3 Responses to “Feedback from our visitors”

1. Andrew Ingall
   April 1st, 2008 at 1:32 pm

   

   and my all-time favorite comment from our Facebook profile:

   whaaaa>>>?????
   since when is the jewish museum so f*ing koool?
   i dont remember them doing any ish like this when i
   was living there.

2. Mark Keane
   April 5th, 2008 at 4:59 am

   

   Firstly I would like to congratulate the organizers and everyone involved in the event – “Off the Wall” – I thoroughly enjoyed it – Thank you.

   That said what follows is designed to be disruptive. So please do not take personal offence.

   To begin I should reveal the bias in my position in advance. I am a practicing artist and as such I believe this gives me certain privileges when it comes to criticism of the practice. Added to that my politics are left wing which compel me to critique the field of art.

   With the above in mind the following questions occur to me:

   1. Were there conflicts of power between the artists, museum, museum employees, curators, organizers and audiences?

   2. How would the actors describe the conflict?

   3. How were the conflicts resolved?

   4. Was there any real change as a result of the conflict?

   5. Questions for the artists:

   a) What purpose do you believe you serve?
   b) What purpose does your work serve?
   c) How do you measure the value of your work?

   6) Questions for the organizers:

   a) Who were you trying to attract to the event?
   b) Did they come?

   Finally, how would anyone involved respond to the critical descriptor of:

   “Another elitist art event in the history of a self referential language, that has its origins in the 19th Century creed of “art for art sake” complete with it’s deliberate obfuscation. This same obscurity is the imperative of exclusivity which in its turn serves as the distinguishing sign of its market value.”

   Thanks again for the invitation

   Kindest regards
   Mark

3. Andrew Ingall
   April 7th, 2008 at 3:07 pm

   

   Dear Mark,

   Thanks for your thoughtful comments and questions.

   It’s important to say that board members and senior management staff were supportive of this project from the beginning.

   There were power conflicts, but nothing dramatic like Mass Moca vs. Christoph Buechel. On the whole, I think all parties were generally pleased with the way Off the Wall turned out. It certainly wasn’t perfect, and I’m glad everyone was willing to be part of the experiment.

   Probably the greatest conflict was between our exhibition designers and staff. I placed the designers–who had a strong concept and point of view–on the same level as the artists. This is a curatorial no-no. Exhibition design is generally used to elevate and support artwork. Very late in the design phase, staff noted that the design of one gallery/studio was not visitor friendly. We also didn’t have enough staff or time to realize the complexity of the original design. Luckily, our designers found a solution that everyone was happy with.

   Off the Wall tried to be a populist event. There was no exclusive VIP opening. The price was $12 for general admission. My colleagues and I wrote text panels in clear, non-jargony language. We included art forms that normally don’t have a place in a fine arts museum. I’m curious what others have to say….

   I’ll let my colleague Maura address the topic of audience for Off the Wall.