This just in: The Drama and Desire disaster

It gives me precisely zero pleasure to pass on the shocking news break that my colleague, Martin Knelman, has in the paper tomorrow. In a nutshell, he reports that Drama and Desire, the hokey art/theatre exhibition the museum had hoped would be a summer blockbuster, failed to attract crowds and left it with a $3 million shortfall.

What this means, I would guess, is a dent in the AGO's already-limited future ambitions, putting a damper on new exhibtions and acquistions in the short term. This is good news to no-one already feeling underserved by its programming; lean times are about to get a little leaner. Here's hoping staffing, already at a notable low, doesn't take a hit because of it.

Above: Jacques-Louis David's The Oath of the Horatii, a 1786 oil on canvas from the Toledo Museum of Art's collection is part of the AGO's exhibit Drama and Desire: Artists and the Theatre.