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museumsDesign Museum Preps for Its Move, Asks If Anyone Can Give Rem Koolhaas a Hand
In another museum-related visit back to days gone by, remember the rumor that London's Design Museum was thinking about making a move to a new building? Well while you've been over here Americaning it up, there's been movement and the museum has made it official, that they will be moving to West London, into that same rumored structure named the Parabola. To help speed things along as they're planning out the new museum, all under the helm of Rem Koolhaas and his pals at OMA, they've decided they need a little help and have issued a call out to firms who can work alongside the starchitect in handling some shared work: The Design Museum is seeking a design team, led by an architect and also comprising a structural engineer, an mechanical and electrical engineer, a construction design and management coordinator and a catering consultant to work on the museum fit-out within the Grade II*-listed building. Maybe one of the most high-profile gigs running in the UK right now? We're expecting they'll be swimming in proposals when the invitation closes early next month. The Design Museum itself is set to make the move as early as 2013, assuming everything goes as planned. Eli Broad Gets Back to Planning His New Museum
Remember around this time last year when billionaire Eli Broad announced he wanted to build a much, much bigger museum to house his massive modern art collection? But then, almost immediately after he said this, everything went to hell and he had to start bailing out everyone else's museums. There were some stirrings back in January about him on the hunt for a big shot starchitect to build his new art home, but since everything's been so lousy this year, that was about all we'd heard out of him about it. So here we are this year later and lo and behold, the smoke has somewhat cleared and he's back to planning. According to the LA Times, he's announced that he'll be creating a $200 million endowment to help kick start the process and wants to begin soon. And where will this new museum be located? He's apparently scrapped the initial plans to build it in Beverly Hills and, despite his saying otherwise, he decided to pit three Los Angeles towns against one another, Santa Monica, the aforementioned Hills, and a third yet-named, who will all be vying to find somewhere in their neighborhood: Broad said that he isn't trying to play the two municipalities against each other -- and added that there is a third possible location that he declined to name. The billionaire said he hopes that by talking to several different cities he can accelerate the process of building the headquarters for his Broad Art Foundation. Sure, it's not hunting man for sport, which most billionaire art collectors do for kicks, but it's still a lot of fun. Detroit Institute of Arts Gets LEGO Tribute
Previously on UnBeige: New York Museums Lend a Hand to Struggling ArchitectsWhile architects may be facing only a 50% chance at finding a regular paying gig these days, fortunately in New York there are a couple of charitable arms out there trying to help out. The L Magazine profiles the work of The Bronx Museum of Arts and the MoMA, both of which are trying to open their doors up to architects who likely haven't been having the best couple of years. The Bronx decided to run an exhibition featuring architects' ideas for redesigning the Grand Concourse that runs through the borough, while the MoMA has opened up space at P.S.1 for research projects concerning "flood problems as a result of global warming" for the NY area. So while it's not like the museum industry has faired much better since the economy's fall, but it's nice to see one group trying to help another, despite these trying times. Publishing of Warhol Letter Re-opens Regrets for MoMA
You're familiar with the recently buzzed about blog, Letters of Note, right? It's a fun site, run by Shaun Usher, who created it as "an attempt to gather and sort fascinating letters, postcards, telegrams, faxes, and memos." It features things like famous people writing to other famous people about famous things, historically important documents of all sorts, and pieces of writing made funny in hindsight. That latter category wound up sharing with the world a bit of an embarrassment for the Museum of Modern Art late last week, when the site published a rejection letter they had sent to Andy Warhol in the mid-1950s. The museum was turning down the now-famous artist as he tried to donate a piece from his "Shoes" series. Although the letter has appeared in books and elsewhere on the internet, the growing popularity of Letters of Note brought it out in the limelight again, which led to the museum having to shrug if off and once again regret this long-ago decision. But what can you do, right? Metropolitan Museum Returns Granite Fragment to Egypt
