The American Museum Is On The Line.

In May 18th, the international museum day, the UNESCO and the International Museum Association released a research report, pointed out that due to the impact of the new crown, 85 thousand museums in the world have been shut down at different time periods, accounting for 90% of the total, of which nearly 13% of museums may last forever, equivalent to eight of the world's museums.

Since the beginning of March this year, museums across the United States have been forced to close their doors. Most museums have to rush out notices in a few days. Who had thought that this lockout has been more than two months to date, and museums need to readjust their emergency operation strategies in response to the latest situation of the epidemic. How can we take good care of the collections and venues while ensuring the health of the staff under the indefinite closure? In the absence of other sources of income, such as tickets, retail and rental, how to support the museum's daily operation and maintenance? If business is not sustainable, where will the exhibits flow? Each question is a major examination for the management and operation of museums.

150 year old birthday

Recently, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (hereinafter referred to as the Metropolitan Museum) announced that the time for reopening will be postponed until mid August. As a museum vane for New York during the epidemic, the Metropolitan Museum closed in March 12th and was originally reopened from July 1st. At present, all tours, forums, concerts and other activities in the Metropolitan Museum have been cancelled, mainly through a series of online guided tours.

April 13th this year is the 150th anniversary anniversary of the Metropolitan Museum. Compared with previous years, this year's museums are deserted, but the museum staff are not idle. Carolyn Riccardelli is one of the four main employees appointed for the new job. During the lockup, they are responsible for the detection, protection and storage of the vast collection in the Metropolitan Museum. Carolyn said to Artnet, "you can't just leave the exhibits there if you don't have time to close. You need to do some necessary checks on them." The staff will check the safety and storage facilities of the exhibits, check the leakage monitoring, and confirm that the exhibits are not affected by pests or temperature and humidity changes, and even the koi pools in the museum are under examination. Outside work, Carolyn often watches a work that was purchased by the Metropolitan Museum in 1871. It is a famous painting painted by Anthony van Dyke "St. Rosalie's prayer for the Palermo plague" (Saint Rosalie Interceding). The painting was created by artists at the Sicily in order to record the plague in Palermo. The locals believed that the protection of sacred Rosalie saved the city when the plague broke out. "Even though I was not religious, I could not help stopping to look at her." Carolyn said, "she is the one who protects the people in Palermo in the plague. Now it is time to appreciate this painting."

Capital is lifeline.

Almost overnight, exhibitions around the world that have not been suspended for decades or even decades have been postponed indefinitely. Due to the impact of the aviation schedule, the museum's collection is stranded all over the world, and even the date of a scheduled return can not be determined. Brooke Davis Anderson, Dean of Academy of Fine Arts in Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, said: "this is happening too fast, and museums are known as" slow children "institutions. In the case of all stops, the most urgent thing is to maintain the museum's "life" operation fund.

Compared with European counterparts enjoying government subsidies, American museums, which rely mainly on tickets and charitable donations, are more affected. According to AAM survey data, nearly 1/3 museums in the United States have been in a state of loss or near loss before the outbreak, and nearly 1/3 of museums are closed or permanently closed after the outbreak. Under normal circumstances, tickets, restaurant income and venue rental can bring 30% of the museum's income, while in the closed door period, this part of the revenue will undoubtedly be a red light. In addition, Zannie Voss, director of SMU's art data consultancy, told artnet that according to a 2016 survey, the general museum will only have 1.5 months' operating capital daily, which is enough to show that the museum has no serious consequences in the two months.

And the timing of the pandemic is particularly tricky. Usually the major museums will hold large fundraising activities in the spring, so April is often called the "grand festival" in the art world. But as this year's activities are mostly on the brakes, fundraising is already very unsatisfactory. In addition, because of their reputations and better resources, large museum institutions often win winners in previous fundraising activities, which can always raise more operating capital, while small museums are relatively vulnerable. Under the catalysis of the epidemic crisis, even though small museums are the ones who need more help, the unfair phenomenon is further aggravated, considering the stable and effective use of the funds. Tim Griffin, chief curator of the Kitchen Museum in New York, commented: "in the past ten years, we have seen large and small museum organizations experiencing market selection, elimination and integration. I believe the epidemic will push them to the extreme."

Although some people think that the economic depression brought by this outbreak seems to have nothing to do with the economic crisis in 2008, it is felt that it is also possible to "endure" but this is not the case. During the economic crisis in 2008, the major museums competed in organizing welfare auctions, leasing space for activities at low prices, reducing the number of exhibitions held each year, and relying more on the museum's original collection rather than the expensive collection and loan. But for this year's situation, Olga Viso, the former director of the Walker Arts Center, said: "all of the above mentioned ways to increase revenue and reduce expenditure, even reserves and disposable funds, have long been used up and exhausted in many organizations." He said, "otherwise we can't even live today."

He saved? Save oneself?

In order to help museums facing financial crisis or turbulence, the AAMD has passed a series of resolutions this week, allowing Museum agencies to use limited funds in the next two years to pay for operating expenses during temporary closure. At the same time, some museums are seeking advice from patrons, hoping to relax restrictions on the use of donated funds so that they can be used to pay for the cost of daily operations. Jeremy Strick, director of the Scher Sculpture Center in Dallas, said a longtime donor called him to ask if he paid the part-time staff during the shutdown of the sculpture center, and said he would lend a helping hand if things did not improve as things went on.

In addition, in March 24th, the Metropolitan Museum launched the "CongressSaveCulture" promotion on the Internet, proposing to grant federal relief to non-profit institutions and inject $4 billion into the art institutions in financial risk as part of the $2 trillion stimulus package passed by Congress. Daniel Weiss, the president and chief executive of the Metropolitan Museum, said in a statement: "the importance of cultural organizations is not only because art brings value to life, but also promotes tourism and creates employment opportunities. We must not underestimate the need for government relief agencies and their employees.

It is learnt that if the museum is on the verge of collapse, some museums will adopt the way of auction collection to survive. Three years ago, at the Berkshire Museum in Massachusetts, more than 20 collections were handed over to Sotheby's auction house, which eventually earned 53 million dollars in revenue to support its refurbishment plan and the cost of 60 million dollars for future operations. According to Peter Keller, director of the International Council of museums, New York Times said that if the final Museum failed completely, there would be no general guidelines for dealing with the closure of museums. France has marked "no sale" for the country's collection, while Holland's "guide to Museum Heritage contribution" requires that the collection be counted and the donated products returned to the donors. The collections purchased by the government should be provided to other Holland museums. Julia Pagel, Secretary General of the European Museum organization network, also pointed out that museums are not the storage places of individual collections. There are still some interconnections between collections of some museums. If they are separated or sold among themselves, the historical context or deficiency of the collections collectibles together.

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