>Thus, it is very self damaging to a contemporary art museum to label pieces
>with only the artists name and the medium.  Who is the exhibit for?  Curators
>from other museums?  Art history PhD students?  What a small audience!
>

Beth (and other interested parties)--

I do not consider Cubism contemporary art--it is MODERN art, which is very
different.  Contemporary art is still in flux, and the "jury" so to speak is
still out on its ultimate place in history.  We are not a museum and we do
not pretend that we are placing the ultimate judgement of absolute quality
on everything we show:  we support the work of contemporary regional artists
and promote our own curatorial goals as well.

Our purpose in keeping the explanatory text separate from the work itself is
so that people can view it and decide for themselves (with assistance if
they want it) what the meaning, relevance, etc. is, or just to hate it.  We
have artist lectures, docent tours, etc. as well so the work is never, ever
in a total vacuum.  Our annual visitation is approximately 300,000 of which
1/3 just goes to see the exhibitions on view.  Of COURSE we explain the
artist's perspective, and our handouts are thoroughly written to provide a
wide variety of approaches to the work. But occasionally, the artist
requests that there be no labeling at all--and we accede to this request.

This turned out to be very defensive--but our approach seems to work.

Julia Moore
Indianapolis Art Center