Main Lines
At Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery, Everything Must Go! John Muse outlines the rules for his art giveaway to a standing-room-only crowd.
4 Haverford Magazine
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or many artists, the ultimate recognition of their vision and creativity is the moment their work leaves the walls in the hands of a patron. It’s a relationship that stretches back to the Renaissance and regularly hinges on the exchange of money, often significant sums. But in mid-October, John Muse turned that notion on its head by giving away nearly 110 works of art at the culminating event for
his Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery exhibition, Extra Medium, which ran Sept. 8 through Oct. 13. Muse, assistant professor, director of visual studies, and director of Haverford’s Visual, Culture, Arts, and Media facility, envisioned the event— titled “Everything Must Go! 100% Off!”—as a “non-market-based economy for the circulation of art” in which everyone who attended would leave with one of his pieces. “Most people who enjoy art don’t necessarily