The latest offerings from local cultural institutions with The Totam’s picks for the week:

TONIGHT: Bob Colacello, legendary Interview editor and Andy Warhol’s go-to guy of the 1970’s speaks at the San Francisco DeYoung Museum’s Koret Auditorium as part of their Warhol Live exhibition programming. 6:30 PM - 7:15 PM

Also, the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Observant Eye series offers participants the opportunity to study particular works of art selected from the Museum’s collection over informal discussions with distinguished educators and curators in the galleries of the Museum. 6:30 – 8:00 PM

Sunday, February 22nd: PS1’s spring cycle of exhibitions opens with shows by artists Kenneth Anger, Jonathan Horowitz, and Lutz Bacher. DJ Big Vern Burns on the 3rd Floor. 12-6pm

Why not continue your tour of Queens from PS1 in Long Island City to The Queens Museum in Corona Park, and start some spring cleaning to boot? Artist Derick Melander will be collecting secondhand clothing in the Museum’s parking lot every weekend until April 26th for his participatory project “Into the Fold” (2009), creating a site-specific work from folded and stacked second-hand clothing with the help of museum guests.

The Whitney Museum of American Art is offering a $5 recession special admission price through March 8, for those who join their email list- see here. A perfect opportunity to see the newly-opened Sites exhibit and catch up on Alex Bag’s video installation on the ground floor.

Better yet, see some free art presented by the MoMA during your commute: the museum takes over Brooklyn’s Atlantic Avenue/Pacific Street subway station, filling it with reproductions of over 50 works of art from the MoMA’s collection as a gift to the city’s subway riders. Make your experience interactive via their mini-site by downloading a free audio tour and posting photos of your visit to share.

Tags: admission, artworks, Atlantic Avenue, audio tour, Big Vern Burns, Bob Colacello, Brooklyn, collection, commute, Derick Melander, DeYoung, interactive, Koret, Metropolitan, MoMA, Museum, Observant Eye, Pacific Street, PS1, Queens, Queens Museum, secondhand clothing, Sites, spring, subway station, Warhol Live, Whitney.

Still from a reconstruction of Meredith Monk’s 16 Millimeter Earrings, 1980. (c. Kenneth Van Sickle via NY Times)

Performance art pioneer Meredith Monk will present recent vocal ensemble works, as well as reprise several of her early 1970s pieces from her first performances at the Whitney, in a four-hour live marathon that begins TODAY, February 1st, at 2pm.

A spectacle that perhaps even 22 large, speedy men in spandex might not be able to beat….

Meredith Monk, 2008. (image courtesy Sidney Chen of M6)

FREE with Museum admission.

Whitney Museum of American Art

Tags: live, marathon, Meredith Monk, Museum, Performance, Whitney.

Portrait of Dr. Thomas Dent Mutter (circa 1846). Courtesy Mütter Museum via NY Times

The Mütter Museum in Philadelphia was originally founded in 1856 as an adjunct collection of teaching materials for the city’s College of Physicians, following a bequest of the personal collection of Dr. Thomas Dent Mütter to the school. Mütter was one of the first physicians in United States to collect wet specimens, tools and anatomical models for the purpose of medical demonstration in an age where surgical examples were often difficult to procure.

Within decades, as advances in the medical sciences began to outpace the Museum’s ability to add relevant teaching material to its stores, the Mütter began to collect what would become the repository of oddities and artifacts that it has become known for today.

c. George Widman/Mütter Museum, Courtesy Mütter Museum via NY Times

The Museum’s collection consists of an astounding number items reflecting changes in the technology of medicine, as well as memorabilia belonging to present and past practitioners. Housed in 19th century glass cases, the scientific materials of yesteryear have become an enjoyably macabre journey into the history of bodily examination. On a recent visit, highlights of the permanent collection included:

An overview of the history of conjoined twins and their biographies, related to the Museum’s possession of the livers and a plaster cast of Chang and Eng, the original and most famous Siamese twins of the 19th century.

The free cell-phone audio tour of the Mütter’s most popular items, which revealed in-depth information about the Soap Lady, a mysterious corpse exhumed from Philadelphia’s Washington Square Park whose body is covered in a layer of waxy soaplike material that essentially mummified her remains.

The "soap lady" is prepared for an X-ray at the Mütter Museum. Researchers (from left) Frank Cerrone, Michael Schlenk and Gerald J. Conlogue. (Photo: John Costello/Philadelphia Inquirer)

Bookbindings of tanned human skin (a predecessor of Vim Delvoye or Catts & Zurr’s skin pieces?)

Account of William Corder's trial bound in his skin. Not part of the Mütter collection. (Dan Alban/Harvard Law Record)

Two flat-files containing a meticulously catalogued collection of 2,000 objects extracted from people’s throats.

Tucked away into the back of the side rooms, the rotating exhibits included the opulent Extraordinary Bodies: Photographs from the Mütter Museum, a selection of images from the Mütter’s archives paired with a selection of images by contemporary photographers who have incorporated pieces from the Museum’s collection into their works.

Joel-Peter Witkin, Harvest, 1984, silver gelatin print.

