We’ll Be Seeing A Lot More of Thomas Campbell, the Met’s New Director, But Carol Vogel Gets the First Profile

The New York Times has a profile of the Metropolitan Museum’s new Director:

Asked what he thought was the biggest challenge museums faced these days, he said without hesitation, “A crisis of confidence.”

In his view museums are often cowed by an audience that they don’t fully understand.

“There is a fear that the collections themselves are not sufficient, that one has to somehow gussy them up with presentations and dumb then down to two-syllable labels that can be read by a 6-year-old,” he said. “And of course you should never underestimate your audience.

“In this age of communication and the Internet our local and international audiences are actually very sophisticated. So the big challenge is how to deliver different levels of information to different audiences.”

From Tapestries to Top Job, Ready for Met’s Challenges (New York Times)