Philadelphia artists, Kocot and Hatton display, FLAG. photo, AKMP

Gambling, a profession involving double-dealing, cheating, bluffs, great victories and even greater losses, is not a word closely associated with such revered institutions as museums. Gambling requires risk, innovation, and improvisation, adjectives that don't remotely describe the function of a museum. Gambling favors the victor. There is no silver medal for second place. It's win, or go home.

But at the Atwater Kent Museum of Philadelphia (AKMP), second best would suit them just fine, and they've decided to go all in, in a wager to bring new life and a new hope for the future of an institution slowly emerging from one of the most troubling financial crises in its history.

"What is our niche in these history museums of the city?" asks Vicki Sand, Executive Director. "We define our priority constituencies as Philadelphians, first and foremost. We want to be Philadelphia's almost favorite museum, second on every Philadelphian's list."

Occupying a building of nearly 12,000 square feet, the original home of the Franklin Institute, but utilizing only about 5,000 of the space for exhibitions and collection display, a lack of usable space has been a daunting opponent at the table since the beginning of the game.

"This building presents a number of problems for a contemporary museum," says Sand. "One, the exhibition space, as we were using it, didn't seem so successful. Staff offices crowded into gallery space and we didn't have a good space for professional staff to work in."

But, a lack of space hasn't been the only other player in the deal.

Visitors admire the 40' x 40' Rand McNally street map. photo, AKMP

Budget cuts in the late 1990's of nearly $800,000 and an order from the Rendell mayoral administration forcing the Atwater to privatize, slumping attendance after September 11th, and ongoing construction of the area surrounding Independence Hall, conspired to run the Atwater straight out of the game. Instead of gains, the only thing the museum could show was a deficit of $200,000. With the cards stacked against them, the museum anted up, hiring Sand as the new Executive Director in 2001 and seriously reevaluating its role as the city's source for all things Philadelphia.

"The museum has been continuously challenged," says Jeffery Ray, Senior Curator of the Atwater. "Those challenges have come from our primary patron and benefactor, the city, reevaluating its own commitment and support to culture."

Riding the political theme of early November, AKMP unveiled Contemplating Democracy; an exhibition transforming the forward spaces of the museum into an arena for reflection and meditation on the past, present, and future of our country.

While the title evokes a feeling of grandiosity, visitors may feel a sense of wanting, as the exhibition consists of only four eighteenth century portraits, three presidential, one vice presidential, hung in a small alcove near a staircase, and a simple sign on the wall listing soldier memorials throughout the greater Philadelphia and Camden metropolitan areas. Anchoring Contemplating Democracy, and being used to put a contemporary resonance to the memorial list and a new context to the portraits, is the Atwater's first, and not last, foray into the world of contemporary art, FLAG 23 JUNE 2001.

Described by the artists as a "collaboration" between the flag and the camera for establishing flow and rhythm, FLAG is a contemplative piece composed of a silent 41-minute DVD of an American flag flying, warping, and struggling against the wind and rain of a summer storm at night. Playing continuously, the piece asks it's visitors to sit in a dim, silent, barren room, decorated with only six metal chairs and a dead fireplace, to watch the flag drift in and out of frame, in and out of focus, while, quite literally, contemplating democracy.

	Close-up of street map. photo, AKMP

"We feel the museum's juxtaposition of the monitor with the hearth is an appropriate articulation of the span of the centuries in art," says Tom Hatton, one half of the conceptual artist team (the other half being Marcia Kocot) who created the film. "As well as the obvious parallel of looking into the hearth/looking in to the television."

While presenting contemporary art to the masses may be terra incognita for the Atwater, starting out with a piece as minimal as FLAG may be more of a gamble than the museum had originally intended to make.

"Part of the history of art in the twentieth century is artists using and adapting what would be mundane technologies to create works of art," explains Ray. "A video as art is something I know is accepted and defended rather vehemently, and today is accepted as part of contemporary installations."

