Best of Richard Flood/Prairie Dogs … Redux

Art Fag City posted this video today in response to our post, it is titled “Richard Flood on The Likeness of Bloggers and Prairie Dogs”

New Museum curator Richard Flood & the Dramatic Prairie Dog. Apologies to artist Archie McPhee. (via)

Lisa Radon’s post this morning about the New Museum’s Richard Flood and his bizarre blogging-related remarks in Portland, Oregon, has caused a frenzy of commentary and activity online. Little did we realize our little post would travel the web at lightning speed.

In an effort to pool together some of the funniest and most clever things people have written about the post we’ve decided to summarize them here for your convenience (and in no particular order).

The comments have been edited for clarity.

First the chatter on Twitter, which included a spin-off meme christened by Tyler Green, #NuMuSays:

@tylergreendc: I hope @NewMuseum types keep saying things in public. In a related story, I don’t watch NASCAR, but the ESPN highlights of crashes rock.
@tylergreendc: Just in: A @NewMuseum official: “Hipsters are the death-knell of society. Wearing plaid or corduroy is a sign you’re a loser.” #NuMuSays
@kirstymhall: Curator Richard Flood … commissioned Jeremy Deller’s “It Is What It Is”, which er, had a blog …
@kirstymhall: The Internet is not a ghetto, the established art world is just s-l-o-w & increasingly irrelevant …
@smizz: blogs educated me when my real education failed …
@dwnr11217: It seems New Museum’s Richard Flood likes culture from the top … god forbid someone other than HIS elite has a voice
@RoyStanfield: … Richard Flood sounds a bit luxury-academic …
@AntiPainter: Prairie dogs got their name from the sound that they make when danger is near. They give warning barks or yips.#NuMuSays
@Zephyrusnyc: New Museum announces upgrade to IBM Selectric typewriters for their office. “The Remingtons were just getting too beat-up.”#NuMuSays

And some of the two dozen comments on the post:

@terryborder: Mr. Flood, I’m afraid you have a gigantic blind-spot. You may want to address this problem.
Todd Levin: Richard Flood:
“…I just found out about blogs three months ago…”
Well, welcome to the brave new world Richard. Hope you’re more up to date on art.
“…You may have heard of this critic named Jerry Saltz. He has a second career on Facebook. And it’s terrifying….These scare tactics. I think it’s dangerous…”
No, what’s terrifying and dangerous are Museum Curators who are SUPPOSED to know better kowtowing to their Board of Trustees and filling their museum with what basically is an auction house full of (mostly, but by no means all) dreary/boring art, and to boot, poorly installed by a star artist because the Museum Curators didn’t have the balls to stand up and say anything about it.
Seriously, Richard Flood, I greatly admire your career, and respect you so much as a Curator and thinker. You’ve earned your stripes many time over. But how can you look yourself in the mirror and wash off the stench after this (most recent NuMu) debacle?
@prettyladylee: Well, he raises a good question — DO we want government funding for ‘culture’ going toward the kind of dreck that is currently on display at the New Museum? Is Richard Flood’s salary being paid by my tax dollars, at the same time he admits to being wilfully unaware of my existence? Why is it that a curator at a museum that is supposed to be on top of emerging art trends is totally ignorant of the most tectonic trend to emerge in the arts in the last millennium?
@liamadrain: I’m going to give this guy a piece of my mind when I find him on friendster in 2030. I hope I’m still mad!

From Jerry Saltz’s Facebook page:

Elizabeth Tremante: Yeah, I can see how he would be frustrated if he doesn’t know anything about blogging or Facebook — and does know something about the sickness of political entertainment culture and how destructive it is … but they aren’t the same, not by a long shot. Does the New Museum have a blog on their site? They should start one. Everyone who writes about them would link to them, and they would get to say whatever they want to say, and open any topics for discussion of interest. So, that’s my advice Richard — get it together and hire someone to write a blog for your museum — I for one, would love it. All museums should have them.
Stamatina Gregory: At the last institution I worked at, we curators had “meetings” where we “shared information” about our field and what was happening in it. How does Flood get away with not knowing about blogs until now? What goes on over there? In that context, any jabs at you are an utter joke.
Julie Davis: I was at what turned out to be a pointless lecture at the Portland Art Museum and this new museum guy had just explained that he had *just learned what a blog was before he started talking shit about you, Jerry, like you are some crazy cult leader on facebook. If that man had good character, I didn’t see it. A bit of a weasel, really. He didn’t impress anyone I was there with and they all just left wondering who this Jerry Saltz guy was. So I was happy to explain to my friend, as one of your “minions,” that u are this down to earth guy who likes to talk curiously about art with just about anyone.
Caroline J. Nye: NuMu *is* micro-blogging http://twitter.com/newmuseum I’d guess intern-driven (nice tweets, but that is the likeliest scenario) & I will say that I like the elevators & keep kicking myself for not checking out the toilet (W too?)! …
Paige Tooker: The New Museum needs a blog!!!!
Dana Martin Davis: New Museum needs to post that a position is available for a cutting-edge contemporary curator. Apply online only

And finally, some of the best from the prairie dogs (aka bloggers) themselves:

C-Monster: All this from a guy who is curator at an institution whose clearly-stated mission on its website and on its 990 tax forms is: “New Art, New Ideas.”
Art Fag City: Thanks to the New Museum’s Chief Curator Richard Flood for finally providing the art world with our own “the internet is a series of tubes” type comment … I’m not going to bother discussing these thoughts — they’re too stupid. I do however sense a prairie dog meme coming on! Thx M.River! [the video on the top of this post was originally posted by Paddy Johnson of Art Fag City]