Museum Places Donation Box Next to Sculpture to Help Them Buy It

You have to give Boston’s Museum of Fine Art a gold star for trying something out of the ordinary. The institution is asking visitors, who are supposedly goo goo ga ga over a large work by glass artist Dale Chihuly to donate money via SMS, online or any way they want to so that the venerable New England museum can add the 42-foot-high, 10,000 pound, 2,400 piece “Lime Green Icicle Tower” sculpture to their permanent collection. The art work is a highlight of the MFA’s current Dale Chihuly show.

From the Boston Globe:

The MFA has launched a campaign to raise more than $1 million to buy the 42-foot-tall “Lime Green Icicle Tower’’ … The public contributions will be matched by those of a group of longtime MFA donors.

It is fairly standard, these days, for a museum to acquire a work from an artist who has been featured in a solo exhibition. But typically, deep-pocketed donors are sought to make those purchases. The MFA’s public appeal includes, for the first time, a chance for museum visitors to give online and by texting on their phones – people can text the word TOWER to 50555, then reply to the follow-up message “To confirm your $10 donation to MFA Boston, reply with the word YES.’’

And my favorite:

The MFA quietly began the campaign last week by adding a donation box next to the piece …

I do like the idea of harnessing the power of the art public to help buy a work that many people seem to be passionate about rather that asking a single trustee to purchase it.

Here’s an interesting tidbit about the show and its popularity with the Boston art crowd: