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Arts
Mummy's the Word
After all these years, King Tut still rules.
The exhibit, financed by the for-profit rock concert producer AEG Entertainment Group, is expected to draw at least a quarter-million people to the museum over four months, under what museum Executive Director Irvin Lippman considers the most conservative estimates. With 120,000 tickets on reserve in late July, the exhibit was well on its way toward living up to rock concert-sized expectations.
"The popularity of King Tut is really extraordinary," Lippman says. "This is off the charts." By mid-July, a membership drive tied to the exhibit was bringing in 300 new applications a day, and employees were struggling to keep up.
It's a problem museum officials could not have imagined two years ago. When Lippman took over in October 2003, museum debt was looming, membership and attendance were sagging and the institution had just emerged from a long and futile attempt to link itself with Florida Atlantic University.
Then came "Saint Peter and the Vatican," a commercially produced exhibit that drew 150,000 people. That was followed last October by "Diana, a celebration," which drew 125,000 people. Tut, produced in part by the same Cleveland-based promotions company, Arts & Exhibitions International, could exceed that number in presales alone.
When the show closes in April, Lippman estimates that the museum could end up with more than 10,000 new members, including a fair number of $1,000 contributors.
Despite concerns in some corners of the art community about the blatant commercialism of such so-called "canned" shows, few familiar with the museum's difficulties are willing to gripe much. Broward Art Guild Executive Director Susan Buzzi says the popularity of such shows speaks for itself. "They must be serving some sort of need," she says.
Lippman says those who complain about the commercialism are ignoring the fact that "museums have been working with for-profit companies for years." The trick, he says, is to channel the rush of short-term support into sustained interest that will carry over to exhibitions that aren't going to be reproduced on $7.95 mouse pads and $5.95 shot glasses.
"There is room in our culture for both," he says.
