Considering the number of patrons who gather at the Tate Modern’s in-house restaurant, browsing exquisite Swedish design objects at the Stockholm based Moderna Museet shop, or taking along their children for a quick trip to La Maison des Petits at the Parisian arts centre 104, these spaces are now seen as vivacious venues where the exhibits are sometimes beside the point. Underlining this trend, a recent report, entitled ‘Do not think of them as mausoleums’ by Tara Mulholland in The New York Times states:
“As directors vie for visitors with a large number of public and private museums, they are not preoccupied only with cafes and shops. An emphasis on novel “concept” events is also becoming more popular. For example, the ArtHome concept at the Palais de Tokyo runs, in conjunction with Nomiya, cooking workshops for adults and children, while the 104 arts space has started a regular weekend bric-a-brac sale. At ‘Late at Tate’, visitors can browse exhibitions with drinks in hand when the gallery stays open until 10 pm one Friday per month.”Such has been the success of enhanced events and facilities at many museums that they even have become independent attractions in some cases. Facilities like bookshops, cafes and restaurants have been seen as part of the essential services museums and galleries offer for many years. Now, these are becoming a touch more sophisticated. Many galleries and museums are opening more exclusive restaurants. In fact, a good restaurant is now feature more common at most ‘good’ museums.
The Modern restaurant at MoMA has garnered accolades, whereas Tate Modern received the Time Out award as best family cafe in London. Interestingly, The National Gallery secured the best British book prize for ‘The National Cookbook’ at the British Book Design & Production awards. Incidentally, it’s a recipe book that has been inspired by the food served at its restaurant under the chef Oliver Peyton.
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