Artists Making History

I was fortunate to view an episode last week of the award-winning presentation, Art in the 21^st Century.  This presentation is showing on a public broadcast station.  This episode featured artists Glenn Ligon, Mary Reid Kelly and Marina Abramovic.  I found this show very interesting as well as educational.  Art in the 21st Century is part of the History series and this presentation was the Season 6 episode.

The three artists featured in this one-hour show are shown working and discussing their ideas as well as work. The presentation allows the viewers to hear the artists describe their own work and to learn why they do what they do.


Mary Reid Kelly's videos were fascinating. Marina Abramovic, the pioneer of performance art, was excellent. I enjoyed most of all the presentation of Glenn Ligon who uses paintings and sculpture to examine cultural and social identity. He makes use of text of in unusual way in his work. Ligion includes work of some of his favorite writers to portray text- based images.



This series recently premiered on public television. I am looking forward to more of these insightful presentations. I hope you have an opportunity to view the new artists making history.



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Free Art

I recently read an article that suggests that the trend today is for museums to offer free admission. It appears that many museums in the U.S. and other countries have in the last 10 years implemented a policy of free admission.

It was mentioned that the decision many times is the result of museum directors who have political ties and associations with the powerful arts lobbies.  There seems to be a fear that funding may be cut by the government if free admission is not allowed.

The good news is that attendance seems to increase in those institutions that have a free admission policy in place.  Among the top five most visited museums in the world, three offer free admission.  The museums that do charge for admission have experienced the number of visitors decrease. 

I live in a city with a large museum that has offered free admission for some time. Before this policy was in effect, free admission was offered only to members and a very few special visitors. The cost was not high before the free admission became policy. The experts are saying that free admission to museums is here to stay. I hope so. Art should be free to everyone.




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