn Lowry said 20 bucks was the lowest number that gave them a balanced budget for the programming they felt they needed, and I believe him. But I don’t think that’s the end of the issue, because it’s Museum’s are having problems drawing in young people – those are the people who a) can afford the least, and b) are the museum’s future benefactors. Tyler Green wrote about MoMA a while ago and said pretty much the same thing.
Nobody said they were pulling numbers out of a hat. Glenn Lowry said 20 bucks was the lowest number that gave them a balanced budget for the programming they felt they needed, and I believe him. But I don’t think that’s the end of the issue, because it’s Museum’s are having problems drawing in young people – those are the people who a) can afford the least, and b) are the museum’s future benefactors. Tyler Green wrote about MoMA a while ago and said pretty much the same thing.
I was at MoMA on a recent Monday, and the lobby was completely packed with students who were presumably on holiday during Spring Break.
I was at MoMA on a recent Monday, and the lobby was completely packed with students who were presumably on holiday during Spring Break.
“At the Museum of Modern Art, Glenn D. Lowry, the director, said that it was just as important to know who is not coming to the museum as it is to know who is.
“It’s what you’re missing,” he said. While entry information and other data showed that a healthy number of college students visited the Modern, “we were not drawing as many of the 20- to 30-years-olds that we hoped,” Mr. Lowry said. “So we went out to determine how to better communicate with them.””
http://www.nytimes.com/indexes/2008/03/12/arts/artsspecial/index.html
“At the Museum of Modern Art, Glenn D. Lowry, the director, said that it was just as important to know who is not coming to the museum as it is to know who is.
“It’s what you’re missing,” he said. While entry information and other data showed that a healthy number of college students visited the Modern, “we were not drawing as many of the 20- to 30-years-olds that we hoped,” Mr. Lowry said. “So we went out to determine how to better communicate with them.””
http://www.nytimes.com/indexes/2008/03/12/arts/artsspecial/index.html
“At the Museum of Modern Art, Glenn D. Lowry, the director, said that it was just as important to know who is not coming to the museum as it is to know who is.
“It’s what you’re missing,” he said. While entry information and other data showed that a healthy number of college students visited the Modern, “we were not drawing as many of the 20- to 30-years-olds that we hoped,” Mr. Lowry said. “So we went out to determine how to better communicate with them.””
http://www.nytimes.com/indexes/2008/03/12/arts/artsspecial/index.html
“At the Museum of Modern Art, Glenn D. Lowry, the director, said that it was just as important to know who is not coming to the museum as it is to know who is.
“It’s what you’re missing,” he said. While entry information and other data showed that a healthy number of college students visited the Modern, “we were not drawing as many of the 20- to 30-years-olds that we hoped,” Mr. Lowry said. “So we went out to determine how to better communicate with them.””
http://www.nytimes.com/indexes/2008/03/12/arts/artsspecial/index.html
I’m nothing but an art enthusiast with so little disposeable income that I feel guilty going to gallery openings because I know there is no chance of me buying anything. I still go, I’m just the kind of person who’s always going to feel phony about it.
It’s really good that you bring this up in this way. How does are circulate and matter and have an effect if it’s shut off into certain segments of society and just gets bought and stuck in a person’s home? Music gets concerts and books get published and plays go on tour or have runs… what’s the equivalent for visual art?
And can the people who “need” to see it, see it? Will it get to enough people to be relevant? Does the art world care? Should it?
I don’t mean to just rattle off questions, but these were my reactions to your piece.
I’m nothing but an art enthusiast with so little disposeable income that I feel guilty going to gallery openings because I know there is no chance of me buying anything. I still go, I’m just the kind of person who’s always going to feel phony about it.
It’s really good that you bring this up in this way. How does are circulate and matter and have an effect if it’s shut off into certain segments of society and just gets bought and stuck in a person’s home? Music gets concerts and books get published and plays go on tour or have runs… what’s the equivalent for visual art?
And can the people who “need” to see it, see it? Will it get to enough people to be relevant? Does the art world care? Should it?
I don’t mean to just rattle off questions, but these were my reactions to your piece.
I’m nothing but an art enthusiast with so little disposeable income that I feel guilty going to gallery openings because I know there is no chance of me buying anything. I still go, I’m just the kind of person who’s always going to feel phony about it.
It’s really good that you bring this up in this way. How does are circulate and matter and have an effect if it’s shut off into certain segments of society and just gets bought and stuck in a person’s home? Music gets concerts and books get published and plays go on tour or have runs… what’s the equivalent for visual art?
And can the people who “need” to see it, see it? Will it get to enough people to be relevant? Does the art world care? Should it?
I don’t mean to just rattle off questions, but these were my reactions to your piece.
I’m nothing but an art enthusiast with so little disposeable income that I feel guilty going to gallery openings because I know there is no chance of me buying anything. I still go, I’m just the kind of person who’s always going to feel phony about it.
It’s really good that you bring this up in this way. How does are circulate and matter and have an effect if it’s shut off into certain segments of society and just gets bought and stuck in a person’s home? Music gets concerts and books get published and plays go on tour or have runs… what’s the equivalent for visual art?
And can the people who “need” to see it, see it? Will it get to enough people to be relevant? Does the art world care? Should it?
I don’t mean to just rattle off questions, but these were my reactions to your piece.
That’s a massively useful newspaper excerpt. Indeed, when an arts institution gains the loyalty of 20- to 30-year-olds, they attract audiences who participate for a lifetime.
That’s a massively useful newspaper excerpt. Indeed, when an arts institution gains the loyalty of 20- to 30-year-olds, they attract audiences who participate for a lifetime.
From having worked at the MoMA recently, I can honestly say that the price of admission is between cheap to fair. If people can shell out $12 for a 90 minute movie, spending all day with quality art, reading in the garden, a free ticket for use at PS1 for a month, and free lectures and performances with admission if you bother to look at the calendar beforehand. It’s a deal.
One can certainly have issues with the museum for a variety of reasons relating to the layout, programming, crowds, and etc times infinity, but I don’t think price is on the list anymore.
From having worked at the MoMA recently, I can honestly say that the price of admission is between cheap to fair. If people can shell out $12 for a 90 minute movie, spending all day with quality art, reading in the garden, a free ticket for use at PS1 for a month, and free lectures and performances with admission if you bother to look at the calendar beforehand. It’s a deal.
One can certainly have issues with the museum for a variety of reasons relating to the layout, programming, crowds, and etc times infinity, but I don’t think price is on the list anymore.
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