What had been sort of a band-aid thing became a signature thing. It was decided as a “Let’s do something, see how it goes, and we’ll figure out what the first 10 episodes are.”Ĭocktails with a Curator was enormously successful from the get-go. We all drew from our personal experiences of, well, everybody’s getting together at happy hour, so why don’t we just focus on doing a little happy hour talk, combine it with a historically relevant cocktail, and make it a weekly thing. It was really what can we do to offer some kind of engagement with our members.Ĭocktails with a Curator just sort of came about in one of these brainstorming sessions. And so we got together virtually with colleagues who have anything to do with programs, membership, and retention we had to do something. We had a big Young Fellows Ball which was canceled with everything else. The Met likes to say they were the first to close in New York City, but I believe the Frick closed first in March, scrambling to figure out what was happening. How did Cocktails with a Curator come about? Below, she shares more about how Cocktails with a Curator came to be and what the Frick Collection has in store for its digital community. While a previous report found that many smaller institutions struggle with digital content, the Frick’s online successes demonstrate that even the slightest step - or what Ng terms “a band-aid thing” - can have a huge impact.
There’s a whole swath of offerings, according to various levels of involvement with the Frick Collection.”
FRICK COLLECTION FREE
“We have a number of members events, free members events. “We have at every level that’s free that anybody can watch,” Ng says. The Frick has also made it a goal to host both free and members-only content, ensuring that anyone with any sized budget can engage with the collection.
Salomon (below) presenting Cocktails with a Curator, the Frick’s most successful lockdown program.
FRICK COLLECTION SERIES
“And that’s a huge number for a small shop like us.” In May, Cocktails with a Curator was a Webby honoree for Best Virtual & Remote Experiences: Arts & Culture, and according to the venue, the series alone has hit upward of 1.7 million views.Ĭurators Aimee Ng (above) and Xavier F. “I don’t think any of them have had under 1,000 live viewers,” Aimee Ng, a curator at the Frick Collection and co-presenter of the series, tells Jing Culture & Commerce of the videos. Out of all this programming, though, Cocktails with a Curator remains the institution’s biggest success.
The series joins Frick’s other digital offerings, namely video series such as Travels with a Curator, Frick Five, and What’s Her Story?, and virtual tours and webinars, that it similarly launched over the past year in a bid to stay connected with a remote audience. Past works discussed include J ames McNeill Whistler’s “ Harmony in Pink and Gray: Portrait of Lady Meux” (accompanied with a refreshing vodka cocktail, The Mummy), Joshua Reynolds’ “Selina, Lady Skipwith” (served with an earthy concoction, Asparagus Fizz), and Andrea del Verrocchio’s “Bust of a Woman” (paired with a “quintessentially Florentine liqueur,” Alchermes). Over the past 14 months, these weekly videos have featured a Frick curator sharing information and historical facts about pieces in the Collection, while inviting viewers to indulge in a theme-appropriate cocktail. This Friday, the Frick Collection’s Cocktails with a Curator YouTube series will end.
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