“I think it’s the
responsibility of an artistic director, or let’s say, the collective, which is
the artistic institution, to say here’s the pull that I’m feeling in our
community. But, after all, isn’t it our responsibility to have a sort of
eloquence or articulation around that, that maybe the community itself feels
but does not deliver as a particular statement of need? So, I think being
sensitive to that, to me, is leadership, saying here’s what we feel is in the
air and what we think is worthy of giving voice to.”
Showing posts with label audiences. Show all posts
Showing posts with label audiences. Show all posts
Friday, 10 April 2020
Saturday, 7 March 2020
What if one likes broccoli?
A few weeks ago, I came
across an advertising campaign of Folkoperan (Stockholm, Sweden) called “Broccoli vs. Opera”. The idea behind it is that the only think children dislike
more than opera is broccoli. Thus, when having to choose between the two…
they´ll go for the lesser of two evils.
The campaign irritated
me. The prejudiced assumptions behind it irritated me. The way many in the
classical music world avoid addressing the real barriers, the ones raised by
them, upsets me. Do you remember the “Classical Cannabis: the high note series” promoted by the Colorado Symphony Orchestra back
in 2014?
That sort of thing… Anything but trying to understand better what is keeping
people, of all ages, away. Perhaps because a better understanding would require
action; and change.
Saturday, 22 June 2019
First thoughts on the National Plan of the Arts
There were two occasions for a first appreciation of the National Plan of the Arts (NPA): its public presentation, on 18 June, and the reading of the document. I'll start by sharing my thoughts on the first.
The room where the
presentation took place was packed. Many colleagues, journalists, people
representing private organisations that support the cultural sector and the arts.
One could feel the good mood and the expectation, mixed with some distrust (“Will
this be it?”). I believe that that moment of encounter and everything one felt
in the air was a positive sign that the sector is made up of professionals who
are still very much interested and ready to get involved in a common effort
that may value, support and strengthen their work and their contribution to
society.
Saturday, 14 July 2018
Monday, 11 June 2018
Discussing the decolonisation of museums in Portugal
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| Photo: Maria Vlachou |
I love museums. I love them for what they are; I love them for what they are not, but can be; I love them for their potential. I especially love them because of the work developed by a number of colleagues around the world so that museums may adapt to new realities, remain or become relevant for people, and even reinvent themselves. I particularly love them lately because of the controversies they cause or face, pushing our thinking and practice forward.
Sunday, 28 January 2018
TS Elliot, a terrible hip-hop artist
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| A photo of the project Contratempos in the This is PARTIS programme. |
The Guardian recently
wrote about a critique by poet Rebecca Watts, entitled “The cult of the noble amateur”, where she
attacks the work of a cohort of young female poets considering it “the open
denigration of intellectual engagement and rejection of craft”. The text
resulted in a very interesting, and welcome, debate regarding the value of
“high” and “popular” poetry. The answer of Scottish poet Don Patterson (winner
of the TS Elliot award and publisher of two of the young poets in question) was
captivating: " You don’t have to like what people do, but I think you
measure it against its own ambitions. Otherwise it’s like saying TS Eliot was a
terrible hip-hop artist. True, but so what.”
Saturday, 13 January 2018
What Maria Matos means to me (or, why did I sign the petition)
On December 17, 2017,
the newspaper Público published an interview with the Councilor of Culture of
Lisbon, Catarina Vaz Pinto, where it was announced that "[the theatre]
Maria Matos (MM) will have a very different programming model, with longer running
periods and a greater concern in attracting audiences, in order to be
profitable". The news was surprising to me, to say the least. I would say
more, I remember that, as I read, I felt a kind of physical pain.
Tuesday, 4 April 2017
To charge or not to charge: the data
As far as I am aware of, decisions to charge or not to charge and how in Portuguese national museums are never based on research. Those who scrap admission fees do it in the name of “democratisation” and “accessibility” and state that the loss of income is not significant (never mentioning how much it is, though). Those who reinstate them usually speak of the need to generate some income.
