The Art Newspaper

Metropolitan cuts major loan shows by a quarter

Director doesn’t rule out entry fees for special exhibitions

By Jason Edward Kaufman. Web only
Published online: 01 September 2009

new york. The Metropolitan Museum of Art will present fewer major loan exhibitions in future, says the museum’s director Thomas Campbell. In his first major interview since taking on the post (published in The Art Newspaper, September 2009), Campbell said that economic pressures require a reduction in the number of marquee exhibitions and lavish publications.

Annually, the Metropolitan has been mounting 30 to 35 exhibitions, including 10-12 major loan shows, 10 medium-sized shows, and various smaller installations. He estimates there will now be 20-25% fewer large, expensive loan shows. The reductions will not be apparent for some time because the museum makes public its schedule no more than a year in advance.

Campbell, who became director in January, inherited a calendar with exhibitions booked as far ahead as early 2013, but he would not disclose revisions he has made other than the rescheduling of two shows slated for the current fiscal year. An exhibition about the Belles Heures of Jean de France, Duc de Berry, has been moved from autumn 2009 to spring 2010—coinciding with an exhibition of medieval tomb sculptures from the Court of Burgundy—and a survey of early American furniture by Duncan Phyfe has been moved from spring 2010 to spring 2011.

Campbell remains committed to maintaining a menu of international loan shows, but he acknowledges that “the economic circumstances will affect us profoundly”. The endowment, which in recent years yielded one-third of the museum’s operating budget, remains down more than 25% from its $2.8bn level in summer 2008. The museum reduced its operating budget from $220m in fiscal year 2009 to $206m for the current fiscal year, and since January has cut more than 350 positions from its workforce, which now stands at around 2,200 employees. Campbell does not rule out charging admission fees for special exhibitions, one of a number of options that will be considered to balance the books.

The process by which exhibitions are approved at the museum will also change. During the tenure of Campbell’s predecessor, Philippe de Montebello, department heads and curators brought exhibition proposals straight to the director, who decided whether to undertake the projects. Campbell plans to convene a programmatic committee comprising department heads, curators, conservators, editors, educators and operations staff. They will present and discuss ideas for exhibitions and publications, and advise the director who will retain ultimate authority. The group has yet to meet, and is not likely to do so until the museum hires a successor to associate director for exhibitions Mahrukh Tarapor, who retired in June and remains on contract as an advisor to the director.

Campbell intends to redirect intellectual and other resources formerly concentrated on the exhibition programme into rethinking the presentation of the permanent collection. He plans to create a new Media Department that will consolidate various databases in which the museum’s 17 curatorial departments have digitally recorded information about their collections. He envisages this harmonisation resulting in delivery of increased amounts of information to both scholarly and general audiences through multiple platforms, including the website and handheld devices in the galleries.