"The first question is, is it visually engaging," says Sand, who adds, "Is it engaging enough so that you are prepared to actually sit and come in? The second issue about contemporary art is, does it reflect a level of craftsmanship, a high professional skill? And Kocot and Hatton are two of the most well respected conceptual artists working in this media in this city."

But if the museum is going "public," is the average Philadelphian, whom Sand refers to as "priority constituency," ready to accept art in this form, one that challenges the viewer to open his/her mind to such abstract values and the appreciation of theoretical symbolism? One is reminded of the early works of Andy Warhol, such as his films Empire, which consisted of eight straight hours of footage of the Empire State Building from a stationary camera, or Sleep, a six-hour film documenting an unconscious man from a fixed point. These films, though lauded by some as provocative and ground breaking in their day, were also harshly criticized as being amateurish, effortless and displaying a lack of skill. Will the average history museumgoer be able to appreciate FLAG as a piece of respected artwork, on the commercial level of the minimalist works of Warhol?

"It's not an easy piece. Older people have a hard time with it," says Katherine Andrews, Director of Research and Interpretation at the Atwater, and one of the architects of the exhibit. "[Most viewers] don't have the will to contemplate it. But with younger people it's a vernacular. They're used to film and the quirky things within film."

Zoe Gabel running with hands full of Tastycakes during the opening reception of Experience Philadelphia. photo, AKMP

If esoteric video art proves to be too hard to swallow, the museum thinks its main exhibit will be more palatable. Experience Philadelphia, which Ray says is the biggest transition of space that has taken place in the twenty years he's worked at AKMP, prompts visitors to explore Philadelphia's roots. And at the center of the installation is a Rand McNally street map of Philadelphia and its environs, the largest of its kind in the world, measuring 40' x 40', and displaying the area from Haddonfield, NJ to Clifton Heights, PA, and the Philadelphia International Airport to Ambler.

Fulfilling the new and innovative agenda of the museum, Experience Philadelphia acts as the focal point for all other exhibits in the museum. Though minimal in design, it occupies the largest open space in the building and doubles as an arena for public speaking, gatherings and classes.

"This room is really the culmination of a six-month effort to transform the public spaces of the building. Before this, in terms of public programming, we really didn't have a central orientation point," notes Sand.

The exhibit offers a broad overview of the city of Philadelphia, broken down into the four major categories of "People," "Work," "Place," and "Government." Visitors can view photos of the city from the turn of the century, various products manufactured in the region during the heyday of its industry, and a collection of campaign buttons of mayoral races from 1952 to 2000. Or they can just find their house. The museum intends that Experience Philadelphia and the soldiers' memorial will compliment each other; guests can use a simple coordinate system to locate the various memorials and historic sites on the map.

Experience Philadelphia is the type of investment that the Atwater plans to use to turn the tide of the game. It is the latest signpost on the road to recovery. Since 2000, the museum has managed to transition itself from an almost solely, city-supported institution to one almost wholly independent of government assistance, overcoming a deficit of over $200,000. A cash surplus has allowed AKMP to pay off some credit and reach a more stable fiscal position. Attendance this year is up 3,000 from the previous. It is the hope of Sand and the Board of Directors to receive accreditation from the American Association of Museums and to generate between $3.3 and 3.5 million in order to sustain a fully rotating exhibition program, all within the next five years. There is still uncertainty ahead if the Atwater plans to continue to exhibit contemporary works of art (especially art as abstruse as FLAG), but curator Ray, laying all the cards on the table, sees the challenge as just part of the game.

"The key to [success] is keeping a strong professional and innovative agenda that speaks to the strengths of what a museum is, but also explores options like FLAG. That big map out there on the floor is a gamble. But it's a gamble that seems to have created a new platform for the museum exhibits and programs. And that's innovative."

The Atwater Kent Museum of Philadelphia is located at 15th South 7th Street. It is open everyday except Tuesday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. For program information call (215) 685-4830 or visit www.philadelphiahistory.org.

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