ICA opening!

Great news. The Boston Institute for Contemporary Art is set to open in December 2006. After so many delays, finally, finally! I'm curious to see the installations they've chosen to feature at the opening--maybe this will give more hints as to what they will choose to display in the future. The structure itself is ultra chic, with a cantilevered space appearing to hover over the harbor, encased in glass. My only reservation with the design so far has to be the potential for over-exposure of artwork to sunlight, given how much of the building is just glass, but I'm sure they've thought about it.

The collections to be featured here should be pretty interesting, and the new building itself is critical for a city like Boston that desperately needs to have more contemporary art spaces. I am very intrigued by what they will choose to feature in this space though; the kind of theme/movement museums highlight somehow always end up being legitimized by virtue of having been displayed, thus shaping the future of art development. Interestingly, the director of the MOMA was just at Harvard in a discussion about trends and the future of contemporary art. It's a pity I wasn't there, but I heard he defended the mission of museums to select and display not what's popular, but what is of merit and value to the development of art. Given how diverse and globalized the themes and origins of contemporary art that belong to no one particular past tradition or critical approach, museums are surely going to have a grand ol' time defining and defending 'merit' and 'value'.

Less esoterically, the glass building at night looks like it'll be a good romantic make-out spot. hmmm....