Font size corresponds to the ratio of twitter followers to museum visitors. Museums are listed in order of fewest to most visitors. (Click to expand.) Special thanks to my friends at the Official Museum Directory.
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Tagged "Brooklyn Museum", infographic, museum, museums, nyc, twitter, visitorship
The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:
The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.
A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 3,000 times in 2010. That’s about 7 full 747s.
In 2010, there were 8 new posts, not bad for the first year! There were 10 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 2mb. That’s about a picture per month.
The busiest day of the year was June 15th with 328 views. The most popular post that day was Brooklyn Museum Visitorship on the Rise Where it Counts: Some New York Times Readers Are Missing the Point.
The top referring sites in 2010 were twitter.com, facebook.com, c-monster.net, flavors.me, and blog.art21.org.
Some visitors came searching, mostly for museum nerd, brooklyn museum, mexican museum san francisco, brooklyn museum visitors, and museumnerd.
These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.
Brooklyn Museum Visitorship on the Rise Where it Counts: Some New York Times Readers Are Missing the Point June 2010
10 comments
#CloughMustGo Explained December 2010
4 comments
Yorba Named Director of SF’s Mexican Museum August 2010
2 comments
About the Nerd January 2010
Press for the Nerd March 2010
1 comment
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Recently an issue has caused me such personal anguish and sadness that I felt I had to step over an invisible line I’d drawn for myself. As @museumnerd on twitter and elsewhere, I have heretofore avoided politics. Recently something occured which truly horrified me and forced me to cross that line.
Smithsonian Secretary Wayne Clough decided to remove David Wojnarovicz’s video “Fire In My Belly,” (which is about what it felt like for the artist to be dying of AIDS), from the exhibit “Hide/Seek” at the National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C. This occured because two Congresspeople, prompted largely by a group called the Catholic League (not affiliated with the Catholic Church), which also believes that “Funding Museums Is Class Descrimination,” threatened to cease funding the Smithsonian if they didn’t close the show down. This decision reinforces bigotry and takes action on the threats of severely misguided people who have no idea how much museums benefit some of the poorest school children throughout the U.S. among so many others.
The action I have taken in protest is to start a hashtag on twitter to symbolize my feelings to the 33,000+ people who I am extremely lucky to have as an audience. These are the exact people who I hope to energize because I know they ALL know how important museums are, not just to poor children, but to our amazing diverse communities all over the country.
The hastag I created is #CloughMustGo. It represents my feeling that Wayne Clough, the de facto director of the Smithsonian Institution (which I love and grew up visiting frequently), should step down because his decision was an aggregious error which has far-reaching repercussions and suggests that censorship is a solution to bullying.
I recognize it seems very extreme, and that Wayne Clough is in most respects an admirable man, but because he has accepted responsibility for the decision, I think our push for change must be directed at the person directly responsible.
I feel terrible for the Smithsonian staffers, especially at National Portrait Gallery (and now at Cooper Hewitt who will have hundreds of protesters yelling at them with anger). They are not responsible. I think more pin-pointed political move is to focus the protest on the person who has claimed responsibility, but I will still march.
I admire Clough for taking the responsibility of the decision on himself, but our outcry needs a strong focused statement that rejects leadership which reinforces the warped viewpoint of an organization (The Catholic League) which says, “all public monies for the arts should cease.”
I wish that I had more time to write on this more eloquently. I have been very lucky to have had the ear of the brilliant Nancy Proctor, Head of Mobile Strategy & Initiatives at the Smithsonian Institution, who had written the following on Linked In:
I am deeply disappointed by the decision to remove the video from the exhibition. I am also embarrassed and disturbed by the treatment of the protesters in this video by SI guards:
http://www.queerty.com/smithsonian-not-pleased-with-patrons-bringing-aids-jesus-back-into-the-museum-on-an-ipad-20101206/Handcuffing them and banning them from SI for life is not the right answer. An opportunity to have a substantive conversation about the issues raised by the exhibition and the complaints about it has been missed. We should have been using this debate to build our communities, not cull them.
