Attracting the Culture Crowd
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Museum directors are coming to Los Angeles en masse. So are curators, exhibition designers, conservators, educators, administrators, development and public affairs officers, technicians and legal advisors. More than 5,000 museum professionals are expected to attend the 93rd annual meeting of the American Assn. of Museums at the Los Angeles Convention Center next Sunday through May 14.
“This is the largest cultural gathering in the world,” said Edward H. Able, president and CEO of the association. Sparked by the recent opening of the Getty Center, several other new museums and expansion projects--all of which have contributed to a growing awareness of the city’s cultural assets--the Los Angeles conference is expected to be AAM’s best-attended meeting to date, he said.
The upcoming event is the first conference the Washington-based association has held in L.A. since 1975, one year after the J. Paul Getty Museum opened in Malibu. But now that the new Getty Center has opened in Brentwood--amid an international media blitz--it seems that every national cultural organization is coming to L.A. for a special conference or annual convention. AAM is only the latest.
The parade began with the Assn. of Art Museum Directors, a prestigious 170-member group of cultural leaders, which convened at the Getty in January. Art Table, a New York-based, 1,000-member organization for women in the arts, held its first West Coast conference at the Getty in February. In February 1999, the College Art Assn. expects to attract more than 3,000 artists, art historians, curators, critics and other visual arts professionals to L.A. for its 87th annual conference.
“This is a boom town,” said John Walsh, director of the J. Paul Getty Museum and co-chair of the AAM conference with Irene Hirano, director of the Japanese American National Museum.
“Just look around,” Walsh said. “There’s new construction all over the place, as well as museums in expansion and wings that have just opened.” In addition to relatively recent arrivals, such as the Skirball Cultural Center, the Japanese American National Museum is in the midst of a $20-million expansion, the Norton Simon Museum is completing a $5-million renovation and the Santa Monica Museum is opening a new facility in Bergamot Station onSaturday.
“What’s happening in Los Angeles is exciting to people around the country, so this turned out to be a great year to have the meeting here,” Hirano said.
The fact that greater Los Angeles has about 200 museums of various kinds, probably more than any other metropolitan area in the country, was a major factor in the selection of this year’s conference site, Able said. But Los Angeles is also “a great laboratory for testing many of the models that museums all across the country are using to build new relationships with their communities,” he said.
Hirano characterized the upcoming museum conference as “a place for the field to see what’s new, what’s working, things that people can take back with them” and a forum to encourage young people to enter the field. Although the program is geared to professionals, it is open to the public.
A day pass to the conference, including MuseumExpo98, a vast display of the latest museum publications, products and services, costs $195. Admission to MuseumExpo98 alone is $25. Information: (202) 289-9125.
The program will offer 150 panels and lectures organized under the theme “Exploring Differences, Finding Connections.” The primary emphasis is on how museums can best serve their communities. But individual sessions explore a wide variety of topics, including “What’s Happening in Washington: A Summary Account of Legislative Issues Affecting Museums and How They Affect You” and “Museum Ethics: Presenting Other Cultures and Developing International Connections.”
Among dozens of other sessions with provocative titles are “Why Can’t We All Get Along?: A Session for Curatorial, Marketing and Educational Staff” and “Apples and Oranges: Exploring the Differences and Making Connections Between Museums and Commercial Galleries.”
“Anybody who is interested in any aspect of what museums do, would find this extremely instructive,” Walsh said. “Not just the sessions, but the displays on design, publishing and other things. It’s really worth a trip to the convention center.”
One major component of the program takes place outside the convention center, however. Indeed, it’s happening all over town. On an extensive list of field trips and receptions, there are visits to local museums--including the Getty, the Skirball and the Simon, the three museums in Exposition Park, the Autry Museum of Western Heritage and the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens. Also planned are trips to Hollywood, Pasadena, Little Tokyo, the Miracle Mile and the Port of Los Angeles. Some delegates are even going on a grunion run, Able said.
While giving local museum professionals a chance to show off their facilities and programs to visiting colleagues, the conference also reflects Los Angeles’ changing image, the organizers say.
“I think every city’s reputation probably lags at least 10 years behind reality,” Walsh said. “People have some catching up to do in Los Angeles. But apart from learning a lot about museum work and L.A., I want [conference delegates] to go back home feeling affirmed about their choice of work. I want them to be excited about the possibilities. That’s part of the fun of being in such a dynamic environment as Los Angeles. We hope they get a jolt of energy as well as an eye-opening.”
Although Los Angeles is known as the movie capital of the world, Able said, “it is being re-branded as a cultural capital, and museums play a huge role in that.”
And being a cultural capital is big business. The AAM conference is expected to generate about $12 million in revenue for the city, he said.
It’s hardly surprising, then, that cultural tourism has a place on the conference program. Participants will have a chance to try out itineraries designed to bring visitors to local arts and cultural attractions, developed by the California Cultural Tourism Coalition.
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ABORIGINAL ART: Sotheby’s Beverly Hills galleries will launch an international exhibition of Australian Aboriginal art on May 16-20, as a preview of an auction to be held June 29 in Melbourne. Highlights of the sale include paintings and sculptures consigned by California collector Louis Allen, such as a large bark painting by the artist Bininyuwuy, valued at $20,000 to $30,000. Among works in the preview are paintings by George Tjangala, Uta Uta Tjangala and Anatjari Tjakamarra, with estimated selling prices ranging from $15,000 to $80,000.
The exhibition will be open 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Information: (310) 274-0340.
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ON THE TOWN: Venice Art Walk--an annual three-day festival of art, music, architecture and food benefitting the Venice Family Clinic--is scheduled for May 15-17.
The program begins with Friday evening concerts of jazz and classical music in private homes, then continues over the weekend with tours of Venice artists’ studios, exhibitions and architecturally distinguished houses. A silent auction of contemporary artworks will take place at Westmister School, 1010 Abbot Kinney Blvd., on May 17, 11 a.m.-5 p.m.
Admission fees: $45 for a self-guided art walk on May 16; $110 for docent-guided tours and lunch on May 16-17. Parking is available at Westminster, Walgrove Elementary and Broadway Elementary schools.
Information: (310) 392-9255.
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