Berthe Morisot
Well, we just received a press release from the Columbia Museum of Artabout their impressive attendance numbers posted during their presentation of the exhibit, Turner to Cézanne: Masterpieces from the Davies Collection, National Museum Wales, which was on view from March 6 through June 7 – 3 months. The release stated that the exhibition ended the first stop of its nationwide tour by attracting over 46,000 people to the Columbia Museum of Art for gallery tours, programs and events. That’s a blockbuster in this state.
This very same exhibit was pretty much panned by the former art critic ofThe State newspaper in Columbia – Jeffrey Day, but I guess the public didn’t listen. And, it’s not like people were not hearing good things from the people who visited the exhibit, the Museum broke a single-day attendance record with 1,590 visitors on the last Friday of the exhibition, June 5, 2009. If anything the buzz about this exhibit was building.
Day may have had some valid problems with the exhibition, but what a critic sees as a problem is not necessarily a problem for the average art museum visitor. I think the numbers speak for themselves.
The press release states that during the exhibition, which opened March 6, the Museum had record visitation from all 50 states, Washington, DC, the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and 22 countries. Of all tickets sold: 20 percent were from outside of South Carolina; 64 percent were from outside of Richland County, SC; nearly 9,000 were youth visitors; 10 percent were from North Carolina; nearly 3,000 visitors were from Charlotte, NC; 422 were visitors from Atlanta, GA; 34 percent were from Columbia; 10 percent were from Lexington County, SC; and 6 percent were from Charleston, SC.
At first glance, the 6 percent from Charleston, the art mecca of the region might seem like a low number, but if they got 2,760 people to come from Charleston to Columbia and they weren’t going to a Gamecocks football game – that’s an accomplishment. Getting people to leave their beloved Charleston is not an easy task.
And, think about the shape the economy has been in the last three months – if people were spending time and money to go see an art exhibit – 20 percent from outside of SC – that’s amazing.
Columbia Museum of Art executive director Karen Brosius had the following to say about the exhibit. “We are thrilled with the overwhelmingly positive response from visitors. This exhibition brought unprecedented attention and stature to South Carolina, and had a strong economic impact on Columbia, which is particularly important at this time. We are grateful to the exhibition sponsors, the Blanchard Family for enabling us to bring thousands of people to Columbia for the first time.”
The exhibition was organized by the American Federation of Arts and National Museum Wales, with support by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities. But the Columbia presentation was sponsored by the Blanchard Family. I don’t know who they are, but Bravo, Blanchard Family!
Of course I hope the beautiful color cover we posted in our Mar. 09 issue helped promote the exhibition in some small way. But, sadly I did not get to see this exhibit myself. Such is the glamorous life of an arts newspaper editor and publisher who also has to process info, layout articles and then deliver the paper – month after month by deadline. There is never enough time for everything. Besides our mission is to get other folks to go see exhibitions and buy art.
It looks like I really missed one this time – congrats to the Columbia Museum of Art.