I asked Nancy what she thought of #CloughMustGo and she expressed the following objections to me in an email and agreed to let me quote her.
Although I disagree with Dr Clough’s decision and NPG’s affirmation of it (not to mention the treatment of the protesters in the museum shown in that distressing video), I don’t agree that Dr Clough should be removed from his post because of it. That feels to me like an act not unlike the decision to remove the video from the exhibition, and “an eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind.” I don’t think the response to contentious events and topics should be to remove, censor, switch off, shut down, or otherwise silence parties to the debate. Rather, as I indicated in my post to the MAAM group, I’d like to see us courageously and wholeheartedly join the conversation, with open minds and ears, and be willing to listen as much as we talk. I am not so naïve as to think that all we need is a good chat and we’ll walk away as friends. On the contrary, I suspect some differences of opinion are irreconcilable. But if we have at least surfaced all points of view fully, we can map the scope of the issues and perhaps approach the topic better informed and more sensitive to the full context of the conversation, so as to engage in it more productively in future. And maybe, with time, we’ll evolve into better human beings who can find ways to work together rather than issue ultimatums and cut off bits of one another, be that funding or leadership.
In that spirit, I am glad that you are taking steps to express your views on this critically important issue, and commend you for encouraging the conversation more broadly. I would like to see the Smithsonian do the same through town hall meetings and other events on the exhibition, the artwork, and the questions of censorship, control and funding for the arts that the protest has raised. There is a great opportunity here to engage with crucial topics for both the arts and, as you say, civil rights. I hope we don’t shut the door to it.
I respect Nancy’s opinion, but still feel #CloughMustGo is a non-hysterical, considered political move. Unfortunately, politics is very broad brush. You ask for something big to get something small (like putting a video back into an exhibit).
I also had intelligent, considered, detracting feedback for from Koven J. Smith on his blog:
http://kovenjsmith.com/archives/359
I am all for debate. I am all for subtlety and nuance, but I also have some inkling of how politics works and do feel strongly that we should only “attack” those who are directly responsible for what we are outraged by.
I apologize for the very rough nature of this post and if I find the time I will come back and clean it up, but timing is everything right now.
If you are of like mind or just want to protest the removal of Wojnarowicz’s video, please come to the steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Sunday at 1pm to march with us to Cooper Hewitt (a Smithsonian museum), an act which is meant to be symbolic and not to express anger at any of the great Smithsonian staff (except Wayne Clough).
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Roy Lichtenstein, I Know How You Must Feel, Brad!, 1963, graphite pencil, pochoir, and lithographic rubbing crayon. Private Collection. © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein. Photography: Schecter Lee, 2009.
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The Mexican Museum's New Director, Jonathan Yorba (Image courtesy of pe.com)
Jonathan Yorba, who was once the Director of Education and Community Programs at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, and a Curator of Education at the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento, has been named the new Executive Director of San Francisco’s Mexican Museum.
I’ve been a fan of the Mexican Museum for years, but have only been able to get in to see an exhibit once. Their galleries in Fort Mason Center have been closed almost every time I’ve tried to go. The one time I made it in, they’d just had a fundraiser exhibit of work by local artists and though they were technically closed, they let me look around a bit.
Could the Mexican Museum's Dream Home Finally Become a Reality?
I was thrilled when I learned the Museum was planning a new building by the YBCA, the Contemporary Jewish Museum, and SFMOMA, but disheartened to find out they’d been working on it since the early 1990s with very little progress. It seems this whole current boost for the Mexican Museum is thanks at least in part to San Francisco Arts Commission chief Luis Cancel and a big $5,000,000 investment from Millennium Partners, a real estate developer. I have high hopes for the leadership of Jonathan Yorba and I’ll be thrilled not if but when they open in a fantastic new edifice!
Since I couldn’t find this press release on San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsome’s website or anywhere on the web (it was sent to me in an email), I thought I’d post it here for you.
Enjoy!
