FAC Aftermath
The Fine Arts Center's Extremely Grand Reopening, on balance, has to be counted as an extremely big success. The capacity crowd at the gala seemed to be having a great time; the galleries were well-attended following their Saturday reopening; and everybody I talked to loved David Owen Tryba's addition - as do I.
There was only one glaring miscalculation to the festivities: The cost of the lectures by Thomas Hoving, John Waters, and Joel Grey. The only one I attended was Hoving's, but had I paid $45 to see this hastily prepared, hour-long chat - $49 for non-members - I would have been quite upset. (I had tickets to Grey, but my legs rebelled at a fourth visit in three days to the FAC...)
With the expansion safely - and brilliantly - accomplished, the Michael De Marsche watch officially begins. His stock in town will never be higher, he's attracted a lot of attention in the museum world, he has only a year left on his contract, and he seems to like challenges. I can't believe there won't be multiple museums bidding for his services.
Any bets?
There was only one glaring miscalculation to the festivities: The cost of the lectures by Thomas Hoving, John Waters, and Joel Grey. The only one I attended was Hoving's, but had I paid $45 to see this hastily prepared, hour-long chat - $49 for non-members - I would have been quite upset. (I had tickets to Grey, but my legs rebelled at a fourth visit in three days to the FAC...)
With the expansion safely - and brilliantly - accomplished, the Michael De Marsche watch officially begins. His stock in town will never be higher, he's attracted a lot of attention in the museum world, he has only a year left on his contract, and he seems to like challenges. I can't believe there won't be multiple museums bidding for his services.
Any bets?
posted by Mark Arnest at 1:02 PM
5 Comments:
Man, that gala was fun. I loved Phat Daddy and the Phat Horn Doctors... They're like the new Tiny Barge and the Big Chill. They do great covers and seem to have five gigs a week in town.
I also had fun catching up with old friends and schmoozing with the celebs.
Not to be a shameless name dropper, but I had a great time talking movies and TV with Thomas Hoving (who actually liked the ending of "The Sopranos" because he liked the idea of a big middle finger to the fans.) And I talked to John Waters about Travolta in a fat suit. He thinks Eddie Murphy's "Norbit" ruined the whole fat suit thing forever.
So I heard DeMarsche resigned to go to Armenia. Does the truth sound stranger than fiction??
Well, it happend just as I expected. DM's day in the sun has set and now on to other things. Here is the web site to the place he is going to. Take a gander at the man who hired him. Pretty strange. Well, speaking as a person who knows many people that went through his "majesty's reign", I am glad he is gone so that people are not in fear of going to work, losing their jobs and self esteem. Congratulations on the new FAC. Maybe I'll even see it now that DM is gone. Here is that web site. http://www.cmf.am/home/index_eng.html
Official length of the De Marsche watch: 74 hours, 43 minutes!
More good stuff about the Cafesjian museum at the architect's website:
http://www.hotson.net/
(Warning: high-bandwidth site.)
My impression is that the museum is behind schedule, and probably way behind schedule.
As for De Marsche leaving, I think it will work out well. It's beyond dispute that he vastly improved the FAC; it's also beyond dispute that he alienated a lot of people, such as anonymous. The new director will inherit a great new facility and an excellent staff without De Marsche's accumulated baggage.
Mr. Tryba did a fine job indeed. Now perhaps we can get him to go across the street and do something about Antoine Predock's rendition of BattleStar Galactica.
No...probably too late.
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