The Examiner recently sat down with Christopher Bedford, the newly appointed director of the SFMOMA.
Why go to a modern art museum? They’re expensive, stuffy and the art is often remote or, worse, something a toddler could make. Those are the typical lamentations, anyway. More contemporary grievances concern a lack of local emphasis and diversity within museum’s collections and institutional structures.
“Museums position themselves as nonprofits that serve the public,” Bedford said. “Yet I’m not sure that we’ve always calibrated ourselves precisely toward engaging the public where they are.” But the question remains: If commercial galleries, public art initiatives and several other nonprofits throughout The City offer free art experiences in spades, why bother with the museum at all? Bedford sees the unique position of the museum as an educational space.
By way of example, Bedford posited the following: “What would an exhibition look like that brought together New York City in the 70s, Oakland in the 70s, London in the 70s, and showed the commonality as well as the deviation, discarding the old ideas of art history as a progression of style and instead embracing the idea of art history as something guided by the social? I think that’s really compelling and different.
If nothing else, these ambitions prove Bedford is listening to the demands of his audience. But is it all lip service? His track record would suggest otherwise.
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