Art Museum Wish Lists

I have no formal training in art. Any appreciation, or knowledge, I have can be directly attributed to my father being in the army and my mother loving museums. We lived in a lot of different places so there was always a new museum for Mom to drag us to. One I loathed as a kid, and now tour whenever I can, is the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Fok Art Gallery in Williamsburg, VA (currently closed for renovation). My admiration was increased beyond measure a few years ago when I had a brief window of time to find and buy a stuffed sheep of obscure antique breeding to be named Wellington II in honor of I, who went tragically missing. Once apprised of the sheep mission, security and gift shop personnel were very understanding of the mad woman who parked in the wrong area for free gift shop entry. But I digress.

On her recent visit to Tampa my mother wanted to visit the Tampa Museum of Art, primarily for the Maurice Sendak exhbit on display through April 23rd. I had told her of all the controversy swirling about the museum relocation, the abortive attempt at building a new museum, and my disappointment in the museum's permanent collection. She said I'd been spoiled by treating the National Gallery in DC as if it were my hometown museum. Now I know she was either baiting me, or is heading down the path to dementia, as she knows very well my favorite art museums are the Chrysler in Norfolk, VA and the Nelson-Adkins Museum of Art in Kansas City. Both are smaller museums with collections either started, or reinvigorated, by donors with both money and an eye for art. I don't have the former, and the latter is highly personal, but here is my wish list for the Tampa Museum of Art:

1. Someday, after the collection is improved, a new building on the river with room for outdoor sculpture. I rather like the much maligned "Exploding Chicken" work and think it could be the centerpiece of a fun sculpture park.

2. A major, permanent, installation of Florida folk or outsider art.

3. No more purchases of antiquities! Absent a donation from a phenomenally wealthy benefactor, the pieces a museum this size can assemble are just not all that impressive. Better to sell off these acquisitions and choose a different niche where the museum can be an important repository if not the premier collector. (see 2 above, but some other genre would be ok).

That's it. Not too much to ask.