The New York Times

Don’t Think of Them as Mausoleums

PARIS — “A great department store, easily reached, open at all hours, is more like a good museum of art than any of the museums we have yet established,” John Cotton Dana, who in 1909 founded the Newark Museum in Newark, New Jersey, said about the lack of facilities at most museums. By the late 20th century, it looked as if he might still have a point: For many, museums were seen as reactionary mausoleums, or, as the British philosopher Alan Watts put it, “places where art goes to die.”

Yet over the past few years the number of museum visitors has been steadily rising worldwide, despite the economic downturn, according to industry figures. Judging from the number of patrons frequenting the in-house restaurant at the Tate Modern in London, browsing Swedish design objects at the Moderna Museet shop in Stockholm, or bringing their children to dash around La Maison des Petits, designed by Matali Crasset at the Parisian arts center 104, these spaces are not art cemeteries, but rather vibrant destinations where the exhibitions are sometimes beside the point.

Facilities like cafes, restaurants and bookshops have “for many years been seen as part of the essential services museums and galleries provide,” said Maitreyi Maheshwari, a curator at the London gallery 176 Zabludowicz Collection. But, she added, “in recent years these have tended to become more sophisticated, with many galleries opening, for example, more exclusive restaurants.”

A quality restaurant is now often an expected feature of a good museum. Since opening in late 2004, the Modern restaurant at MoMA in New York has consistently garnered accolades, including a Michelin star. Tate Modern won the Time Out award as best family cafe in London last year, while the National Gallery won the best British book prize at the British Book Design and Production awards — not for an art tome, but for “The National Cookbook,” a recipe book inspired by the food served at its award-winning restaurant, run by the chef Oliver Peyton.

In Paris, one restaurant was conceived as an art installation in its own right. Last summer the Palais de Tokyo opened Nomiya, a 12-seater “restaurant ephémère,” a temporary dining space on the roof of the museum. Created as part of ArtHome, a concept by the Swedish electrical appliance maker Electrolux, the restaurant, designed by the artist Laurent Grasso, was originally due to close in July but is now set to stay open until September, or possibly even longer, the organizers say.

But as directors vie for visitors with a burgeoning number of public and private museums, they are not preoccupied only with cafes and shops. An emphasis on novel “concept” events is also becoming more popular. For example, the ArtHome concept at the Palais de Tokyo runs, in conjunction with Nomiya, cooking workshops for adults and children six days a week, while the 104 arts space started a regular weekend bric-a-brac sale this year. Visitors can now buy vintage clothing and browse for knickknacks in the main hall of the arts center during the event, run in collaboration with the charity Emmaüs.

On a more quirky note, in London last year the Science Museum started “Lates,” a free singles night held once a month, which lured more than 3,000 visitors to the museum for the event. And at “Late at Tate,” visitors can browse exhibitions with drinks in hand when the gallery stays open until 10 p.m. one Friday per month.

Such has been the success of many museums’ events and facilities that in some cases they have become independent attractions.

Charmian Griffin, a Web editor for ArtAngel, a London-based company that commissions projects by contemporary artists, said she often met friends at the Tate Modern cafe. The museum “is always going to be a great place to have a drink,” she said. “The views over the river and architecture of the space mean there is no need for the museum to try too hard.”

Correspondingly, plans for the new extension to Tate Modern (designed by Herzog & de Meuron and set to open in time for the Olympic Games in 2012) include more restaurants and cafes, spaces for performances and films, and dedicated areas for families. “In its next stage of development, Tate’s vision is to establish and enhance the visitor experience,” said Alex Beard, deputy director at Tate (the umbrella body of Tate Modern, Tate Britain, Tate St. Ives and Tate Liverpool).

These new spaces are also a significant source of income for institutions. Mr. Beard says the income from visitor facilities at the four Tate sites in Britain in the financial year 2008-9 was £29.4 million, or $44 million. According to the annual report, that is 15 percent of the total income, the highest source of income after donated works of art and government aid. At Britain’s national museums as a whole, according to the Art Fund, there was a 53 percent rise in income from on-site shops and cafes from March to September last year, a trend attributed to improved facilities, as well as to the overall increase in visitors.

But the trend is not without its critics. In a special edition of the French magazine Beaux Arts this month, the art critic Emmanuelle Lequeux warned against the rise of a “merchandised culture” that she said would lead to the decline of national museums as governments reduced funding, expecting museums to generate their own income.

For many, however, the changes can only be seen as positive if they bring more people to museums. “This isn’t a bad thing,” Ms. Maheshwari said. “And if they get more people going to see art and engage with some of the ideas and issues that artists and exhibitions are exploring, then it’s definitely worth it.”

Nepalese seasons

Rain and ritual

Located in Chelsea, Rubin museum of art features objects from different regions and cultures, mostly from Far East. After five floors of going up the stairs, you find yourself in a little hallway leading towards the exhibition. The exhibition is Called “Nepalese seasons, rain and ritual” and is held from may 6^th to march 27^th. The first thing that catches your eye is a colorful wall of stories, illustrating Nepal’s seasons and their celebrations and events which take place in each one. Moving on from that its all gray walls, maybe covered in some tribal patterns, which gives the place a different feel than just having simple white walls. There is not much to look at, only small and big sculptures and maybe a few wall decorations. The pieces are mostly wooden or gold and some others are made of different stones or metals. You can barely find any color used on them, besides some decorative patterns that might cover them up.

The warm and subtle lighting on the pieces creates o warmer space. In some cases the lights are placed in an angle, that gives the sculptures different shadows. One of the pieces is a small figure sitting while having her hands on her legs. The lights on her are positioned in a way that you have multiple symmetrical shadows on her both sides; in a way that looks as if the shadows are giving the piece characters that it already doesn’t have.

The displays are simple glass boxes with only one object placed in each one. Some of the pieces are simply hanged on the walls without any protection around them. The simplicity of the displays makes you focus more on the work itself. All that is displayed on the floor are related and besides having an interesting collection, Rubin museum’s way of displaying the pieces makes it a different experience than going to a grand museum with plain walls and bright lightings.