***********************************************
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Contact: Mayor’s Office of Communications (415) 554-6131
***PRESS RELEASE***
THE MEXICAN MUSEUM ANNOUNCES NEW EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Nationally recognized expert on Latino art and culture, Jonathan L. Yorba, Ph.D., will lead The Mexican Museum’s move to its new home.
SAN FRANCISCO, August 27, 2010 – San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom today announced that the Board of Trustees of The Mexican Museum has selected Jonathan L. Yorba, Ph.D., to assume the position of Executive Director. This appointment is an important milestone in the Museum’s Renacimiento Campaign to re-ignite its presence at its current Fort Mason Center location and fulfill its public trust commitment to preserve and display its collection of over 12,000 works of art. Currently the Arts and Cultural Affairs Manager for the City of Riverside, California, Mr. Yorba is a recognized leader in the arts with a distinguished professional and academic background including a doctorate from the University of California at Berkeley in Comparative Ethnic Studies. As the executive director of The Mexican Museum, he will be responsible for managing the Museum’s day-to-day operations and overseeing its future expansion into its new home, which will be located adjacent to Jessie Square in the Yerba Buena Cultural District at 706 Mission Street. Mr. Yorba will officially assume his new role on September 15, 2010.
“I applaud the Board of Trustees on selecting a candidate who not only possesses an incredible resume as a leader in the arts but also has demonstrated tremendous business acumen and extensive experience with capital projects,” said Mayor Newsom. “The appointment of Mr. Yorba represents one giant step towards the fulfillment of a dream shared by so many San Francisco residents to see the Museum move to a new home in the Yerba Buena Cultural District.”
The Co-Chairs of The Mexican Museum’s Board of Trustees Mario Diaz and Nora Wagner, stated, “The Mexican Museum is fortunate to have Jonathan Yorba return to the Museum. His energy, commitment to the 706 Mission Street Project collaboration, development background and knowledge of the Collection were key factors in choosing him for this leadership role.”
“I have been a huge fan of The Mexican Museum for more that 25 years. In fact, my first trip to San Francisco was specifically to visit the Museum,” stated Luis R. Cancel, director of cultural affairs for the San Francisco Arts Commission. “The Mexican Museum recognizes the national and international stature that Mr. Yorba will bring to the Museum. His expertise and experience will provide strong direction to the institution as it moves forward.”
Since the early 1990s, the Redevelopment Agency has been working with the Museum toward the development of a new facility. While earlier planning focused on a “stand-alone” building, current efforts are centered on a new mixed-use project that includes 706 Mission Street and consists of a residential tower incorporating both the landmark Mercantile Building and the Museum.
According to Executive Director of the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency Fred Blackwell, “The Redevelopment Agency and the City are fully committed to the public/private/non-profit partnership that will bring The Mexican Museum to a new home in the heart of Yerba Buena Center, San Francisco’s premier cultural district. The hiring of Mr. Yorba is another step in the strengthening of this vital cultural institution as we work together with the Museum and our development partner, Millennium Partners, toward this long-sought goal.”
“We are very happy that the Mexican Museum will have an executive director to help move the Museum forward and make it a reality,” said Sean Jeffries, SF Managing Partner, Millennium Partners.
Mr. Yorba is a recognized expert on Latino art and culture who has authored numerous publications including Arte Latino: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Collection (New York: Watson-Guptill Publications, 2001). Previous to his current position with the City of Riverside, he was the Director of Education and Community Programs at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, and from 1992 to 1997, he served as the acting executive director and interim curator at The Mexican Museum.
The Mexican Museum holds a unique collection of over 12,000 objects, including painting, sculpture, folk art and represents thousands of years of Mexican art and culture within the Americas. The permanent collection, the Museum’s most important asset and resource, includes five collecting areas: Pre-Conquest; Colonial; Popular; Modern and Contemporary Mexican and Latino; and Chicano Art. The Museum also has an impressive number of rare books and a growing collection of Latin American art. The Museum will celebrate its 35th anniversary on November 20, 2010, which also coincides with the 100th anniversary of the Mexican Revolution.
