THE BROOKLYN MUSEUM LETS THE PEOPLE CHOOSE ART FOR AN EXHIBITION OF CONTEMPORARY ART. This article by Vera Haller (Wall Street Journal February 6) reports on an exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum that shows work by five Brooklyn artists who were chosen by a popular vote. Voters had to have visited at least 5 studios. Some 18,000 people visited studios. Curators then chose 5 artists from the 10 who got the most votes. The event was patterned after an annual event in Grand Rapids. The exhibit is controversial. Haller says that “…others are unhappy that the public has been given a role in deciding what art will be displayed in a major American museum” and that some “questioned the decision to build an exhibit around the opinions of non-experts….”
I posted here a couple years ago about my brother Elmer’s encounter years ago with a future museum curator who believed that art should be reserved for people who cared about it and understood it.