Mütter Museum:  19 South Twenty-Second Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103

Tags: 19th century, anatomy, Chang and Eng, collection, College of Physicians, contemporary, human skin, Joel Peter Witkin, medical, Museum, Mutter Museum, oddities, Philadelphia, photographers, photographs, science, Siamese twins, Soap Lady, specimens, surgical, Thomas Mutter, throats.

Alex Bag, still from GladiaDaters, 2005, video. 30 minutes. Image courtesy Elizabeth Dee Gallery

I became a fan of Alex Bag’s too-infrequently seen work while in art school, the moment I saw her biting, too-close-to-home impression of an art school student in Untitled Fall ‘95. Bag’s unerring ability to observe and recreate the awkwardly humorous, often inappropriate moments that lurk behind the walls of our public personas is one of the reasons her newly-commissioned video installation for the Whitney Museum is a must-see.

The work opened to the public this past weekend in the lobby gallery of the museum, and is comprised of a large single-channel video screening continuously on one wall, with viewer seating made up of large, primary-colored low blocks atop a giant white shag rug in the center of the room.  In a corner stands a desk, puppet and wheelchair used in the video. (side note: Pipilotti Rist also designed participatory, comfortable seating that was conducive to lingering for her recent exhibit at MoMA, a trend I’m hoping will carry over to more lengthy video installations.)

Carol Corbett, from the Carol Corbett show. Image courtesy Bill Cappello.

The video consists of several interconnected segments inspired by a 1970s children’s syndicated television show, The Patchwork Family, and its predecessor, The Carol Corbett Show. Both shows were hosted by Bag’s mother, sitting behind a desk with a puppet; Alex was a guest on the show as a child. Bag herself plays host in her new work, which includes real children but subverts the familiar tropes of children’s television programming by introducing dark themes and adult subjects.

Alex Bag, still from Coven Services - Demo Reel, 2004, DVD with sound, 19 minutes. Image courtesy Elizabeth Dee Gallery

I was only able to catch about 40 minutes of the video, which included scenes of a depressed, suicidal Bag being verbally abused by a sadistic red dragon puppet, a children’s fingerpainting session with a lighthearted Bag dressed in a leotard, a guest musician in a wheelchair leading a sing-and-play-along, and best of all, Bag in a black gothic dress and wig reading a violent novel aloud to three young children superimposed onto footage of apocalyptic destruction. Among the additional characters in the piece that I did not get to see are an animal wrangler, a wizard, and a psycho-pharmacologist, according to the press release. Another visit is definitely warranted.

On view at the Whitney Museum of American Art.

Related: Alex Bag on her new work, in last week’s Artforum.com

Tags: Alex Bag, Art, art school, artforum, Carol Corbett, children, contemporary, installation, kids, Museum, Patchwork Family, puppet, show, video, Whitney.

Via Gothamist.com:

Politicker NY reports today that New York City cultural institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Lincoln Center, and the American Museum of Natural History are losing up to 42 percent of their municipal funding due to budget cutbacks by Mayor Bloomberg’s administration. This news comes in on the heels of Bloomberg’s press conference touting the free activities available to residents in our city’s museums, parks, theaters, etc..

Facade of the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, New York. Photo by Paul Masck, released with a Creative Commons license, July 2005.

With drastic cuts being made or proposed at many city-funded agencies, it’s not unusual to see arts funding slashed at the Department of Cultural Affairs. However, Bloomberg’s cuts seem to be in opposition to a commitment the city made at the Creative New York Conference just two years ago, to establish a dedicated industry desk for cultural nonprofits overseen by the city’s Economic Development Corp. The desk focuses on recruiting and helping nonprofit groups get financing, real estate and workforce training.

Despite the cuts, the mayor himself has a had a long-standing history of personal philanthropy, funding cultural programs of all sizes in New York City out of his personal fortune, and through significant “anonymous” gifts to the Carnegie Corporation. According to the New York Times, in 2005, Bloomberg had donated over 140 million to many local institutions during the last years of his first term alone, leading critics to speculate that the donations were an effective way to stifle dissent and influence voting constituencies that benefited from his largesse.

What are the ramifications of substituting large sums of private money for public funds in support of government-backed programs and institutions? Can the artistic community, and others who rely on, or run nonprofits be bought?

This year, with the end of the mayor’s second term approaching in 2009, the Times reported that Bloomberg and his aides finally called in the favor last month. The administration asked organizations who have received donations from the mayor to show their support for his bid for a hotly contested third term in office, a move which was met with harsh disapproval from top political figures in the city.

Supplied with testimony from leaders at cultural organizations like the Public Art Fund and the Alliance of Resident Theaters, the City Council voted to extend term limits for all elected officials in the five boroughs on October 22nd.

It’s payback time, and except for Bloomberg, I’m not sure who wins.

Tags: Alliance of Resident Theaters, Art, arts, Bloomberg, budget, Carnegie, city, City Council, corporation, cultural institution, Department of Cultural Affairs, funding, Gothamist, Lincoln Center, mayor, Metropolitan, Museum, Natural History, New York, New York Times, philanthropy, Politicker NY, Public Art Fund, term limits, third term.