Andare, Partire, Tornare

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here, why don't you let me slice my *own* wrists for you?

Our preperation for our upcoming exhibition has hit a snag that could prove very difficult to navigate around. One of the lenders, who has several important objects, has decided that our organization, composed of rich old women as it is, should be able to shell out fifty grand for the privledge of displaying his objects. Since we're obviously just rolling in the dough, and since he's a dealer and is graciously allowing us to use his objects, we should pay, right?

Cue the sound of museum folk everywhere laughing their asses off, and perhaps simultaneously weeping. It doesn't matter what kind of people constitute the organization, we're a non-profit and, instead of rolling in dough, we're holding on to every penny we can because we're so friggin' poor. Every museum in the world, save for perhaps places like the Met, with its huge endowments, is always calculating the cost. How much for an exhibit designer, paint for the walls, a new case to replace the one with the cracked plexi? How much for the new storage area with the properly controlled humidity so we can move things out of the area with the roof that leaks every time we have a storm? How much to have that fragile painting shipped via a fine arts handler to a conservator so they can take off the yellowed varnish and replace cracking paint, a painstaking task if there ever was one? How much to pay for the rental of photographs of objects in other collections, to pay for shipping objects here and back home, for a courier to fly here with the object safely on her lap the whole way? Some small museums have one full time staff member, and he or she does everything from balancing the budget to sweeping the floors every night, because they can't afford any more staff.

If an object is exhibited in a show, it gains prestige. We've had many a dealer jump at the chance to have their objects in a show, because then when it goes to auction, they can mention that it's an important enough object to have been displayed as a sterling example of its type, or a valuable object in history, or whatever. Heck, it could be hanging on our walls and they could sell it, it's just that the new owner couldn't take it away until the show was over with. We have no problem with that. They also know we're going to take excellent care of it while it's in our posession. It's almost a certainty that the lender knows all of this, but is hoping that his objects are important enough to be able to hold us up for blackmail. Well, screw 'im. I for one am going to do my best to secure a few of the objects from other sources.

Excuse me, I have to go bang my head against the wall now.

10:24 a.m. - 2002-05-24

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

previous - next

latest entry

about me

archives

notes

DiaryLand

Blogroll

random entry

other diaries:

caerula
dichroic
sometoast
mechaieh
weetabix
trancejen
unclebob
smartypants
clcassius
badsnake
bafleyanne
abendbrot
marn
batten
herworship
sundry
keryanna
idiot-milk
saint-louise
skim
ursamajor
goodsandwich
culotte
seussie
cariboutwo
tanisanne
madamepierce