Related posts:

Lecture by Max Andrews "From Spiral to Spime: Robert Smithson, the ecological and the curatorial", 13 March, 2pm, Lecture Theatre 1, Royal College of Art, London (12 March 2012)

Publication "Robert Smithson: Art in Continual Movement" (Alauda Publications, 2012) includes essay by Max Andrews (28 March 2012)

Robert Smithson's 'Broken Circle/Spiral Hill Revisited' (1971–2011) and The Land Art Contemporary programme (14 September 2011)

Portscapes: Jorge Satorre returns an ice-age boulder back to Sweden (18 January 2010)

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Part of our interest in the #OpenCurating research we are currently carrying out is to look at how museums and curatorial departments are engaging in new ways with their audiences and the means through which "open" initiatives are being promoted and implemented in exhibition-making and via other types of programming.

The Indianapolis Museum of Art has created two really dynamic initiatives which promote transparency throughout the museum's operations: a real-time statistics "Dashboard" including data such as the museum's energy consumption, works of art currently on display, the value of the museum's endowment, their operating expenses, average time of visits to the website, etc. 

The tool was implemented in 2008 and is the brainchild of museum director Maxwell L. Anderson, an active advocate of implementing new media technologies to advance public interest in art. 



The data can be compared to previous years (stats for 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011), filtered by museum departments (Buildings, Education, Conservation, Curatorial, Finance...) as well as by topics (Art, Greening the IMA, Attendance...). 



However admirable this tool is, the curatorial dashboard falls rather short on the depth of information, only offering statistics for the "number of acquisitions" and the "number of works with gaps in WWII-Era Provenance". They do not reveal full data sets of their departmental operational budget, for instance. This might show there is still some resistance to really open up  to show other kind of costs (shipping, insurance, exhibition display, fees paid to artists (or not?)...) or even interesting insights such as (air)miles travelled by the curatorial staff, or the amount of paper used for their publications, just to mention a few. 

Some of these topics (how to articulate institutions and organisations complex needs in seeming transparent, responsible and benevolent) were addressed in Latitudes' 2008 exhibition "Greenwashing. Environment: Perils, Promises and Perplexities" (Archive Books, 2008) and in its catalogue essay "Shades of Green: a conversation between the curators", as well as in the essay by Stephanie Smith "'Alas for the dreams of a Dreamer!': Art Museums and Sustainability" included in the Latitudes-edited publication "Land, Art: A Cultural Ecology Handbook' (RSA, 2006).

A second initiative we find quite relevant is the "Deaccessioning database", which classifies pieces that have been deaccessioned at the museum since 2007 (following IMA's policy, see pdf here), explaining provenance, the reasons for its deaccession, listing the recipient and the day of sale, etc.
Take for instance "Houses in the Snow", a 1929 canvas by Maurice de Vlaminck sold via Sotheby's in 2009 for $173700; or the 1889 suite of prints "Les Misères Humaines" by Gaugin, which were transferred to the Musée de Pont-Aven in 2009. Fascinating and revealing, isn't it?

The project will continue in 2012–13, with a series of 'assignments' to contemporary artists "a number of artists will be set the assignment of creating a work in the spirit of Smithson, whereby the landscape is viewed as a continual process that is constantly in a state of transformation due to the interaction between man and nature", to be curated by SKOR's curators Nils van Beek and Theo Tegelaers. + info...


Land Art Contemporary is an initiative of STICHTING LACDA, Drenthe, a foundation established in 2011 by the Sanders-Ten Holte family. The program has been made possible thanks to (content and financial) support from SKOR | Foundation for Art and Public Domain, Province of Drenthe, European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development: Europe Investing in Rural Areas (LEADER), Municipality of Coevorden, Municipality of Emmen, Cultuurfonds BNG and the Sanders-Ten Holte family.

Milan-based Kult Magazine has published an article on art and ecology in their October issue written by art critic and curator Daniele Perra. In the section, Perra interviews curator Francesco Manacorda (curator of the exhibition 'Radical Nature: Art and Architecture for a Changing Planet 1969-2009' on view at the Barbican Art Gallery, London, until 18 October), as well as English artist Simon Starling and selects a few ongoing exhibitions and events that analyse the relationship between art and nature.

In page 88 (see detail above) Perra mentioned Latitudes' ecology-related projects such as the 'Greenwashing. Environment: Perils, Promises and Perplexities...' exhibition at the Fondazione Sandretto in Turin in 2008, the guest-edition of UOVO #14 in 2007 and the publication 'Land, Art: A Cultural Ecology Handbook' in 2006, to introduce our participation in the forthcoming The Wånas Foundation seminar on Art and Ecology taking place on the 21 October in Knislinge, Sweden and in the symposium organised by Hinterland Projects on 26th November titled 'The evolving relationships between artists, the changing climate and new responsibilities'.

[Above: Detail of page 88 of the magazine. With thanks to Daniele Perra]