A short report on last night's Museum's Council meeting at Audubon
   Terrace in Manhattan.

   Our host institutions were the three cultural tenants of Audubon
   Terrace, The Hispanic Society, The Numismatic Society, and the
   American Academy of Arts and Letters.  There were something over 30
   people participating in the meeting (not enough!)

   The Hispanic Society is a truly stunning institution.  It has a
   huge collection of fine arts and printed material relating to Spanish
   culture in Europe and the Americas according the the Director Mitchell
   Codding.  It is the principal and largest such resource in America.
   But the breathtaking part of the evening, for me at least, was the
   visual impact of their permanent exhibitions from their collections,
   and a temporary exhibition in the "North Gallery" formerly a library
   reading room.  These ranged "Old Master" paintings by the like of
   El Greco, Zurbaran, Velazquez, Goya, and 15th century painters I'd not
   heard of (but who can definitely *do* an altarpiece) to early 20th
   century paintings which reflect the impressionist tenor of the times
   while still being distinctly Spanish.  Really a treat for the eyes.

   The Numismatic Society was fascinating for those who are interested in
   the history of money, the technology and social context surrounding
   metal and other coins.  It seems principally to be a research
   institution, though they had two interesting exhibits on the history
   of money.  I must confess to being a bit out of my depth in the
   presentation made by the curator of medieval coins and metal.  But it
   was hard to tear several of the MC people away to go to dinner, so
   obviously it was very egaging for the cognoscenti.

   The American Academy hosted a lovely dinner in one of their meeting
   rooms, and Virginia Ajani gave us a precis of the work they do.  It's
   quite an interesting organization, with a membership (which is
   lifelong) of 250 of the top tier writers, musicians, artists, and
   architects, ranging from Saul Bellow to Kevin Roche to Chuck Close to
   Benny Carter (my personal favorite).  They principally exist for this
   group and the awards that surround them.  But they also have an
   endowed program to purchase art for museums which has an amazing
   history.  Childe Hassam left the contents of his studio to the
   Academy, with the provision that they sell them off bit by bit and use
   the money to buy art by young living artists and disseminate that art
   to museums around America!  Talk about enlightened philanthropy.  The
   implementation of that award is quite complicated, and they will be
   having a show of the works that are chosen for dissemination in early
   November.

   The site itself is a stunning bit of gilded age/beaux arts/city
   beautiful architecture, with several buildings around a brick plaza.
   It is in the midst of a heavily Hispanic neighborhood well of the
   beaten track for mosts museum visitors in Manhattan.  (155th street
   and B'way).  All of the directors and curators spoke of their
   frustration about the difficulty of getting people to visit, so go on
   by if you're in the City.

   To those of you who came, thank you.  To those of you who didn't you
   really missed something, and I hope to see you next time. The next
   meeting will be announced forthwith.

   Eric Siegel
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