Regards, Jeremy Irons
by Carol Vogel, The New York Times
December 22, 2000
Museums have been using movie stars to record their audio guides for years. Seeing an exhibition through the eyes of, say, Meryl Streep or Dennis Hopper makes visitors feel as if they are bonding with a famous person.
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum is translating that psychology into its fund-raising. Rather than sending out a mailer asking for money signed by its director, as most museums do, it recently sent 17,000 letters to museum members and former donors on Jeremy Irons's personal stationery -- simple cream-colored paper with blue lettering.
"He's part of our family," said Laurie Beckelman, a deputy director for special projects at the Guggenheim. "He is committed to what we do."
In the letter, Mr. Irons talks about how he first went to the Guggenheim to see its "Art of the Motorcycle" exhibition in 1998 because he is a motorcycle rider. A year later he saw the show again when it traveled to the Guggenheim Bilbao in Spain. Mr. Irons also narrated the audio tour for "1900: Art at the Crossroads," which closed in September.
Since his visit to Bilbao Mr. Irons has gotten to know Frank O. Gehry, the Los Angeles architect who designed the now world-famous building. Mr. Gehry wrote the Guggenheim's fund-raising letter last year.
Mr. Irons is "part of the energy and the excitement of the museum," said Sally Fischer, his publicist. "It's a difficult, competitive world, and you have to do things differently."
Ms. Beckelman said the museum hoped that the celebrity angle would be as effective as a fund-raising tool as it has been with the audio guides. "People always get letters from the same people," she said. "We wanted to do something that was different."