“Are potential staff members being approached with offers? That would be understandable for someone like Crosman, but for most of the rest of the museum staff, that seems like a lot of resources to expend. I imagine it could get a lot of very good job candidates if it made its joblist public.”

Maybe it’s the way to do things in AR. I know of universities there that do the same thing.

by JAW—Sep 13, 08:56 AM

I figure, though, that English departments notwithstanding, universities splash around in with pretty small pools of applicants to begin with, and especially if they have endowed chairs available, often it’s administrators and department chairs with long strings on their fingers that are going to be effective.

I suppose first-class art museums have similarly small pools to work in. Am I assuming that museum staff will be larger than it will in fact be? If it’s going to be relatively small, say 10–20, then I suppose they could staff the whole place out of that pool and out of local contacts.

by greg—Sep 13, 09:05 AM

Does the recent announcement of Wal-mart’s on-line collection of framed art for sale confirm all the fears?

by Sage—Mar 26, 06:43 PM

I am afraid I have not kept up lately with CB or W-M news. What is this announcement?

by greg—Mar 27, 08:47 AM

i presume that it is this

by Balthasar Gracián—Mar 27, 12:03 PM

though, you pretty much get most of those images at artposter or art.com

which is still not these people, who upon request will make it look old, crack the surface, etc.

by Balthasar Gracián—Mar 27, 12:10 PM

Who did all the arranging for the licensing, when it was needed, and who wrote the artists’ bios? Is any of this a coincidence? W-M was planning to get into the art repo biz at the same time that CB was being planned? What exactly is going on at CB?

by Sage—Mar 27, 07:22 PM

I imagine G. Washington looking up at Chinese faces as he is rolling off the press in some sweat shop. Maybe Crystal Bridges can do an exhibition on the Junking of America. What is Junk? Who is the chief peddler of Junk? Who is the Junk king? or Queen? How much money can you make from Junk? What is the ethic or morality of Junk? What happens to the sole of such peddlers? Do they even have a sole?

I hope those who have made so much money off the poverty of others think that they can take it with them. What other reason would they have for trying to make even more money? Crystal Bridges will not pay off the devil. I think that they will go right straight to Hell, not in a hand basket, but in a shopping cart. My idea of Hell for them would be that they get to take a shopping cart with them and all that they can put in it from Wal-Mart.

by Anne—Mar 29, 01:26 PM

Hmm, well, they posted the job on the American Association of Museums jobs list. But, I, quite frankly, wish I had never seen it. I left my design job in Little Rock to do what I hoped would be legitimate work in art and material culture. I knew after three days at Crystal Bridges it was a terrible mistake. They had lied to me about my salary, title, reimbursement, and job expectations. They hired me simply to make things look good to the locals and did not care about the regional culture at all. In fact, they made sport of putting it down. I was told that my job was to put the art into local context “even if it is just pigs running around in the woods.” But, I could not even do that, as I soon found out when I was reprimanded for making an appointment to view the collection. I do know about you guys, but I have never heard of a case where a curator is not allowed to view the collection of a museum. After I left Bentonville, the folks at Crystal Bridge falsely accused me of using their credit card. My attorney explained to them the meaning of slander. Again, I wish I did not know all that I do about Crystal Bridges!

by Sarah—Aug 2, 11:24 AM