Putting the pieces together was Dorothea Arnold, chairman of the museum's Egyptian art department, who matched the fragment with a photo of a red granite naos, a shrine used to house a statue of a deity, that was missing a corner of its base. The chipped naos in question is located in the Ptah Temple of the Karnak complex, near Luxor. "The fragment on loan to us looked like it might fit this larger work. With my colleague Adela Oppenheim, we found a publication which set out the inscription on the naos in Karnak and we compared that inscription with the inscription on the fragment—the pieces fit together perfectly," said Arnold in a statement issued by the museum. "We decided that, in these circumstances, the appropriate thing to do was to alert the Egyptian authorities and to make arrangements with the owner so that we could return the fragment to Egypt." And if we know Zahi Hawass, he'll be waiting at the Cairo airport with balloons and a cake. Roof Collapses at Emily Dickinson's Home/MuseumWhile the MoMA's new tower might now be going up, everything else seems to be falling apart. Daniel Libeskind's Denver Art Museum is finally getting fixed for leaks and Populous' less than a year old Yankee Stadium is starting to crack (as was its team last night -- sorry, this writer couldn't resist). Now just to the north, in Amherst, Massachusetts, another bit of architectural calamity. Homestead, the house Emily Dickinson liked to be reclusive in, suffered a blow this week when part of its ceiling collapsed. The house is part of the larger Emily Dickinson Museum, which has since closed in order to evaluate the damage and see what can be done to get it fixed. Here's a bit: The ceiling that fell is not original to the house, [executive director Jane H. Ward] explained -- the plaster was laid over wire mesh, not lath -- and was probably installed in the 1960s, when the house was privately owned. For once, an overflowing tub was not to blame. "It appears that the plaster just detached itself from the wall," Ms. Ward said, "but we won't really know the extent of the damage until the inspection is completed." New Directors for P.S.1, Frye Art Museum
Museum of Arts & Design Showcases Works on Paper that Work on Paper
Print may be dying, but paper endures, whether cut, burned, shredded, scribbled on, or sculpted into elaborate art installations. The Museum of Arts & Design tears into the topic with "Slash: Paper Under the Knife," the third exhibition in its Materials and Process series. On view through April 4 of next year, the exhibition explores the creative possibilities of paper through the works of paper-loving artists such as Olafur Eliasson, who in 2006 reproduced a cross-section of his house (at a scale of 85:1) on 900 sheets of laser-cut paper in a sort of anti-pop-up book, and Kara Walker, whose painstaking paper cut-outs explore themes of race, gender, and the shadier side of American history.
Occupying one corner of the gallery is Pietro Ruffo's "Youth of the Hills" (2008), a six-foot-long tank that is studded with nails and covered in cut paper and Hebrew prayer script. More politically-charged paper sure to please the design crowd is the work of Sangeeta Sandrasegar, whose cut-outs insert war imagery into the distinctive shapes of iconic chairs designed by the likes of Marcel Breuer and Charles and Ray Eames. "The chair and image provoke constructs of looking/seeing: as bystander, spectator, onlooker, observer, and as such the range of power/powerlessness these positions convey," writes Sandrasegar on his blog. "Additionally, between the depicted image of war and the chair template lie other gulfs of of contrast: between first and third worlds, the safe worlds in which designer furniture exists, and the unsafe worlds in which bombs and raids exist, creation and destruction, wealth and poverty." Previously on UnBeige: Shoe Museum Manages to Save Imelda Marcos Collection from Floods
If you'd heard about the recent flooding in the Philippines, which took its toll in human lives and destroying whole towns, it's likely that the last thing on your mind would be shoes. But for those of you who were thinking about footwear, you can rest easy in knowing that the majority of Imelda Marcos' shoes were saved from destruction thanks to some quick thinking by the staff at the Marikina Shoe Museum ("Home of the World's Largest Shoe"), which was the recipient of "more than 800 pairs donated by the former first lady," who were able to move the collection out of harms way. When the water started coming in, "the staff quickly moved the collection to the top shelves of display cabinets and only around 100 got wet." So breathe easy, shoe fetishists (and the ghost of Imelda Marcos), the mother of all collections has been saved. PreviouslyMixed Reactions, but Mostly More Anger, as Design Plans for the New Barnes Foundation are Unveiled McD'Oh! Mona Lisa Meets McMuffins: Louvre to Get Golden Arches Umberto Eco Signs On as the Louvre's Guest Curator Leaked E-Mail Describes Smithsonian's Buyout Offer to Employees Donald Fisher's Death Leaves SFMOMA Scrambling Brandeis University President to Resign Over Rose Art Museum Mishandling At Hammer Museum, Nic Hess Climbs the Walls Design Museum Names This Year's 'Designers in Residence' Participants A Look Back at Wayne Clough's First Year at the Smithsonian Guggenheim's Wright Exhibit Breaks Attendance Records The Lighthouse Lays Off Half Its Staff, Now Controlled by Adminstrators Traveling Herman Miller Exhibit Kicks Off Nationwide Tour This November One Year After Bail-Out, Scotland's Center for Design and Architecture