February 12, 2022
Dear Readers– we hope all our readers are healthy and finding that their worlds are returning to normal. We’ve been busy here at The Spotlight, redesigning the website, expanding our staff, and planning a 12 week trip to do background work for future articles.
First, a word about our re-design. We’re really excited about the updated look– as we continue to add content and features, we want the site to be user-friendly and appealing to our readers. We hope you agree that our upgrades are keeping us readable, useable, and enjoyable.
Second, we’ve expanded our team of authors and our back-office support. Did you see Susannah Edelbaum’s excellent article on the Berlin exhibit that focused on Covid 19? She covered the exhibit’s opening– that’s a first for us! Our “Exhibits At A Glance” is better than ever. As for back-office support, we now have a fantastic Instagram presence, @museumspotlighteurope. Please follow us to enjoy what’s going on in Europe’s museums and to learn more about what’s happening on our site.
Finally, I will be travelling in Europe from April 11 to June 29, undertaking background work to support our writing staff. I’ll be starting in Paris, and from there I’ll be in Spain, southern France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, and back through Germany and to Paris, to catch my return flight home.
If you think our paths might cross, please email me– I would love to meet you and maybe we can enjoy a museum or two together! In the meantime, please check out our Instagram account and continue to enjoy our site. And send us your ideas and museum experiences– we love to hear from you!
Whitney Skala, Editor
January 21, 2021
Dear Readers– As promised, we’ve gotten back to work! You’ll find some exciting new postings to the site– Berlin, Rodin, and Giacometti are all subjects of fantastic articles. Our own recovery, though, like the pandemic recovery, has been by fits and starts. But we hope to keep offering fresh content as we move through the second half of the winter and into spring.
If you can’t get out to explore, I empathize! I’ve recently read The Louvre: The Many Lives of the World’s Most Famous Museum, by art and architecture critic, James Gardner. For an interview with Mr. Gardner that also serves as a peek into the book itself, you might be interested in this interview that appeared in the Christian Science Monitor. (And yes, I know he authored “Culture or Trash?”, his critique on modern art!) Mr. Gardner’s book on the Louvre doesn’t include a photographic survey of the collection– for that, you might want to purchase The Louvre: The History, the Collections, the Architecture, written by Genevieve Bresc-Bautier, with photographs by Gerard Rondeau. It’s remarkable, but I could not have fully appreciated the photos had I not spent time with Mr. Gardner’s illuminating work. Budget permitting (and shelf space), you might consider purchasing them in tandem.
Stay safe, and please keep enjoying our site!
September 20, 2020
Dear Readers– Like so many other services, we were slowed to a crawl by the Covid-19 pandemic. And I’m kicking myself a little bit for letting that happen. Yes, our travel has been curtailed. But not our imaginations, and not our aspirations. Europe and its museums are still out there. Many museums have made themselves available through offering exciting digital ways to walk their halls. Many museums have extended or delayed their special exhibits, knowing that so many of us wanted a chance to enjoy those artworks in person. And now, slowly, some of the museums are beginning to reopen to visitors. Yes, there’s social distancing, appointments and reservations, other special rules, but even so, it’s great news that these cultural hosts are starting to stir to life.
And so too will we. We will get back to work, posting material that has been authored over the last several months. Our authors will be generating exciting new material for you to enjoy. We will do our best to stay one step ahead of the reopenings. We hope you will join us along the way!