Among the planned events is the opening of new exhibition, Images of Independence and Revolution, which will be on view from September 11, 2010 through February 20, 2011 at the Fort Mason Center. A gala celebration and fundraiser for the Museum is scheduled for Saturday, November 20th at the Four Seasons Hotel. For more information, visit http://www.mexicanmuseum.org
Who's welcome at the Brooklyn Museum?
The attempts of Brooklyn Museum of Art (BMA) to court more than just a White, middle- and upper-class, over-40, audience have resulted in a visitorship that more closely reflects Brooklyn’s demographics. (At the time of the 2000 census, Brooklyn was only about 40% White/Caucasian.) The focus of the recent New York Times article, “Brooklyn Museum’s Populism Hasn’t Lured Crowds,” (and several of its readers’ publicly expressed opinions on twitter) suggests that Brooklyn Museum mounted “populist” (or in one blogger’s confounding and contradictory interpretation, “false” populist) exhibits to increase overall visitor numbers, and that this was a failure. In fact the article provides enough information for discerning readers to draw a variety of nuanced conclusions. The problem is mostly in the broad suggestion of its headline paired with the assumption that “luring crowds” is or should be BMA’s goal.
Many studies have shown that the large majority of art museum visitors are college-educated, white people. Many minorities, non-whites, and working class people (regardless of race), feel uncomfortable or unwelcome in museums. This is an atrocity. Working to change this takes time. Brooklyn Museum and many other museums are making strides to do so. (Some people on twitter caught on to this.) BMA’s programming is quite diverse and has not become a mere dumbed-down series of amusements. Healing the Wounds of War: The Brooklyn Sanitary Fair of 1864 is a current example of an exhibit that is of a purely scholarly and educational nature. The recent James Tissot: “The Life of Christ” was an amazing scholarly exhibit of one of the museum’s collection highlights which was barely covered in the press. Reflections on the Electric Mirror: New Feminist Video was a starred exhibit in New Yorker magazine for the length of its seven-month run. It was exactly the kind of exhibit detractors are saying is being replaced by Star Wars and Hip-Hop exhibits whose focus may not be scholarly in an art-historical context. In fact these exhibits peacefully CO-EXIST and attract a broader variety of visitors for doing so.
Anyone who has been to a “First Saturday” at Brooklyn Museum knows that it is the most diverse recurring party in New York City, not just in terms of race, but also of age, cultural background, and socio-economic background. The other thing that the press seems to overlook is that these visitors look at the art! I have been to many First Saturdays. I remember the long lines to see the Basquiat exhibit (2005) and the Murakami show (2008), but I also have had many experiences of wandering through the permanent collection galleries and other temporary exhibitions and seeing all kinds of people looking at art on a First Saturday!
Inside the Brooklyn Museum looking out (at Eastern Parkway and Washington Avenue).
I suspect that the real reason for a decrease in numbers has more to do with major cutbacks in funding during the economic downturn. The museum’s staff was cut and this almost always results in a decline in programming and promotion which in turn brings about a decline in visitorship. Though the Times article states, “Last year, the museum cut its staff by 20 through layoffs and buyouts,” it does not make this tie—a connection which is obvious to anyone who works inside a museum in similar circumstances.
One major problem with the current funding structure for museums is that government funders and foundations place a disproportionate amount of weight on increasing the numbers. This is the very thing that pressures museums to mount exhibits conceived to bring in large numbers in the first place. Articles which reinforce this thinking are not helping the cause and do not encourage museums to better serve their constituencies.
On a nice quick jaunt through Chelsea yesterday I bumped into Jonathan from Art21 and a couple of his charming friends. We strolled (sprinted) to as many shows as we could before I had to roll on (like deodorant).
Memorable:
The looming, char-black pieces of wood in Leonardo Drew’s ceiling-high sculptures and Vic Muniz’s playful/pensive momento mori skeleton photos. The skeletons are “drawn” by all kinds of detritus laid out on the floor which is then photographed from above.
El Anatsui’s lovely huge tapestry-like sculptures made from bottle top foils. Brilliant reflective fabric-like expanses with great folds and plays with light.