Although previous research
and summative evaluation is not part of our practice in Portugal, this is not
the case in other countries. And even though we seem to lack our own specific
data, we can always learn from the experience and shared knowledge of others.
Saturday, 4 February 2017
Looking for sandy ground
"Free access to museums for under 30s", one reads
in portuguese newspapers. The measure was approved in parliament yesterday.
"Can anyone explain to me the logic of under
30s?", asks a Brazilian colleague.
"Is it to stimulate young families, like couples with
small children?", replies another colleague. "Is it because it was
found that unemployment is higher among the under 30s?"
Is it worth looking for the logic? Was there a logic? Was
the measure based on any management report? Was it based on some audience
survey? Were the professionals of the sector consulted? Are there concrete
objectives that can be evaluated in one or two years’ time?
Sunday, 30 October 2016
MAAT, a generator of expectations
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| Image taken from the website of MAAT. |
I am still amazed at the
way the recently inaugurated MAAT - Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology,
designed by Amanda Levete, is integrated into the landscape. When I approach
that area or when I cross the bridge from Lisbon, I always expect to see a huge
building overlapping or hiding the Central Tejo power plant. But no... The
Central Tejo still emerges majestically and the new building stands at its side
as a smooth and fluid note.
My first contact with
the new museum was back in June. In fact, it was the reopening of the
"old" museum (Museum of Electricity in Central Tejo), after its renovation,
and the MAAT brand was launched. Afterwards, I followed the campaign for the
inauguration of the new building and I read some interviews of the museum director,
Pedro Gadanho, thus forming an initial opinion / expectation. The various
criticisms that arose with the opening of the building, as well as some discussions
with colleagues, brought me more "food for thought", just like my
first visit to the new building.
Sunday, 24 July 2016
Managing museums: a portuguese case
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| "Panels of St. Vincent" at NMAA (image taken from the National Museum of Ancient Art Facebook page) |
The
claim of a new legal status, of a special status, by the National Museum of
Ancient Art (NMAA) in Lisbon has resulted in a very healthy debate among museum
professionals in Portugal, especially (and unfortunately) after the
announcement of the Minister of Culture that this status will actually be given
to the museum. Independent of our criticism, positive or negative, of this case
and this process, there is no doubt that we owe this very necessary debate to
the NMAA, its director, António Filipe Pimentel, and to the entire museum staff*.
Labels:
access,
audiences,
branding,
communications,
cultural policies,
culture,
evaluation,
funding,
fundraising,
management,
marketing,
museums,
public value,
strategy,
sustainability,
visitor studies
Tuesday, 19 July 2016
Guest post: Social role of museums; new migrations, new challenges, by David Fleming
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| Photo taken from Twitter @IcomOfficiel |
Quote from our MOOC (Massive Open Online Course):
“This course has
opened my eyes. Never before thought of museums as being harbingers of change
in anything.”
The same person wrote later:
“Yes, my opinion
has changed and I’m much more convinced that museums have a positive role to
play in achieving and enhancing social cohesion. I had been stuck in my
‘sixties experience of the passive museum, storing items for the mere sake of
storage. Today they are put to use to make a positive difference in the world.”
Tuesday, 12 July 2016
Guest post: The ethical museum, by David Fleming
![]() |
| Image taken from Twitter @IcomOfficiel |
I would like to begin by
quoting from Janet Marstine’s book entitled The Routledge Companion to
Museum Ethics (2011, page xxiii):
“The traditional
museum ethics discourse…is unable to meet the needs of museums and society in
the twenty-first century”.
I will continue by quoting the
statement on ethical behaviour that my Trustees at National Museums Liverpool (NML)
discussed just last week:
NML statement on
ethical considerations
In several areas
of our work, as we find ourselves more and more reliant on funding from other
than our own democratically-elected Government, NML’s commitment to behaving in
an ethical manner at all times is leading us to consider carefully what
decisions we should make.
