Holograms, hashtags and hand sanitizer: here's how fine art museums are dealing with the pandemic - aided by stimulus efforts and wealthy backers
Benoit Tessier/Reuters
- Fine art museums around the world are finding new ways to engage patrons online, using social campaigns, video series, and online exhibits.
- Some fine art museums, including the Whitney, the Guggenheim, and SFMoMA, accepted millions in loans from the Paycheck Protection Program, according to data.
- Museums that have remained open are using hand-sanitizer stations, timed entries, and one-way routes, complete with bathroom pit-stops.
- Museums are starting a new period marked by the "chaos" of the pandemic, said M. Özalp Birol, who oversees the Pera Museum in Istanbul, Turkey.
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As California shifted back into a pandemic lockdown, San Francisco's Museum of Modern Art was forced last weekend to close its doors yet again. But the shutdown hadn't stopped it from promoting its art, even if its galleries were empty.
Behind the scenes, a team of SFMoMA curators have been publishing a wide-ranging catalog, including everything from artist interviews to quizzes on the museum's history. It included a social media push on all channels with the hashtag #MuseumFromHome, which is its premier offering for the foreseeable future.
"As most of the state is now in the purple tier, it is unclear when we will reopen," Jill Lynch, interim chief marketing & communications officer," told Business Insider.
SFMoMA is just one of the many museums around world that have been pushing into new territory to find ways to engage patrons during the pandemic, even as they endure cycles of closing, reopening, and closing again.
Museums are mostly subject to local COVID-19 restrictions, same as restaurants and theaters, so the decision to close hasn't been left to leadership. And most that have remained open have required visitors to wear masks, like Amsterdam's Van Gogh Museum has been doing.
The Tate Modern in London is enforcing one-way walking routes, which include bathroom pit-stops, through its galleries. At the Louisiana Museum outside Copenhagen, Denmark, visitors are being asked to book time slots, use hand sanitizer stations around the museum, and "sneeze into your elbow."
Tokyo National Museum, meanwhile, asked visitors to keep conversations to a minimum, along with requesting they not touch anything, even the walls.
Benoit Tessier/Reuters
Other institutions have closed their galleries altogether, like the Musée du Louvre in Paris. It refunded all tickets, and plans to reopen December 15. The Art Institute of Chicago reopened in July with new rules, but was forced to close its doors again, also refunding all the tickets that had been purchased. It switched to promoting its online collection.
—Art Institute (@artinstitutechi) November 18, 2020
Some institutions receive portions of their funding from corporate donors or government grants, but many still rely on paying visitors. At least a few sought support from the Paycheck Protection Program, part of the US government stimulus efforts to keep businesses from shutting down or laying off workers.
In New York, both the Whitney and the Guggenheim museums took PPP loans in the range of $5 million to $10 million from the Small Business Administration, according to data released in July.
Similarly, the National September 11 Museum and the Jewish Museum both accepted loans of $2 million to $5 million, according to data. The New Museum took a loan of $1 million to $2 million.
In California, SFMoMA and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art both accepted loans in the range of $5 million to $10 million, according to data released in July.
Francois Lenoir/Reuters
The Asian Art Museum in San Francisco also negotiated a PPP loan, said Jay Xu, director and CEO. But the museum has still had to draw down from its endowment "more than ever before," though it's also increased fundraising and received a grant from the Mellon Foundation.
"This loan was critical for us to keep moving forward. We have also been fortunate in our board and patrons who stepped up when asked and contributed generously to our sustainer fund in a moment of crisis everywhere," he said.
Some museums won't be able to see the total effects of 2020 until they put together their 2021 budgets, said M. Özalp Birol, who oversees the Pera Museum in Istanbul, Turkey, as the general manager of the Suna and İnan Kıraç Foundation, Culture and Art Enterprises, told Business Insider.
Özalp Birol counted it as a positive that some institutions have slowly been creeping online over the last few years. That included the Pera Museum, which since 2012 has partnered with Google to bring some of its exhibits online. Now it's launching exhibits with holograms, maps, and games.
"The chaos created by the pandemic dissolved everything we know and marked the start of a new period," said Özalp Birol.
The Museum of Modern Art in New York this year launched a Virtual Views series, hosting online panels about Vincent Van Gogh's Starry Night, Surrealist Women, and photographer Gordon Parks.
The Whitney had an almost-daily calendar of online events scheduled for December. And as the Los Angeles County Museum of Art closed down again, curators continued the LACMA @ Home offerings launched in March, while still encouraging guests to tour its grounds.
At the Asian Art Museum, much of the curators' focus has shifted to its #MusuemFromHome platform. The museum has virtual tours of exhibits like "Awaken: A Tibetan Buddhist Journey Toward Enlightenment" and a video tutorial on meditation, along with a digital collection of 18,000 artworks.
"And right now, audiences really are all online," Xu told Business Insider.
He said: "This means all our cultural celebrations, from our New Year's Japanese bell-ringing ceremony, to our Lunar New Year festivities, will take place online. We'll be premiering original pre-recorded digital content on Facebook, like gallery tours, studio visits, behind-the-scenes with conservators, and lunchtime lectures, followed by live Q&As to ensure a participatory element."
While many museums may be looking more like the lonely, desolate landscapes of Edward Hopper's paintings amid the pandemic, they'll all open again eventually, even if visitors have to take a selfies with a masks on. The American Alliance of Museums in November published a comprehensive guide to reopening a gallery, including ways to keep employees safe.
—Andrea Ledesma (@am_ledesma) July 17, 2020
In Istanbul, the Pera reopened in June with new hygiene rules in place, and the combination of both online and offline exhibits has been working very well, Özalp Birol said.
"During this new period, we are seeing that institutions - combining physical reach with the opportunities afforded by digital technologies, understanding the dynamics of digital media, and creating smart solutions - are making a difference," he added.
Contributer : Business Insider https://ift.tt/3lJ2sZv
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Sunday, December 06, 2020
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