1

THE DISCUSSION ON THE ARTS

I. Warm-up questions:

a. When was the last time you were in a museum? What museum was it? Did you like the
exhibition that you saw?
b. Do you like going to museums?
c. What do you think is the purpose of a museum?

II. Read the text and do the exercises

The discussion on the arts

The third annual Art for Tomorrow conference hosted by The New York Times in association with Qatar
Museums from March 10 to 13, in Doha, Qatar, explored the relationship between art and public life.
Participants, from 30 countries, included museum directors, gallery owners, curators, auction houses,
collectors, entrepreneurs, investors, financial institutions, lawyers, artists, architects, urban planners
and government officials, as well as corporate and civic leaders.

Following are excerpts from some of the panels as transcribed by Red Pencil Editing and Transcription.
They have been edited.

Opening remarks by Farah Nayeri, a culture writer for The New York Times, who moderated a panel
on museums and national identity:

Museums used to be fusty old places where countries used to stash the artworks that they had
accumulated over the centuries. Today they are, as we know, so much more than that. Since the
opening of the Guggenheim in Bilbao, Spain, they have taken on a host of other roles. Museums have
become repositories of a country’s pride and symbols of a country’s identity. Now, for cities and
countries to feel good about themselves, museums are constantly being built, rebuilt or radically
revamped. And as in the case of Bilbao, they sometimes have also taken on the almost impossible duty
of regenerating areas that have fallen into economic oblivion.

Dr. Hermann Parzinger, president of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, which oversees all
museums in Germany, including five on Museum Island in Berlin, which are being renovated:

Respect for other cultures can only be learned when you see how cultures developed, how they inter-
tangled, how they influenced each other. We have Syrian refugees we are training for museum guides
— not only in the Museum of Islamic Art but also in a museum for Christian art. And they are
fascinated understanding Christian art. And my dream is a Syrian refugee a few years living in Germany
explaining a Christian sculpture to a Berliner. Our society becomes more and more complex and
multiethnic, multicultural, multireligious, it’s important really to explain to each other what we are and
where we come from. This political issue is, I think, the most important task for a museum.

Pedro Gadanho, artistic director of the Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology in Lisbon:

We always have seen artists having a political role by either participating in demonstrations from the
’60s onward but sometimes separating their art from the political aspects, or political participation.
But I think when we speak about creating exhibitions that have a certain meaning, that carry a certain
message, there we have the possibility to interpret works of art that were not even strictly considered
as political objects to play on a new interpretation, and to project a new discourse, to make people
think in different ways.

Handout prepared by Berenika Rewicka

Proofreading Beata Filipecka
 2

And I think that’s again a role that the museum can have as they become also more popular and drag
audiences that were not there earlier. I must say that in Portugal what I feel with the opening of the
museum in October, and the fact that in a city that has 500,000 inhabitants we had 150,000 visitors
from October until December. And so this meant that there was a new kind of audience coming to the
museum.

The artist Christo, with the moderator Roger Cohen, on his installation “The Floating Piers,” in Italy in
2016. Built on Lake Iseo, the piers connected the mainland with large and small islands on the lake and
created the feeling of walking on water. It attracted nearly 1.2 million visitors, twice as many as
expected.

Q. What do you think explains that extraordinary popularity?

A. I think we are all humans, and we are all unique. And unfortunately today with all the electronic
images, we try to look the same. But actually we’re all unique.

And when we did this project, the people knew it was something that was going to happen once in a
lifetime. They know in advance that it was something unique — it never happened before. They come
to witness something beyond what you see all the time with electronic images, media, everything. You
like to witness, to feel it. But at the very bottom, all our projects, they’re physical.

And I love the physicality. I love the wind, I love the heat, I love the water, I love all these physical
things. I love to touch. And this is the very important three-dimensional work of art, that physical
relationship.

