Museums of Scarcity and Art Deserts

Abstract

We review the unwillingness of artistic institutions to engage with their audiences as mirrored in their incapacity to develop meaningful alternatives to art access during the time of the COVID-19 pandemic and its consequences. An analysis of the pandemic offerings of some of the biggest museums in the world will allow us to identify their perceived offerings and their understanding of their function in society in contrast with their own statements of purpose. As the cost of accessing any cultural manifestation decreases, we turn from an economy of scarcity to an economy of visual consumption where there is an abundance of resources and attention is scarce. Art institutions and their encircling dynamics of limitation become less interesting for the public, and this results in the exclusion of art from the semantic bubble of a great part of the population.