Blog Crisis Catches Museums Sleeping

A UK painter has installed four of his own works of art in New York's most prestigious museums - The Brooklyn Museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum of Modern Art and the Museum of Natural History. Amazingly, while the Met and MOMA removed the artwork, as of Wednesday the two other museums still had the paintings hanging in their galleries. The Wooster blog had the story that same day, way before the press did. Of course, the Wooster post is attracting huge blog buzz as well. 

This episode - like the Kryptonite case before it - demonstrates why every organization, large or small, should have a PR team monitoring/analyzing the blogosphere who also knows how to respond. At CooperKatz we have developed a new "Micro Persuasion Buzz Dashboard" as part of our new practice's monitoring service that helps clients do just that. We assess a client's vulnerabilities, develop a preparedness plan, and then actively track and analyze blogs/news search feeds via the dashboard. We also help firms address such issues via the blogosphere before they bubble up into the press. It's too late for the museums. But it may not be too late for your company.

Comments

[Peter Cooper]

All good points, although this story varies from the Kryptonite one in a single, important way. The Kryptonite story showed a company getting stung hard, and then returning with an impersonal, corporate face. This story, on the other hand, has a little humor to it, and the galleries should still end up looking okay if they provide a slightly tongue-in-cheek response to it. But, yeah, you're right, if they were more prepared... :) The worst that's going to happen here is that a bunch of stuffy museums end up looking a little more stuffy ;-)

[Thomas Hawk]

A very enjoyable Prankster! Love it. The real question would have been how many of the regular patrons in the museum of Modern Art would have guessed that his work didn't belong without the museum pulling his piece. My guess is very few due to the somewhat cryptic nature of the modern art form.

In fact, in terms of the Museum of Modern Art, you might argue that his act alone is a form of art and somebody ought to make the case for having them put it back up. Although you can't just have any old person hanging their art up in a museum, in a strange way the fact that he did it at the MOMA is a statement about what it takes to get noticed and the stranglehold that a museum can have on distribution and and promotion of art.

You might argue that his placement of his art in the MOMA was a blog. A blog that is trying to share it's voice in a crowded world that places tight controls on the voices through traditional journalism and the media. If there is space in the world for blogs to exist alongside traditional media, perhaps there is space for Banksy's work in the world of traditional art.

It's not a bad soup can and the commentary on what is art in contrast with Andy Warhol's soup can is not a bad one. Banksy's generic soup can indeed lacks the polish of Warhol's Campbell's soup can but it is not bad art and as the blogger might lack the finese of the New York Times, sometimes, every so often a voice that comes from the rough may have something equally important to say.

I hope Banksy continues to hang his art in the world's museums and that someone recognizes the significance of what he is saying.