Summer shows at regional museums used to be small and quiet, a time to rotate works from a permanent collection into or out of storage or organize a middling show that wouldn't cost much. It reflected a drop in attendance as residents took vacations and tourists stayed away.
Population migration trends seem to have changed and so have museums' exhibition schedules. For several years, we have seen truly important exhibitions scheduled at this time of year and the new crop is no exception.
For example, a sweeping survey of photography opens Saturday at the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, remarkable for the depth and scope of its historical narrative. Remarkable, too, is that most of the 200 images come from the Ludmila Dandrew and Chitranee Drapkin collection, which numbers 15,000 images and was given to the museum several years ago. Most remarkable is that Jennifer Hardin, the Hazel and William Hough chief curator, could cull the massive group down to about 1 percent of its total size. The photographers represented are all important for advancing their field, from Henry Fox Talbot to Robert Mapplethorpe.
"Five Decades of Photography at the Museum of Fine Arts Featuring the Dandrew-Drapkin Collection" is at the museum, 255 Beach Drive NE, St. Petersburg, beginning Saturday and continuing through Oct. 4. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday with extended hours to 8 p.m. Thursday, and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday. Admission is $17 adults, $15 seniors and $10 youths 7 and older and students with ID. Thursday after 5 p.m., admission is $5. Hardin will give a gallery talk at 3 p.m. Sunday, which is free with admission.
Lennie Bennett, Times art critic