The Director of Newfields - formerly the Indianapolis Museum of Art - has caused controversy by introducing a teahouse, cafe and bar to the gallery, writes Andrew Russeth. To what extent should museums be places of entertainment?
'The pop-up Japanese-style teahouse at Newfields, the institution formerly known as the Indianapolis Museum of Art, is positioned at the top of a long escalator in the museum’s soaring glass-fronted entrance pavilion. If you look into the next room, you can see one of the city’s crown jewels, Robert Indiana’s original 1970 Love sculpture. In April, I was seated in the teahouse with Charles L. Venable, Newfields’s director of seven years, who wanted me to meet the museum’s first-ever culinary director, Josh Ratliff, one of only nine certified sommeliers in the Hoosier State. Ratliff ordered us pots of blooming tea, and presented me with a “magic apple” that had been marinated in dry tea. Venable, who at 59 retains a touch of a Texas twang from his childhood in Houston, announced that “art is not better than apples.” He winked—“There’s a quote,” he said with a grin—and voiced what his critics might say about such a proclamation: “He truly is the devil.”' ... Keep reading on Art News
'The pop-up Japanese-style teahouse at Newfields, the institution formerly known as the Indianapolis Museum of Art, is positioned at the top of a long escalator in the museum’s soaring glass-fronted entrance pavilion. If you look into the next room, you can see one of the city’s crown jewels, Robert Indiana’s original 1970 Love sculpture. In April, I was seated in the teahouse with Charles L. Venable, Newfields’s director of seven years, who wanted me to meet the museum’s first-ever culinary director, Josh Ratliff, one of only nine certified sommeliers in the Hoosier State. Ratliff ordered us pots of blooming tea, and presented me with a “magic apple” that had been marinated in dry tea. Venable, who at 59 retains a touch of a Texas twang from his childhood in Houston, announced that “art is not better than apples.” He winked—“There’s a quote,” he said with a grin—and voiced what his critics might say about such a proclamation: “He truly is the devil.”' ... Keep reading on Art News