I was asked recently about how Miami / Miami-Dade would be able to afford the huge museum project that has been planned. Of course, I don’t have the answers to that question, but with the economy taking a long time to turn around it looks like a questionable proposition. Some big names are not supporters of the project still, even though they are fully engaged in the local arts community, diverse and multilayered as it is.
MAM’s new man: Thom Collins has a mission to lead the museum into expansion and a new home:
“During this first tour of New Work Miami 2010, an eclectic Miami Art Museum exhibition of paintings, photography, video and sculpture from dozens of artists that was conceived as a snapshot of the regions growing art scene, incoming director and art historian Thom Collins suddenly knew he was in the right place.
Annette Fromm, who coordinates the Museum Studies certificate program at Florida International University, thinks Collins seems well prepared for the challenges to come.
‘The MAM collection is just at the threshold of growing,’ she said. ‘He brings experience from Cincinnati of strategic planning for curatorial growth.’ But just as attracting visitors from museum-rich New York City to the northern suburbs was a challenge at Neuberger, ‘it’s also a challenge here,’ Fromm said. ‘You have to look at how we raise awareness of museums and raise the value of museums and make them accessible to the public. He seems to have some experience with that.’
Under Collins’ two-year leadership, Baltimore’s then-beleaguered Contemporary Museum doubled its membership and annual budget. Prior to his work in Cincinnati, Collins was associate curator at the Henry Art Gallery of the University of Washington in Seattle. He has also taught art history at the University of Cincinnati, Northwestern and the University of Washington.”
(Via Read more: MiamiHerald.com: Visual Arts & Architecture.)