Giant bubble to emerge on the National Mall

The Hirshhorn museum's new director Richard Koshalek has been planning a temporary addition to the iconic structure that would look like a bubble protruding out of the top and side of the building.  The bubble would be inflated each May and October for cultural programming and then deflated and stored the rest of the year. Nicolai Ouroussoff writes in The New York Times about the project:

But it is what the project is intended to house, and to represent, that has the potential to shake up Washington. For decades government power brokers have dismissed much of contemporary culture as a playground for elites. Mr. Koshalek’s vision would challenge that mentality by using performing arts, film series and conferences to foster a wide-ranging public debate on cultural values.

What a magnificent idea!

Ouroussoff says Koshalek intends this project "to put Washington in closer touch with creative life around it." I think he's on the right track by building something that is far from the blandness that we usually see around here.  I hope the bubble will spark more great ideas and inspire creative living all around.

The Washington Post's Blake Gopnik says the bubble could threaten the core purpose of an art museum: to be a library for art and to provide a space for contemplation about art.  He says:

Our culture's already all about splash and flash and Twitter-length attention spans. One of the glories of art is that it resists all that -- can even be an antidote to all that. It rewards slow, serious, long contemplation. It demands it. It barely pays off without it. That's why it's more crucial than ever that museums be extra careful not to provide yet another distraction from the wildly tough job of looking at art.

With the right balance, the museum can fulfill its essential purpose while also educating and engaging people in dialogue about art.  What's the point of having all the art (especially when 95% of it is in storage anyway and much of the collection will never be seen by the public) if nobody pays any attention to it? I think building something like this pays homage to the art and actually underscores the art's importance and magnificence.  Once we get people to pay attention, the challenge is to get them to come back and spend meaningful time with the art.