Economistが美術館を特集

Economistの年末特別号は美術館を取り上げていました。年末なので読み物的な文化的なトピックが選ばれたのかもしれません。美術館・博物館によく行く方には世界の現状が分かりぜひともオススメしたい記事です。5つの記事のトピックをざっくりまとめると、世界の美術館の現状、建物としての美術館、現代美術が展示物として選ばれる傾向、中国での美術館の現状、美術館の今後の見通しといった感じでしょうか。

英語のmuseumは日本語の「美術館」「博物館」の両方を指していますが、記事では囲み記事としてOddball museumsと面白トピックのmuseumを紹介してくれています。

（オックスフォード）
museum
a building in which objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific interest are kept and shown to the public
a museum of modern art
a science museum


Museums
Temples of delight
Museums the world over are doing amazingly well, says Fiammetta Rocco. But can they keep the visitors coming?
Dec 21st 2013 | From the print edition

Cultural centres
The Bilbao effect
If you build it, will they come?
Dec 21st 2013 | From the print edition

Contemporary art
On a wing and a prayer
Why so many museums are venturing into new works
Dec 21st 2013 | From the print edition

China
Mad about museums
China is building thousands of new museums, but how will it fill them?
Dec 21st 2013 | From the print edition

Future strategies
Feeding the culture-vultures
What museums must do to satisfy an increasingly demanding public
Dec 21st 2013 | From the print edition

英米の美術館では子供向けのお泊まり会を開催しているようですね、知りませんでした。sleepoverの文化のない日本に定着するか疑問ですが、もしかしたらやり出す美術館もあるかもしれませんね。

To be sure, museums remain showcases for collections and repositories of scholarship, but they have also become pits of popular debate and places where children go for sleepovers (pictured, above, at the British Museum). They are no longer places where people look on in awe but where they learn and argue, as they would at universities or art schools. Sir Nicholas Serota, director of Britain’s Tate galleries, describes the museum as “a forum as much as a treasure box”.

（オックスフォード）
sleepover
(North American English also slumber party)
a party for children or young people when a group of them spend the night at one house





中国の記事では、文革などを経てきて特有の難しい事業があったことが分かりますが、「箱モノを作るのは得意だけどコンテンツは苦手で」という中国の通訳の言葉は変な親近感が湧いてしまいました。こういうのはお国柄という問題ではないかもしれません。

“We Chinese are very good at building hardware,” commented your correspondent’s interpreter after leaving yet another half-empty museum, this time in Shanghai. “Building software is another matter altogether.” In China’s museum world, “software” covers everything from building up collections to actually running the place. Private museums that have succeeded in this include the Ullens Centre for Contemporary Art (UCCA) in Beijing and two new museums in Shanghai, the Aurora (a treasure trove of ancient bronzes and jades designed by Tadao Ando, a Japanese architect) and the Rockbund Art Museum (a thriving contemporary-art centre).

最後の記事では、規模の小さな美術館の成功例として直島の美術館が取り上げられていました。

Small, niche museums with imaginative leadership are also likely to retain a devoted following. Ask museum directors to pick a favourite, and many give the same answer: the Chichu Art Museum on Naoshima island in southern Japan. Designed by Tadao Ando, the building is itself a work of art. Inside there are a few carefully selected installations. Visitors arrive by boat and are encouraged to stay the night so they can see James Turrell’s “Open Sky” installation at sunset.

次の記事では小ネタを取り上げたいと思います。