Paul Werner, author of Museum, Inc., will be interviewed this coming Sunday, July 8th, at 10:00am (AEST - Australia Eastern Standard Time) on Artworks, a radio show from ABC Radio National in Australia.
Audio of the show will be available from the Artworks site
Paul Werner's Museum, Inc. recently received praise from Zeke's Gallery. In short form, "Museum Inc. is a wicked cool book."
Paul Werner draws on his nine years at the Guggenheim Museum to reveal that contemporary art museums have not broken radically with the past, as often claimed. Rather, Werner observes, they are the logical outcome of the evolution of cultural institutions rooted in the eighteenth-century Enlightenment, the colonial expansion of the liberal nation-state, and the rhetoric of democracy.
Paul Werner's Museum, Inc. continues to amuse and inform. Carlin Romano, writing in the Philadelphia Inquirer, praises Werner's tract on the corporatization of the museum:
. . . [T]his little screed is relentlessly brilliant, hilarious, dead-on and hyperwitty. Werner writes like Vanity Fair critic James Wolcott on speed (while channeling philosopher of art Arthur Danto), and since the Vanity Fair critic produces more metaphors stone sober than the New York Times manages in a month, this makes for a wild ride.
Paul Werner's Museum, Inc. has been raising eyebrows, lately. While Werner's criticisms are generally praised as pointing to significant issues with the corporate-style governance of the Guggenheim, some think he has gone too far. Brian Sholis remarks in his In Search of the Miraculous blog, "Every flash of insight Museum, Inc. presents is undercut by rhetorical overkill, often in the very same paragraph." After complaining that Werner offers no solutions to his criticisms of the Guggenheim, Sholis goes on to say, "I cannot recommend reading it."
Others are enthusiastically in favor of Werner's pamphleteering skills. The New York Arts Exchange was ecstatic, "I scarfed down Paul Werner's latest book Museum, Inc: Inside the Global Art World like a bag full of Reese Pieces, completely oblivious to quantity or time--what a treat. And what catharsis."
Todd Gibson writes in From the Floor that, "Museum, Inc. takes its share of cheap shots (many of which are spot on and quite funny), but it also makes a serious case.... [F]or those interested in the current state of the art in museum management, Werner leads an interesting tour through the museum that has embraced corporate models for growth more openly than any other."
Paul Werner, author of Museum, Inc., is giving a lecture at the Bluestockings Bookstore, 172 Allen Street, New York, NY 10002 on Saturday, March 25 at 7:00pm.
It's no secret that art and business have always mixed, but their relationship today sparks more questions than ever. Museum, Inc. describes the new art conglomerates from an insider's perspective, probing how their roots run deep into corporate culture.
Visit the Bluestockings Site for more information on the event.