Chris Michaels, head of digital and publishing at the British Museum, at the Future Museum
discussion:

In an ever more globalizing age, the ability to carry our message to a global audience is an incredibly
important one, and that requires investment both of time, skill and of money. But we also have a
responsibility to try and drive income streams on behalf of our museums. It’s no mistake that digital is
a way of making money for museums. Thirty, 40, 50 percent of all the sales transactions we will make
now are from e-commerce. And that doesn’t just happen by magic, it happens by method.

The British Museum is only 30 or 40 percent funded by the government. If we want to continue to
serve our audience, we have to find ways to bring that money in. And sales and selling things, in a very
simplistic way, is the only way often you can do that. The British Museum rubber duck is one of the
great items of merchandise in the world. You can have a Viking rubber duck, you can have an Egyptian
pharaoh rubber duck.

Yannis Behrakis, a Pulitzer-winning Reuters photographer born and based in Greece, interviewed by
Yorgos Archimandritis, author, cultural radio producer and journalist:

Q. We will start with a photo. This is one of the most famous photos of Yannis’s that was on the front
page of The New York Times some months ago. A photo that is tragic in its beauty, I think. What’s the
story?

A. I think it’s on 11th or 12th of August 2015. It’s on the coast of Kos, one of the islands where
refugees and migrants used to come. It’s a beautiful typical summer morning in Greece, and this raft is
coming from Turkey, and it runs out of petrol or something. So I called the Coast Guard to come and
help. It was drifting. And I took some pictures with a long lens. And it was a good feeling because the
weather was good and they didn’t seem that they are in immediate danger. And finally the Coast

Handout prepared by Berenika Rewicka

Proofreading Beata Filipecka
 3

Guard came, helped them. They came out and, you know, we were doing high-fives and selfies on the
beach. So it was a tragic moment, but with a beautiful outcome.

Q. Are these two notions compatible: tragedy and beauty?

A. Yeah, you know, Spinoza said hope and fear come together. And I’ve seen this. I’ve photographed
this for many years, because I’m doing refugees. And refugees is one of the most important — excuse
my expression — “products” of war. So this is one of my main things. And I’ve been dealing with
refugees. I have refugee blood. My grandmother came from Turkey. She was an ethnic Greek who
came in 1922. And she was helped by the French Navy. So, you know, I have refugee blood, and I feel
for them. And in this case it became a personal project in the sense that these people were coming to
my country.

Daniel Tobin, a founder of Urban Art Projects; Idris Khan, a London-based artist, who created a
memorial sculpture in Abu Dhabi; and Cyril Kongo, a Paris-based street artist, participating in the Art in
the Cityscape panel.

Mr. Tobin: I think the public space is one of the most contested spaces an artist can work. And
whether they commissioned it by a private commissioner or by a city, or they put the art there
themselves in a more subversive way, I think it’s just about having a dialogue with a population. The
thing that gets us out of bed in the morning is how we make the public realm better, how do we make
a city more livable? How do you connect with people on an emotional level, on a visceral level? What
makes people remember a place they’ve visited? What gives people that connection that makes us
human?

Mr. Khan: I think artists have, especially in my occasion in Abu Dhabi, an incredible responsibility to
create something for a country. It’s a memorial for the soldiers who lost their lives, mainly in Yemen.
And I felt a terrific responsibility to give a piece of art to the country that would trigger an emotion
when people saw it. And even if people don’t understand the actual structure itself, my responsibility
was to create a place of reflection for everyone, for someone to sort of feel that sense of loss.

Mr. Kongo: I don’t need money. I start with nothing. I’m a political refugee. I arrived in France with a
fake ID, and now I’m Kongo. It’s not about money. It’s about expressing myself. It’s about expressing
the culture. It’s about art. It’s about humanity. The real luxury is to get your choice, to take your time
in what you like.

