Adrian Ellis is surprised by the recent wave of new museums and museum extensions. Is building always the best thing to do, he asks.
When a museum expands, it does not mean that everything just gets a little bigger—trends in expansion reflect changing priorities. In the 1990s, expansions tended to focus on spaces for larger and more dramatically displayed temporary exhibitions and, in the contemporary field, for the installation of larger works of art, in line with artistic practice. Then the focus was on circulation and event space and on revenue-generating activities (catering and retail), segueing into new spaces for educational activities. Today there is an interesting trend toward spaces for performance and music programming in museums. This is partly driven by a blurring of boundaries in areas such as video and performance art, but also by a slightly unexpected development. Museums—from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston to London’s National Gallery, National Portrait Gallery and the Tate—have become significant music programmers for their cities, and in the case of the Guggenheim Museum, dance programmers... Keep reading on The Art Newspaper
When a museum expands, it does not mean that everything just gets a little bigger—trends in expansion reflect changing priorities. In the 1990s, expansions tended to focus on spaces for larger and more dramatically displayed temporary exhibitions and, in the contemporary field, for the installation of larger works of art, in line with artistic practice. Then the focus was on circulation and event space and on revenue-generating activities (catering and retail), segueing into new spaces for educational activities. Today there is an interesting trend toward spaces for performance and music programming in museums. This is partly driven by a blurring of boundaries in areas such as video and performance art, but also by a slightly unexpected development. Museums—from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston to London’s National Gallery, National Portrait Gallery and the Tate—have become significant music programmers for their cities, and in the case of the Guggenheim Museum, dance programmers... Keep reading on The Art Newspaper