Night at the museum

Plus, my favorite way to get book recommendations.

Hello. I put up my Christmas tree this weekend. Nothing really matters so why not! Since we last spoke, I:

• Finished reading Tony Tulathimutte’s Rejection. I simply don’t know how he does it. This book will not be for everyone but I commend the author’s unparalleled ability to evoke secondhand discomfort on the page. Not sure it’s your vibe? Consider reading an abbreviated version of one story “Ahegao,” in the Paris Review.

• Saw Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine as Light (2024), as well as Juror #2 (2024). Didn’t mention last week that I also saw Conclave (2024) and Anora (2024) when searching for a respite from the election. All good!

• Caught the Siena exhibit and Mexican Prints at the Vanguard at the Met. Both close in January.

• Went ice skating !

Now, the news.

Wooded Landscape by Gustave Courbet (1819/77)

If there is one thing you know by now, it is that I am always thinking about the Elgin Marbles. Lucky for us, the Financial Times just did a check-in—via its charming interview series Lunch with the FT—with the British Museum’s new director, Nicholas Cullinan, who we’ve spoken about before. I’m quite a fan, from what I’ve read about him: the son of a construction worker and a part-time nurse who fell in love with art at a young age and climbed to one of the museum world’s most prestigious posts through scrappiness, optimism, and, seemingly, a collaborative attitude. With just a little more than six months of experience at the British Museum, Cullinan already has a vision for the museum, going through to its 300th birthday in 2053. Among them: Vast digitization and modernization efforts that should amount to the not-so-meager cost of $1 billion.

On the question of the Parthenon marbles, Cullinan doesn’t give an entirely satisfying answer, but it is clear that he has something in the works—most likely, some kind of partnership with the Acropolis Museum in Athens. “I’m starting with the idea that everything is possible, and we’ll deal with reality as it evolves,” he says. “Let’s not start with the idea that certain things can’t be done.

The British Museum isn’t the only cultural bastion considering its future. In Paris, the Centre Pompidou—a complex that houses Musée National d'Art Moderne, the largest modern art museum in Europe—will close in September 2025 for a five-year renovation, though it is already beginning the process of rehoming artworks during that period, Apollo Magazine reported. While a €262 million “technical” renovation—removing asbestos, etc.—will be funded entirely by the French government, the “cultural” component of the renovation, which involves an interior design is still in need of €90 million in funding for its €190 million budget. Many leaders in the art world have condemned the planned five-year closure, leading to a Change.org petition that is nearing 15,000 signatures. Apollo also points out that the Museum of Modern Art’s far more expensive 2019 renovation required the museum to close for just four months.

Interestingly, Centre Pompidou president Laurent Le Bon seems to echo similar sentiments to Cullinan with his insistence that partnerships are the way forward for the museum, at least financially. But it appears that this institution may not be as successful with that approach; an on-again-off-again plan for a Centre Pompidou outpost in Jersey City (yes) has not inspired much confidence in the Centre’s perhaps overly ambitious international expansion. Instead, Marie Ballarini, researcher and lecturer in cultural management at Université Paris Dauphine-PSL told Apollo it won’t be surprising if the Centre continues to toy with trademarking opportunities and sponsorship deals, like a recent exhibit it hosted in partnership with (and about) Nike. Could be tricky territory to continue to tread—but as we know, getting funding to maintain and support cultural institutions today is far from an easy feat.

I do need to go back to the Met soon because 1. I like to look at the Christmas tree in the Medieval wing, which goes up November 26 (and stays there until January 6, which I guess is the end of the holiday season……..) and 2. for the second time since 1935, the museum is opening its employee-made art show to the public! (The first time was in the summer of 2022). Art Work: Artists Working at The Met runs for just about two weeks, from November 18 to December 1, so try to get there soon if you can. Daniel Kershaw, senior exhibition designer at the Met, has been putting together the exhibit for 35 years, and had asked before to make it publicly viewable; in 2022 then-new director Max Hollein agreed, the Financial Times reported. This year, there are about 641 pieces of art on display—generally speaking, any employee of the Met can submit a piece. It’s not a coincidence that so many do submit: senior security manager Lambert Fernando told the FT that probably 75 percent of security guards at the museum make some kind of art. A testament to the power of being surrounded by art on a daily basis!

I’d love to see more museums experiment with these kinds of projects. It reminds me a bit of when the Baltimore Museum of Art in 2022 invited its security guards to curate an exhibit (while getting paid on top of their normal salaries). It also makes me curious to read Patrick Bringley’s 2023 memoir, All the Beauty in the World: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Me, about quitting his job at The New Yorker after his brother’s terminal cancer diagnosis to become a Met security guard. Honestly, might be the kind of book a lot of us could use right now.

While we are on the topic of the Met, its new exhibit Flight Into Egypt: Black Artists and Ancient Egypt, 1876 — Now also sounds very cool. As the NYT reported, the exhibit will feature live performances involving dance, spoken word, music, and film. You can poke through the MetLiveArts calendar to find scheduled pieces in the “performance pyramid,” which kicks off this Friday with performing artist Kaneza Schaal.

Another cool thing one museum is doing is inviting authors to be, in essence, writers-in-residence. It’s basically a very prestigious writing residency: Madrid’s Prado Museum is inviting authors to stay up to four weeks in an apartment nearby, the New York Times reported. They are expected to observe the art with frequency, and, upon their return home, write a story inspired by what they’ve seen. The Spanish edition of Granta selects the authors, who have thus far included J.M. Coetzee, Olga Tokarczuk, Chloe Aridjis, and John Banville, who the Times accompanied through the museum.

The program, Writing the Prado, is funded by the Loewe Foundation. Honestly, a great way to support writers, spark interdisciplinary conversation, and, potentially, greater interest in what the museum has to offer—or, conversely, greater interest in the selected authors. Now, Donna Tartt…….I’ve found a very compelling opportunity for you…..

Of interest to me and also maybe to you: The U.K.’s National Theatre is putting on a production of Ballet Shoes, the 1936 novel by Noel Streatfeild. This was one of my favorite books growing up, and I will be eager to see if it’s successful as a stage adaptation—and if it eventually makes its way stateside.

One of my favorite ways to get book recommendations is back. I’ve done N+1’s Bookmatch the past two years and have found so many favorites through it (including a personal all-timer, Sigrid Nunez’s The Last of Her Kind). Through the end of the month, the Whiting Foundation will match Bookmatch donations up to $20,000. So do it now! Now, I’m off to do the same. ▲