Three Newly Endowed Curatorships at Museum of Fine Arts, BostonBy STAN PARCHIN
July 22, 2010
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| Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Photograph provided by Flickr. |
Malcolm Rogers, Director of the
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, recently announced the names of three staff members who were appointed to newly endowed curatorships.
Darcy Kuronen, Curator of Musical Instruments since 1996, is now the Pappalardo Curator of Musical Instruments due to a generous gift from Jane and Neil Pappalardo. Kuronen began his career at the museum as Asssistant Curator in 1986. He organized a number of special exhibitions, including
Dangerous Curves: Art of the Guitar (2000) and
Sounds of the Silk Road: Musical Instruments of Asia (2005).
Laura Weinstein is the MFA's new Ananda Coomaraswamy Curator of South Asian and Islamic Art. The position is endowed anonymously in honor of the renowned Sri Lankan geologist, collector, scholar and author who joined the museum in 1917 as its first Curator of Indian Art. A staff member since October 2009, Weinstein is completing her Ph.D. at Columbia University, planning the reinstallation of the museum's South and South East Asian art collections and publishing a book that describes the MFA's holdings in Islamic art.
Marietta Cambareri, Curator of Decorative Arts and Sculpture, now holds the additional title of Jetskalina H. Phillips Curator of Judaica, Arts of Europe. Cambareri, who arrived at the museum in 2001 as Assistant Curator, specializes in European sculpture and Renaissance decorative arts. She organized the special exhibition
Donatello to Giambologna: Italian Renaissance Sculpture at the MFA, Boston (2007) and reinstalled the museum's Italian Renaissance Gallery (2009).
Additionally, Jetskalina H. Phillips' estate created two endowment funds to support curatorial work and acquisitions, both firsts for the museum that reinforce its commitment to Judaica as an art form.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Appoints New Curators and ConservatorBy STAN PARCHIN
July 22, 2010
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| Thomas P. Campbell. Photograph provided by The Metropolitan Museum of Art. |
Thomas P. Campbell, Director of
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, announced today the appointments of two new curators and one conservator.
Elizabeth Mankin Kornhauser joins the museum's staff as its new Curator of American Paintings on September 1, 2010. At the Wadsworth Atheneum for the last 26 years, she is currently its Chief Curator (since 1999) and Krieble Curator of American Paintings and Sculpture (since 1988). She served as Acting Director in 2000 and Deputy Director from 1999 to 2004. The organizer of many special exhibitions and author of numerous publications is a specialist in Hudson River School paintings. At the Met, Kornhauser's first priority is the continued preperation for the January 2012 opening of the museum's renovated and reinstalled American Paintings Galleries.
Jennifer Perry is the Asian Art Department's new Conservator for Japanese Paintings, beginning September 13, 2010. She earned her Master's degree from the Conservation Center at New York University's Institute of Fine Arts. Ms. Perry worked as Japanese Painting Conservator at Oka Bokkodo, a studio in Kyoto, Japan that treats designated Cultural Properties (1997 to 2003). In 2004, she became the Associate Conservator for Asian Paintings at the Cleveland Museum of Art. In New York, Perry is responsible for the care and conservation of the Met's Japanese paintings, prints and related works of art.
Xavier F. Salomon becomes The Metropolitan Museum of Art's new Curator of Southern Baroque Paintings in January 2011. He earned his B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. from the Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London. Dr. Salomon was awarded the Francis Haskell Memorial Scholarship in 2006. After serving as Curator at Dulwich Picture Gallery (2006 to 2009), he was named its Arturo and Holly Melosi Chief Curator (2009). The organizer of several special exhibitions, Salomon co-curated
Masterpieces of European Painting from Dulwich Picture Gallery (2010) at New York's Frick Collection.
Vatican Blames Its Museums for $9.8 Million Deficit in 2009By STAN PARCHIN
July 15, 2010
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| St. Peter's Square. Vatican City. Photograph provided by Flickr. |
A report released by the Vatican earlier this month blamed its art museums and major renovations for the institution's $9.8 million deficit in 2009. Infrastructure upgrades and the sluggish global economy were also cited. A council of cardinals charged with reviewing the Vatican's budget said that despite increased donations to the Holy See, 2009 marked the third year in a row that Vatican City's expenses outdistanced its revenues.
The council's press release stated that the Vatican Museums opened new exhibition spaces and extended their visiting hours, necessitating a payroll increase. Substantial expenditures resulted from building projects, maintenance and restoration work on the colonnade in St. Peter's Square and the basilicas of St. John Lateran, St. Paul Outside the Walls and St. Mary Major. The extensive renovation of the Vatican Library, expected to reopen in September 2010, added to the Holy See's financial problems.
No mention was made in the press statement of how much income the Vatican Museums generated from admissions, recorded tours, publications, special exhibitions and loans of art to other institutions. While the document said that the city state's telecommunications infrastructure was undergoing an expensive overhaul, it did not indicate that its museums' Web site was receiving a much-needed upgrade.
It's interesting to note that when St. Peter's Square and its statuary were cleaned for the Jubilee Year 2000 celebrations, the power-washing was done by a German company for free. This leads one to wonder what services were provided to the Vatican Museums last year at no expense.