The MSM is only three days behind the RBC on the hot issue of museum evening social events. We congratulate the Post.
The ‘reviews’ gathered in this group nicely illustrate the tension this marketing initiative raises (and the careless flacky reporting typical of arts coverage other than straight reviews). On the one hand, a bunch of people get together in the evening and have fun drinking, dancing, listening to music,and meeting each other; nothing wrong with that. On the other hand, the music for the most part is mostly ephemeral pop, engaging on a completely different plane from the art, and there’s no evidence this is building real museum visiting habits where people come back and engage with art worth attending to seriously. Or that it’s not: now that these events have been going on for a while, shouldn’t someone have survey research results to answer this question? What did people actually do at these events? Was anyone looking at pictures? There’s no suggestion that they were; again, deeply absorbing the subtlety of great paintings is a silly way to spend party time and lighting a party to see art is just wonky and stuffy. But museums are in the art business, and one would think the reporters would at least ask some of the guests if real art, perhaps on a future visit during calmer hours, figured at all in their plans.