(BBC Arts)

1. Vocabulary: Match the underlined words and phrases from the text to their meanings:

a. Written or spoken communication or debate.

b. The fact of relating to the body as opposed to the mind.
c. A flat buoyant structure of timber or other materials fastened together, used as a boat or
floating platform.
d. Smelling stale, damp, or stuffy.
e. Carried slowly by a current of air or water.
f. Having been given a new and improved form, structure, or appearance.
g. Especially of a work of art, produced specially to order.
h. A kingdom, a world
i. Relating to deep inward feelings rather than to the intellect.
j. Store (something) safely in a hidden or secret place.

Handout prepared by Berenika Rewicka

Proofreading Beata Filipecka
 4

k. Bring new and more vigorous life to (an area, industry, institution, etc.); revive, especially
in economic terms.
l. Twisted together, between, among each other.
m. Engaged in dispute about.
n. Seeking or intended to undermine the power and authority of an established system or
institution.
o. Places where things are or may be stored.
p. Cause (an event or situation) to happen or exist.
q. Cause money to flow in.
r. Take (someone) to or from a place or event, despite their reluctance.

2. Below you will find statements taken from the text. Tick the ones that you agree with and then
discuss them with your partner :
a. Museums have been repositories of a country’s pride and symbols of a country’s identity.
( Farah Nayeri)
b. Other cultures can only be learned when you see how other cultures developed (dr
Hermann Parzinger)
c. Political issue is the most important task for a museum. (dr Hermann Parzinger)
d. We have a new kind od audience coming to the museum. ( Pedro Gadanho)
e. Digital is a way of making money for museums. ( Chris Michael)
f. Hope and fear come together. Tragedy and beauty are notions that are compatible. (
Yannis Behrakis)
g. Public space is one of the most contested spaces and artist can work. (Daniel Tobin)
h. Being an artist is not about money. ( Cyril Kongo)
i. Art should trigger emotions. ( Khan)

3. Below you will find pictures of some of the works of art mentioned in the text. Discuss the
questions:

a. Do you agree with Christo’s explanation of the “Floating piers”. What do you think it
represents?

Handout prepared by Berenika Rewicka

Proofreading Beata Filipecka
 5

b. Those are The British Museum rubber ducks. What do you think about such an advertising
for a very respectable place? Do you think this is serious or ridiculous? Why do you think
they are so popular?

c. This is a Khan’s memorial sculpture in Abu Dhabi. Does it trigger any emotions?

Handout prepared by Berenika Rewicka

Proofreading Beata Filipecka
 6

d. This is Yannis Behralus’ photo mentioned in the text. Do you agree that this photo is tragic
and beautiful at the same time?

III. Use the Internet and find the most important information about those museums. Why do you
think they are so successful?
The British Museum, The Louvre, The Smithsonian Institution, The Acropolis Museum, The
State Hermitage, The Metropolitan Museum of Art., The Prado, The Vatican Museum, The
Uffizi Gallery, Rijksmuseum, The Pergamon Museum,

IV. A group project:

Your city needs a new tourist attraction. The city council have decided to build a new
museum. You have unlimited resources and you need to give a group presentation on
your project. First, discuss the plans for your museum in groups and then prepare a
presentation about your museum.

Take those points into consideration:

1. Where would you build your museum? ( the centre of the city, in the suburbs, what
about transport to the museum)
2. What kind of museum would you build?
3. Would that be in an ancient building already standing in the city or would you build
something new and modern? Can you give some examples of museums that look like
the one you want to build?
4. Would that be an old-fashioned museum or for example a hands-on museum?
5. Would you have guides in the museum or would you apply a different solution?

Handout prepared by Berenika Rewicka

Proofreading Beata Filipecka
 7

6. What exhibitions would you have there? Would you have any interactive exhibitions?
7. What artist would you like to feature? Are there any works of art that you would like
to exhibit in your museum?
8. How would you drive income streams to run your museum?
9. Would you have any souvenirs typical for your museum or what would you sell in a
souvenir shop?
10. What kind of facilities would you have in your museum?
11. What kind of attractions would you have? ( discussions, shows, attractions for children
etc.)

Handout prepared by Berenika Rewicka

Proofreading Beata Filipecka