DAMage Report - We Don't Need No Stinking Museum

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/07/04/BAKU18ICI7.DTL

Apparently the bowling alley in the Presidio in San Francisco has a great deal of sentimental value to a large number of people. An Art Museum - not so much. The citizens are passionate enough about their bowling alley and decaying army base and parking lots that they have hawked a big wet loogie on the offer of a world-class museum complex that would house works by Warhol, Richter, Calder and more from the Donald Fisher collection.

There are of course two sides to every story. The residents want to preserve the historical integrity of the area which is the site of a Spanish settlement and former U.S. military base. The main argument seems to be that the museum complex would compromise the rundown area. Ironically, the Presidio Trust still plans to move forward with revitalization plans for the Main Post building, including building a lodge, rehabilitating and expanding the historic theater. So they want it untouched? Apparently the hard-on is mostly for Fisher, the founder of GAP. The Fishers had scaled back their plans to accomodate preservationists, but opponents were not satisfied.

One of the opposers to the museum plan, Nancy Ewart wrote "This wasn’t a free gift but a 21st century version of a land grab with the addition of a 119-room hotel, meeting space, a restaurant and a bar; two new theaters and the creation of a heritage center....it’s a real mistake to assume that everybody is honest, ethical and eco-friendly where there’s money to be made." http://www.examiner.com/x-13996-SF-Museum-Examiner~y2009m7d5-The-Fisher-Museum-at-the-Presidio-is-a-nogo

Let me think about this - we have a neglected historical area in a tourism destination city. A wealthy patron of the arts has offered to turn into another tourism destination for the city and the residents are wallowing in conjecture, maybes, what-ifs and ...honesty? Is San Francisco recession free or something? They apparently have no interest in another means of drawing dollars to a deprived area of their city. Or any interest in supporting the arts.

Matthew Baume comments "Now the Presidio can return to what it once was and always shall be: a gigantic, partially-beautiful piece of land that nobody remembers exists."

Does anyone have Mr. Fisher's number? I have a nice southern city that would just love to have some wealthy patron toss money our way in support of the arts.

Guest Blogging at Erotic Muses on July 27

http://eroticmuses.blogspot.com/

Mark your calendars y'all and let's flood the blogsite with comments and discussion like we did last time. Any topics in particular anyone would like discussed in regards to erotic writing?

I don't mind including a question and answer portion if you have any questions you've been bouncing around inside your heads.

And thnx Lisa Andel for asking me to return. Wahoo! :P

Art that imbeds itself in your mind and heart

This weekend while browsing through a gallery with a friend, i ran across the art work of a rather phenominal artist. Lucy Hunnicutt paints folk art that is not only rich with storytelling and humor, but also quite brilliant in use of symbols and historical references toward religious themes/tales.

Her paintings don't just hold you captive... they make you feel good. Not a lot of art can do that - evoke a sense of heartfelt pleasure while viewing it. I've had to limit my collecting to local artists because face it - any free cash i may have for art usually funnels into my own work. But this is an artist i covet. I want one of her paintings. I want it more than i want icecream on a hot, blistery day. And you can bet I'll be tracking her until i can get one.

http://www.southernbreeze.net/tour152.htm

DAMage Report - Arts and Antiquities Tug-a-War

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/24/arts/design/24abroad.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&hp

An ongoing controversy over ownership of ancient artifacts is in the limelight right now due to the opening last month of the Acropolis Museum in Athens, Greece. Two centuries ago, Lord Elgin, serving as ambassador to the Ottoman empire, hauled away half of the Parthenon frieze and various other pieces of the historic site. The Elgin Marbles as they became known have been housed in the British Museum since the 1800's and provided enormous inspiration to generations. The original reason the British gave for retaining possession of the famous Marbles was that Greece didn't have the facilities to adequately care for or display the art. With the opening of the new Acropolis museum that argument no longer stands. And the Greeks want their marbles back.

It raises the question of who exactly does looted or "repossessed" historical art and artifacts belong to. The country in possession of it or the country of origin? Obviously great art and historically relevant works "belong to the world" but that doesn't resolve the question of who gets to claim ownership of it. Possession nine tenths of the law or should countries like Greece be allowed to keep and preserve their cultural history? The question has the museums of the world in quite a pickle. As one article in the Economist states:

"As curators all over the world will see it, those who call for the permanent return of the Parthenon sculptures from London are arguing for international museums to be emptied.

Many other collections have a more dubious provenance than the marbles—think of the British Museum’s Benin bronzes, seized in a punitive raid in Nigeria; of the Pergamon altar removed from Turkey and now in Berlin; of Chinese treasures carried off during the Boxer rebellion and again during the civil war; of hundreds of works in Russian museums that were snatched from their owners in the Bolshevik revolution.

You cannot go very far in righting those wrongs without entangling the world’s museums in a Gordian knot of restitution claims. That is why, in December 2002, 18 of the world’s leading directors—from the Louvre to the Hermitage and from the Metropolitan Museum to the Getty Museum—argued for a quid pro quo. The Munich declaration, as it is called, asserts that today’s ethical standards cannot be applied to yesterday’s acquisitions."

It is definitely a tricky problem when looking at the bigger picture. Public sentiment, including mine, seems to run toward giving Greece her artifacts back. As Brooke London pointed out to me yesterday, if another country came over and tried to take our Liberty Bell, saying they could provide better care for it (we did crack that bad boy after all) we would all be up in arms in a skinny minute. Take our historical artifacts? Like hell!