Wednesday, 22 June 2016
Government reflections on access to culture
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| "MAP - The chartography game", a performace by the association A PELE (image taken from the website of the National Theatre D. Maria II) |
The Culture White Paper (published by the Department for Culture, Media and Sports in March
2016) sets out how the British government will support the cultural sector in
the coming years. It’s the first document of its kind in 50 years and the
second ever published in the UK.
The document opens by quoting British Prime Minister,
David Cameron, who states: “If you believe in publicly-funded arts and culture
as I passionately do, then you must also believe in equality of access,
attracting all, and welcoming all.”
Sunday, 29 May 2016
First in our hearts
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| Image courtesy of the National Museum Soares dos Reis |
Saturday, 7 May 2016
So what?
“So what?”. A frequent question/reaction concerning our field, whether
verbally expressed or secretly thought. It’s a legitimate question and one we
are rarely available to discuss.
![]() |
| Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, "Retrato de Marten Soolmans" e "Retrato de Oopjen Coppit" (imagem retirada do jornal Telerama) |
When I had first read the news about the joint
acquisition by the Louvre and Rijksmuseum of Rembrandt’s Portrait of Marten Soolmans and Portrait of
Oopjen Coppit, for €160 million, I didn’t exactly think “So what?”, but
rather “Why?”. Why these two paintings? Why all that money? Once I tried to
understand a bit better the importance of the paintings (whatever importance
that might be, within the context of art history or any other), I was most
often confronted with the adjective “rare”. The portraits are “rare”, being
exhibited in public was extremely “rare, etc. etc. This brought up even more
questions: Rare how? Why should they be seen more often? Why did these two
public museums make such a huge (financial and collaborative) effort to acquire
them?
Sunday, 6 March 2016
Recent past
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| Exhibition "Return - Traces of Memory", Lisbon |
A few weeks ago I read
Lily Hyde’s text Living Memory II, questioning the
construction of narratives out of recent historical events. In this case, the
armed conflict in Eastern Ukraine and specifically in the town of Slavyansk. A
bit more than a year before, Hyde had talked to the Slavyansk Museum director, Lilya
Zander, who was already collecting Trophies from an incomprehensible war. At that time, the museum director had said that “Our job is to tell the history of our
region”, adding that “the museum is not trying to show ‘for’ and ‘against’. We’re
trying to show the facts.”
Sunday, 17 January 2016
Refugees and museums: beyond an assistentialist attitude?
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| Artwork by Thierry Goeffroy / COLONEL at the Copenhagen Biennale |
My recent article for the ICOM Portugal Bulletin.
Monday, 19 October 2015
The traps
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| National Coach Museum, Lisbon (image taken from Boas Notícias) |
Last
month, it was reported by several newspapers that in the first four months of the new National Coach Museum in Lisbon there
were a number of accidents due to deficiencies in the architectural design. By
'deficiencies' I mean solutions adopted (or, if you prefer, architectural elements
created) which become traps for the users of the space (yes, they exist).
Sunday, 20 September 2015
Intellectual access and not an easy way out
All too often, the promotion
of intellectual access by some in the cultural sector is discarded as ‘dumbing
down’. Recently, I read the following in Rob Riemen’s “The eternal return of
fascism”:
“In the culture of this society [the mass-society; our contemporary society] there is an ongoing trend towards the lesser, the lowest level, because this is where one finds most things people can share. This is exactly why university education indicators are levelled down, so that ‘everyone’ can study and obtain a degree. And the same will apply to the arts, because they will have to be accessible to all, not only in what concerns tuition fees, but also at the level of comprehension. After all, the fiercest indignation is directed towards what is difficult. Because what is not understood immediately by everyone is difficult, that is ‘elitist’ and therefore undemocratic.” (my translation from Greek)
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