Another Wonderful El Anatsui at Jack Shainman Gallery
Absolutely exquisite stuff which reminded me of the mastery of Francisco de Zurbarán’s richly colored folds of fabric on saints’ robes.
El Anatsui at Jack Shainman Gallery
Diane Arbus’s small photo show at Cheim & Read. The best ones were a haunting shot of the Castle at Disneyland at night (above) and a flash shot showing the track inside the haunted house at Coney Island.
Side note:
All of the Arbus prints were editions of 75 and were $35,000 each. (There’s 14 of them. If they all sold, that would be $36,750,000.) According to the friendly gallerino, they were all made posthumously except the black Madonna. Maybe I’ll print out my crummy camera-phone shots of them and pretend I’m a billionaire.
my crummy camera-phone shot of Diane Arbus's Coney Island Fun House
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I noticed about two weeks ago that my Twitter following had gone up by about 200 people in just a couple days. It took me a while to figure out what was happening.
I used to get about 10-20 new followers a day, depending on my activity. All of a sudden I was getting about 10 times that with no obvious explanation.
It turns out Twitter had added me to their “Suggestions” page under “Staff Picks” (at roughly 3 p.m. on January 21, 2010). That day, I had 59 new followers (8 before 3 p.m., 51 after 3 p.m.). The next day, I had 120 new followers, and another 108 the following day. Yesterday (February 12, 2010) I welcomed 171 new followers. In three weeks I’ve more than doubled my following (about 2,500 to 5,555). Thanks, Twitter!
The reason I’m bothering to mention this is because the same boost in following has happened for the museums that were added to Twitter’s suggestions in the “Art-Design” category. Jim Richardson’s roundup of museum followings on Twitter for Museum Marketing of January 2, 2010, was his last count before a big explosion in the numbers.
Key examples of Twitter’s “Suggested” museums and their increase in a month and a half:
Smithsonian up 111% (16,767 —> 35,351)
Guggenheim up 141% (13,003 —> 31,339)
Metropolitan up 111% (11,686 —> 24,629)
Whitney up 94% (11,590 —> 22,515)
Walker Art Center up 95% (9,808 —> 19,164)
SFMoMA up 115% (8,914 —> 19,194)
The Warhol Museum up a stunning 193% (7,856 —> 23,039), almost tripling their following in just over a month.
As of February 9, the British Library had no idea why they had such a big boost in following. It turns out, they’ve been listed as a recommendation in the “Books” category, and their following has gone up 187% (5,912 —>16,996).
What do we make of this? Well, the museums that aren’t listed are still having to obtain new followers the old-fashioned way; they earn them.
Let’s take a look at a few important museums that aren’t listed:
Philadelphia Museum up 9% (13,991 —>15,279)
The Women’s Museum up 7% (13,970 —> 14,942)
Holocaust Museum (DC) up 8% (7,785 —> 8,415)
Seattle Art Museum up 12% (7,040 —> 7,915)
Queens Museum up 11% (7,017 —> 7,798)
Some unlisted museums seem to be gaining significant following despite not being recommended by Twitter:
The Art Institute of Chicago is up 28% (4,188 —> 5,356)
New Museum is up 23% (4,677—> 5,744)
Compared to the staggering increases of Twitter’s suggested museums, these numbers aren’t so impressive. But are these guys working a lot harder for their followers?
Now, from the perspective of someone (a random anonymous individual who likes to nerd out in museum exhibits) with 5,000+ followers, I understand better than ever that it really is quality and not quantity. The quality of the interactions with like-minded people, or people with similar interests, is what makes Twitter enjoyable, educational, and not just a waste of time.
I used to joke that I would reveal my secret identity if I reached 10,000 followers. I never thought it would happen. Maybe I still will. Or maybe I’ll wait till I feel like 10,000 of my followers have been earned.
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What's up with the that dust?
Curious about something at a museum? Just ask them on twitter! Thanks so much to Victor for finding out for me.
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Museum Nerd (>140) 