The Frieze Masters Free Thinking Conversation about Art
Arts & Ideas
BBC
4.2 • 599 Ratings
🗓️ 8 October 2019
⏱️ 44 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Michael Govan, Director of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art outlines the issues facing museum directors talking with Philip Dodd and an audience at the Frieze London Art Fair. They debate the "authority" of museums, the idea of "great" art and he answers critics of his rebuilding plan.
Michael Govan took over running LACMA in 2006 following his work at the DIA Art Foundation in New York City. The Los Angeles museum has partnered with Chinese-Indonesian entrepreneur Budi Tek to create a new foundation, to which Tek will donate his vast Chinese art collection. Plans also include establishing a satellite museum in South Los Angeles and new Peter Zumthor designs for redisplaying the LACMA collections.
You can find more interviews to download with artists, curators and museum directors in the Visual Arts playlist on the Free Thinking programme website https://bbc.in/2DpskGS
You might also be interested in the new podcast and Essay series from Radio 3 The Way I See It which sees works of art from the collection of MOMA in New York chosen and discussed by guests including Steve Martin, Steve Reich, Margaret Cho and Roxane Gay.
Producer Robyn Read.
Transcript
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| 0:23.3 | It's like the podcast version of telling your kids the ice cream van plays music |
| 0:27.0 | when it's out of ice cream. |
| 0:28.8 | Listen to evil genius on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:33.2 | BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:36.9 | Hello, I'm Philip Dodd, and welcome to a special edition of the BBC's Arts and Ideas |
| 0:40.8 | podcast recorded at the Freeze Masters Art Fair in London, and can I ask you to begin by welcoming |
| 0:46.6 | my guest today. |
| 0:50.9 | Thank you, Philip. |
| 0:52.8 | It's the easiest thing in the world to build a museum. |
| 0:57.0 | It's the hardest thing in the world to run one. |
| 1:00.0 | That's what the director of an important museum in London said to me 10 years ago. |
| 1:06.0 | Well, running a museum hasn't become any easier. |
| 1:10.0 | In a world where authorities questioned everywhere, |
| 1:12.6 | what's an authoritative institution such as the museum for? |
| 1:18.6 | How should a museum respond to the experience economy, |
| 1:23.6 | the lost for immersive events that is running the entertainment world. A globalised world |
| 1:30.3 | makes an old Western canon of art largely implausible. And this isn't to mention how museums |
| 1:38.0 | can be funded during an economic slowdown that convulses the world. Well, my guest in extended conversation, Michael Govan, |
| 1:48.0 | of the Los Angeles County Museum, it's the sign of the times that he's both CEO and director |
| 1:55.0 | has to grapple with these questions every day. And he joins me in front of an audience at Fries, the London Art Fair, |
| 2:03.1 | which brings together galleries from all over the world to showcase art from all over the world. |
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