Faces Closure Once More Museums' Tiny Warnings Result in Blushing, Frantic Parents Smithsonian Rolls Out New Tour Video Starring Ben Stiller LA Times Looks Into Michael Govan's Salary, Christopher Knight Doesn't Like His Regular Absences After Controversies and Troubles, John Maeda's Second Year at RISD is Time to Prove Himself Former Getty Director Deborah Gribbon Takes Over at Cleveland Museum of Art Following Mass Layoffs Large Collection of Birds Stolen from Natural History Museum Bristol Museum Forced to Show How Little They Had to Pay Banksy The Ol' Give and Take: Museum Directors' Salaries and America's Top Philanthropists LACMA's Film Program Cut Leads to Millions in Donations Hope Alswang Resignation Catches Everyone Off-Guard, RISD Board Wants to Investigate Will Fisher Collection Leave San Francisco? LACMA Forced to Answer Fallout Over Cancelation of Their Weekend Film Program Acropolis Museum Reverses Decision on Removing Scenes from Costa-Gavras' Short Film Saving Detroit's Soul, One Funk Karaoke Contest at a Time Critic Kenneth Turan Angered Over LACMA's Film Program Cut At the Wolfsonian, Life's a Beach Rose Art Museum Supporters Take Brandeis University to Court to Try Blocking Sales Los Angeles County Museum of Art Finds Itself Low on Staff Neil Armstrong Air and Space Museum Sees Big Crowds But Faces Possible Closure Getting to Know 'Tapestry Tom' Campbell Rhode Island School of Design's Museum of Art Closes for August, Suffers Layoffs Ford's Theater Museum Set to Re-Open After Two Years of Renovations Getty Center Reopens Today After Two Day Fire Scare and Evacuations Pez Goes After Museum of Pez Memorabilia Over Eight-Foot-Tall Pez Snowman Donald Fisher Pulls the Plug on Presidio Museum LA's Museum of Contemporary Art Says They've Completely Recouped Their Loses, Everything's Fine Now Quote of Note | Richard Armstrong Jerry Saltz Takes on MoMA's Lack of Female Artists via Facebook New York Museums Fight to Push Back Deaccessioning Bill Guggenheim Launches Online Design Forum OCMA Director to Keep Buyer's Name Secret Outside of Museum Community Debbie Reynolds 'Hollywood Museum' Files for Chapter 11 Paul Smith's Giant Rabbits Aim to Curb Littering in London Orange County Museum of Art Secretly Sells Paintings, Opens Back Up Deaccessioning Debate Shrinking Endowments Force Guggenheim to Lay Off Eight Percent of Staff Artist Katie Holten Takes All the Trees, Puts 'Em in a Tree Museum Will The Judds Launch the Temporary Museum Movement? Despite Popularity, Louvre Has Concerns About Future Guggenheim Teams with Google on Shelter Design Contest Brooklyn Museum Swindler Arrested Headless Dinos, Paint Throwing Vandals and a Struggling Johnny Appleseed Center Night at the Museum Sequel Spotlights Smithsonian; Next Stop, MoMA? A Tour of Renzo Piano's New Modern Wing, Part Three A Tour of Renzo Piano's New Modern Wing, Part Two Exclusive Tour of Renzo Piano's New Modern Wing, Part One Tucson Museum of Art Sees Arraignment of Million Dollar Thief Rose Art Advisory Panel Gives Thumbs Up to Brandeis' Closure Plans, Supporters Cry Foul Albertina Museum Gets Pranked Double in Vienna Radio Station's Beyonce Stunt Getty Trust Cuts 200+ Positions, Institutes Budget Trims and Expects Exhibit Delays Mr. T, Lincoln, Seinfeld Cast Among Hollywood Wax Museum Figures up for Sale Dire World Straits Result in Different Outcomes for Museums What Went Wrong With the Children's Museum of Los Angeles from Birth to Death The Many Pros and Cons of the Art Institute of Chicago's New Modern Wing Seattle Art Museum Possibly Finds Desperately Needed New Renter for Empty Offices Sports Museum Creditors Asking Artifact Donors to Pay to Get Their Stuff Back San Diego Museum Thieves Skip the Collection, Hit the ATM Revised Presidio Museum Plans Slapped with Another New Complaint Children's Museum of Los Angeles Forced to Close Before It Even Opened David Ross Complains About Museum Sales, Rose Art Avoids Them (For Now) Wayne Clough Extends Hours at Smithsonian Hot Spots to Help Revenue Flow Museum Industry Tries Turning to Tech to Drum Up Interest Museums Pained Over Both Too Few Visitors and Excess Attendance Seattle Art Museum Surprised by Huge Number of Visitors The Louvre Retains Its Place as 'World's Most Popular Museum' Presidio Museum Registers New Complaint: No Parking Proposals Unveiled for National Museum of African American History and Culture Queens Museum of Art Offers Up New York City for Sale Chicago Councilmen Issue Threats Over Museum Ticket Price Increases Rose Family Speaks Out Against Brandeis University Getty Trust the Latest to Suffer Economic Hardships Layoffs Continue at the Met with Likely More to Come LA Sports Museum Forced to Close Its Doors, While Santa Cruz Will Remain Open Newport Film Festival Donates $10,000 to Museum of Modern Art MoMA Debuts Redesigned Website Closure of Museum Erotica Proves We're All Doomed Renderings of the Latest Draft of the Presidio Museum Brandeis Changing Its Story on Closure of Rose Art Museum New Plans for Presidio Museum Seem to Appease Hatred The Met Closes Retail Outlets, Acknowledges Possible Layoffs NY's Sports Museum of America Shuts Down On the Verge of Collapse, Vanderbilt Museum Finds Gem Behind Basement Wall |
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