Museum Strategy

The CTM'11 Journal (2): Google Art Project at CTM'11

"Explore museums from around the world, discover and view hundreds of artworks at incredible zoom levels, and even create and share your own collection of masterpieces."

The hottest topic on Museum experience this past weeks has most certainly been about a virtual one, the one offering to walk through the rooms of 17 galleries and museums, and to look at 16 selected artworks in 7 billion pixels - which is kind of beyond my short-sighted imagination.

"The giga-pixel experience brings us very close to the essence of the artist through detail that simply can't be seen in the gallery itself," said Julian Raby, from the Freer Gallery, quoted in the Washington Post.
So with that, a virtual visit and Google's visibility how can it not replace, or reinvent the whole museum experience and in which way?

Amit Sood, who is the Head of the Google Art Project, will be with us this year to discuss the relevance of this ongoing work and how it could affect audiences.I guess from there is no need to say that if you are willing to discuss one the most thought-provoking initiative in terms of museum experience, then you might want to not miss his speech.

Here is a short press review of Google Art Projects articles in the mainstream press.

"National Treasures: Google Art Project unlocks riches of world's galleries" (The Washington Post)
"The Work fo Art in the Age of Google" (The New York Times)
"Google Art Project: the 7 billion dollar masterpieces" (The Telegraph)
"The Problem with Google Art Project" (The Telegraph)

What about you readers? What do you think about the project? What is your personal feedback? Feel free to post some articles on the subjects as well as to let us know, piror to the conference.

 

Why Become a Fan of FUNDACIÓN MAPFRE CULTURA on Facebook

The Institute of Culture of FUNDACION MAPFRE in Madrid now has an official Facebook page for you to become fans of.  But before you do so, let me present you this Madrid-based institution and the reasons why you may want to support it. 

As Latin America and Spanish-speaking world lovers, teachers, scholars and students:

An institution rooted in the Latin-American world, FUNDACION MAPFRE has kept at heart the objective of safeguarding the documentary and bibliographic heritage of Latin America. For more than 20 years now, It has tirelessly launched and supported initiatives making a huge sum of knowledge available.

These efforts were recently translated online with two exceptional websites, Historia y Cultura Iberoamericana Contemporanea for students and researchers and Enredarte, a website with an educative aim for children, pupils and teachers to get to know Latin American history in an interactive way.

For students, researchers or people interested in knowing better about Latin American history, politics, literature and arts, FUNDACION MAPFRE may be one of the places to keep in touch with.

As drawing lovers

With  focus on modern, 20th century drawings, the collection gathered by FUNDACION MAPFRE includes works by Spanish masters such as Picasso, Miro, Dali, Dario de Regoyes and Eduardo Chillida, as well as international avant-garde masters among whom  Matisse, Paul Klee, Francis Picabia, Lazslo Moholy Nagy, Kurt Schwitters or George Grosz.  Among others, It owns a complete set of the Vollard Suite, the most important collection of engravings in the 20th century, but its singularity lies in the prominent role played by the masters of Spanish modernism, such as José Gutiérrez Solana and Daniel Vázquez Díaz, and the complete  estate of major Art Deco  illustrator Rafael de Penagos. The goal of the collection is to embrace Spanish modernity and to lay empahisis on its masters that happen to be quite unrepresented in Spanish public collections.

The collection remains mostly unexhibited to this day, so don't miss the exhibition on modern drawings from the collection starting next 26 May in Madrid.

As photography lovers

20th and 21th century photography is the other focus of the collection, which includes essential names in the history of the art such as Eugène Atget, Lee Frielander, Diane Arbus, and Lisette Model, as well as contemporary artists like Fazal Sheikh, Graciela Iturbide and Dayanita Singh. The collection is about representing artists which have only a marginal presence in Spanish public collections for now. 

FUNDACION MAPFRE hosts monographic exhibitions dedicated to outstanding artists that have not had one yet in Spain. Right now and until 17 April, Adam Fusshas taken the floor with his camera-less photography. If your Spanish is up the scratch, here is Pablo Jimenez Burillo, General Manager of the Cultural Institute, describing his work, and if not, you can watch the artist in his own words here. Upcoming exhibitions will be on photography genius Eugène Atget and photojournalism pioneer Gotthard Schuh.

Easy access to art for everyone

 

The exhibitions at FUNDACION MAPFRE are free so that a maximum of people can enjoy them.
For the collection, which remains mostly invisible, there is now a website called "Colecciones Artisticas Fundacion Mapfre" where you can find the entire collection and observe every detail of each piece in high resolution. Accompany the Brown family from youth to mature adulthood in a unique chronological record comprising 35 photographs to date, and discover the whole photographic, drawing and art collection.

Each exhibition presented has its own website, where you can find information, images and, if you are not in Madrid, a virtual visit of the exhibition room by room. At the moment, you may want to take a look at Adam Fuss and the stunning exhibition of the Roman Art collection of the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, which opens next 10 February.

FUNDACION MAPFRE also organises a movie festival named Festival de Cine 4+1, which is held yearly in 5 different cities of Spain and Latin America simultaneously, also on Facebook.

If you feel like getting to know FUNDACION MAPFRE better, Javier, who articulates exhibitions with  internet will keep you posted with updates on all activities carried out in Madrid and across the globe as well as with behind the scenes pictures and videos. Now if you want, feel free to show and spread the love ! (and the like)

 

Photos:

Enredarte Website
Rafael de Penagos, Sin Título, Gouache y tinta sobre cartón (1942)
The Brown Sisters series by Nicholas Nixon (1975-2010) on the "Collecciones Artisticas" website.
Pablo Picasso, Vollard Suite, Faun Uncovering a Woman, Aquatint on Montval laid paper (1936)

 

The CTM'11 Journal 1: New Website, Keynote Speakers

For the first installment of our CTM journal on Museum Strategy, we are very happy to announce that we have a whole new website dedicated to the conference, which is up and running. You can check everything there, the programme, the venues and how to regsiter. You will see that there have been slight changes compared to last year, as we have now three different types of registration, should you want to just attend one day or the whole conference. 

