First up in my Google newsfeed this morning is a long article about the revamp of MONA: how well Google knows my interests, because MONA plays a prominent part in the last section of my book. It’s such a determined and, I think, successful attempt to break out of the conventions of the traditional museum – underground, no labels, no easy route, so purely exploratory, information provided in different voices on handsets, art that is deliberately provocative, focussed on sex and death, all of it now a very important part of Tasmania’s tourist economy.
So what are his answers to COVID ? Go local, turn up the volume, make himself more the centrepiece, and serve cheaper burgers, all good lessons, I suspect, for other museums.
| Charles | Saumarez | Smith | 
Thank you for this link. Living in Hobart, five minutes walk from MONA, we often see David and his partner, jogging past. We read the Mercury (my partner was a journalist there for 25 years) but not The Guardian so it was interesting reading.
David’s type of modern art is not my thing but Tasmanians hold him in high regard for what he has done for the state. He used to offer opera and theatre films and classical music concerts and we went to many of those but they no longer happen which is a pity. But I guess it is what it is!
I was surprised how effective it was, done with real conviction, and, so far as I could tell, attracting a very wide audience. So, I hope he manages to keep it all going successfully. Charles