American imperialism or visionary and pragmatic museum practice?
Reading from some of the Guggenheim's own press releases contained on the Guggenheim Foundation website, one could be mistaken for imagining that the establishment of another Guggenheim museum might just bring about world peace. On the announcement of the proposed new museum in Abu Dhabi, William Mack, Chairman of the Guggenheim Foundation is quoted as saying, "it is with a keen sense of historical precedent and with an abiding commitment to cultural exchange as a bridge to international understanding that the Guggenheim Foundation enters this agreement." He goes on to congratulate the Abu Dhabi Government for their foresight in recognising that culture (ie. the new Guggenheim museum) will play a central role in enhancing international relations and understanding.
The subject of the Guggenheim's extraordinary expansionist strategy over the last decade has been much debated. In order to get a sense of both sides of the argument, one needs to understand the Guggenheim Foundation's position but also monitor the ongoing dialogue which has raged in the press.
Perhaps the key protagonist of this debate is that of the Foundation's Director, Thomas Krens (pictured below). In January 2006, Krens gave a television interview to Charlie Rose of the American Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) which is also available on the Guggenheim Foundation website. In this interview, Krens says, "...this is not about exporting a commodity that somehow is the same wherever you do it. I mean, often the word our critics have used, the word franchise, and franchise is not part of it. It's more about setting up a situation of exchange that works in two directions."
Krens is adamant that the various Guggenheim museums are idiosyncratic to their locale. Speaking to the idea that the Guggenheim Bilbao has its own local and distinct curatorial identity he says, "what Bilbao offers us also is the opportunity to explore the culture of the Spanish and Iberian culture of Westen Europe...we are a local institution. We look at Basque and Spanish artists. We have a Spanish curator, Carmen Gimenez, who has organised incredible exhibitions for us. In fact, the next exhibition that she's doing is the David Smith exhibition. She worked on the Richard Serra installation." These comments seem somewhat disingenuous - she might be Spanish but the two exhbiitions he cites are hardly focussed on Spanish artists!
Similarly when one peruses the comprehensive historical exhibition information on the Guggenheim Foundation website dating back to 1992, it is hard to buy his rhetoric. There are very few exhibitions at the Guggenheim Bilbao which relate specifically to Spanish artists and many of the exhibitions are the same ones that rotate to other Guggenheim sites.
To this end, the Guggenheim has entered into a variety of unique relationships which has seen the ongoing development of a permanent collection which is not contained to (or necessarily owned by) one museum or city or country but which lives in a kind of virtual reality and moves around the world from museum to museum - all the while controlled by the puppet masters in New York.
This raises a number of questions. As Michael Kimmelman of the New York Times said back in 1998, "To whom in the end do museums and their collections belong? To a city, a country? To everyone? To anyone...and which matter more, protecting the art or showing it."
More cynically Jerry Saltz of the Village Voice talks about the McDonaldisation of the Guggenheim's approach. Forget international cultural exchange and understanding, he says it is all about attempting to "juice up, globalise, and glamorise the museum, to market it, turn it into a world wide entertainment network...and pad the pockets of this institution."
This is an excellent starting point to get an understanding of the philosophy and management practice of the Guggenheim Foundation. It is a comprehensive site with with historical exhibition data for each museum dating back to 1992. Media releases date back to 1998. It provides useful information on acquisitions by each museum, a history of each collection/museum, annual reports as well as information on current activity including exhibitions, education programs etc.
It also acts as a portal to the individual websites for the Guggenheim museums in Venice, Berlin, Bilbao and New York.
Arts Journal - media articles
I have quoted from articles which appeared in both the New York Times and the Village Voice. The New York Times in particular has provided quite extensive ongoing dialogue and debate on the Guggenheim Foundation's expansionist strategy.
I have found that a very useful means of accessing press articles is via the Arts Journal website. This site provides extensive access to articles related to the arts around the world.
This tool is important for my case study as much of the commentary of the Guggenheim's "redefining" of museum practice is in the journalist rather than academic realm.