!!!! Please note that there have been significant changes made to the programme of CTM since our last update. Taking into account the needs of our participants, we have decided to replace the New Media day session we had been planning with a Sponsorship day. Led by Nicole Newman (see below), it will engage participants into thinking how the museum conceived as a physical and emotional experience can attract vital fundings.

Please meet our Chairman and  first keynote speakers.

CTM'11 will be chaired by :

Raoul Thill - EXPERT IN BRANDING, Luxembourg
>>Communication

Raoul Thill is an independent consultant mentoring Corporate Social Responsibility
projects and coaching  cultural events in Germany and Belgium.  He writes and
comments regularly about brand related issues at conferences and in the media.Raoul speaks in Luxembourg on the radio station 100,7 about the relationship between marketing and culture.  Raoul is the founder of Bizart, Luxembourg's first agency specialised in corporate brand management providing strategic and design insight to clients in the public and private sectors, including cultural institutions, commercial and non-profit organisations, financial institutions and government ministries.
As a communication specialist with over 17 years' experience, Raoul developed brand strategies and advertising campaigns for corporate accounts including the European Parliament, The Luxembourg Government, PricewaterhouseCoopers, to consumer brands such as Tango/Belgacom, Ferrero, Cetrel, Greenpeace International, and art organisations such as The Orchestre Philharmonique of Luxembourg, Luxembourg et Grande Région, Capitale Européenne de la Culture 2007, le Centre National Audiovisuel CNA and MUDAM.
In 2007, he co-founded the first 'International Museum Communication Award IMCA' in Brussels with Corinne Estrada.

OUR FIRST KEYNOTE SPEAKERS SO FAR:

Nicole Newman – ENGLISH NATIONAL OPERA      
>> Sponsorship

Nicole Newman has been Development Director of English National Opera since October 2009.  Prior to ENO she was Development Director at Somerset House Trust where she set up a new Development Department.  She was also Head of Corporate Partnerships at the Victoria and Albert Museum for six years where she launched a number of groundbreaking partnerships with brands like HSBC, PlayStation, Habitat and TopShop.  From 1999 to 2003 she worked at Tate and was part of the team that launched Tate Modern securing several major sponsors like Unilever, Morgan Stanley and BT.  Nicole regularly teaches and participates in conferences on brand partnerships and corporate sponsorship for the arts, internationally.

 

Matthew Cock– BRITISH MUSEUM
>> New media

Matthew Cock is Head of Web at the British Museum
His web team is responsible for all public-facing digital media online and onsite. Recent large projects include the Museum’s new Multimedia Guide and the online components of A History of the World, in partnership with the BBC. Matthew is also Chair of the Jodi Mattes Trust, a UK charity that promotes accessibility of digital projects in the cultural sector, and gives the annual Jodi Awards (www.jodiawards.org.uk).  

>> For CTM11 Matthew will speak about The British Museum and Wikipedia: knowledge, authority and consensus

Beat Wismer – KUNST PALAST
>> Curatorial experience

Beat Wismer, Swiss born, commenced his position as general director of the museum kunst palast in Düsseldorf on 1 March 2007.  He has been Director of the Aargauer Kunsthaus in Aarau, Switzerland from 1985.  He developed the room program and the museum concept for the new extension, cooperated on the jury for the architecture competition, worked together with the winners of the competition, Herzog & de Meuron, to get the extension project ready for execution, created the room concept along with Rémy Zaugg and opened the Kunsthaus museum’s extension.  He studied art history, philosophy and ethnology at the University of Basel and was Assistant to the Chair of Modern and Contemporary Art and the Seminar for Art Sciences at the University of Zürich. Beat Wismer has authored and edited numerous publications on modern and contemporary art - specialising in Swiss art.  He has organised and curated a variety of well-received and international exhibitions. 

Noreen K. Ahmad – LAPLACA COHEN, NY
>> US trends in museums

Noreen K. Ahmad, with a background in both the visual and performing arts, Noreen
brings a well-developed understanding of cultural organisations and their varied audiences to her work. She oversees a variety of branding and strategy projects for cultural clients, conceptualising, developing, and presenting positioning, branding, and communications assessments and recommendations as well as marketing and strategic plans. Prior to joining LaPlaca Cohen Noreen worked in the development departments of the Whitney Museum of American Art and The School of American Ballet at Lincoln Center. She recently received her MA from New York University and holds a BS from Northwestern University. Noreen belongs to a number of patrons groups throughout New York City and chairs the Young Collectors Council at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.

Jeff Taylor - LAPLACA COHEN, NY
>> US trends, the future of the visitor experience - on-line and beyond

Jeff Taylor manages various advertising, design, and branding accounts for LaPlaca Cohen, coordinating with the firm’s Creative and Strategy teams to ensure each of our projects comply with client expectations and quality standards.
With a background in museum development and membership, Jeff brings his understanding of institutional needs to new business efforts, while also authoring and delivering presentations on a range of organizational concerns, leveraging his insight into new media platforms and technologies to inform audiences on social media strategy and industry best practices. Prior to joining LaPlaca Cohen, Jeff worked at both the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice. He has a BAH in Art History and Italian from Queen's University in Canada.

>> During the conference, Noreen and Jeff will present CultureTrack, a national tracking study reaching over 4,000 respondents. Culture Track  will be investigating technology, current social media marketing trends, and will outline some of the institutional best practices that take advantage of them.