Talk:Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens

Untitled

I reverted a large text dump into the article which was unwikified and had promotional P.O.V. issues. New user: additions to the article are welcome, please review Wikipedia:Welcome, Wikipedia:Manual of Style and related pages. Please summarize information in your own words in a neutral encyclopedic tone. Thanks. -- Infrogmation (talk) 01:44, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

GA Review

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

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This review is transcluded from Talk:Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Reviewer: KJP1 (talk · contribs) 15:01, 22 March 2017 (UTC)

Pleased to pick this up. The article passes the Quick fail assessment and I'll follow up with the main review shortly. KJP1 (talk) 15:03, 22 March 2017 (UTC)

Quick fail criteria assessment

1. The article completely lacks reliable sources – see Wikipedia:Verifiability.

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2. The topic is treated in an obviously non-neutral way – see Wikipedia:Neutral point of view.

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3. There are cleanup banners that are obviously still valid, including cleanup, wikify, NPOV, unreferenced or large numbers of fact, clarifyme, or similar tags.

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4. The article is or has been the subject of ongoing or recent, unresolved edit wars.

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5. The article specifically concerns a rapidly unfolding current event with a definite endpoint.

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Articles passes quick-fail assessment. Main review to follow.

Main review

1. It is reasonably well written.

a (prose) Generally, the article reads very well, and the prose flows nicely. A few suggestions for consideration below:

Lede

• "The Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens is a public museum" - Does a public museum differ in status from other types of museum? The former redirects to the latter on Wikipedia. A Private museum appears a very niche category. I would suggest removing "public".
• "The collection is ..." - Perhaps; "The museum's collection is ...I know it's obvious, but it is the lede.
• "is supplemented by substantial holdings of Meissen porcelain." - Is supplemented the right word here? Does the Wark Collection reinforce the collection of paintings or is it, in fact, a notable collection in its own right? Perhaps; "and also includes substantial holdings of...."?
• "museum opened in 1961 on the grounds of the former residence..." - In England, we'd say "in the grounds" and would also do so in the next sentence. Just ignore if it's correct Stateside.
• "The permanent collection of the museum... and attracts 130,000 visitors annually" - Does the collection attract the visitors or do they come as much for the gardens. Perhaps; "The permanent collection of the museum... and the museum and gardens attract 130,000 visitors annually"?

History

• "In 1906, on their honeymoon, Ninah and Arthur Cummer purchased their first piece of art. They purchased a painting titled Along the Strand directly from the artist, Paul King." - You've used "purchased" twice in 8 words. Perhaps; replace one with "bought" or "In 1906, on their honeymoon, Ninah and Arthur Cummer purchased their first piece of art, a painting titled Along the Strand, directly from the artist, Paul King."?
• "two men in horse-drawn carts along a beach" - Are we missing a verb between carts and along? From looking at the painting, are they "racing" / "trotting"?
• "Ninah grew her art collection to sixty pieces..." - Did she use compost or are gardening and collecting metaphors getting mixed up? Perhaps; "expanded her collection"?
• "named for a deceased infant daughter and the only child of the Cummers" - These are, presumably, one and the same. Perhaps; "named for the Cummer's only child who had died young"?
• "Clara and Waldo's property was sold and became the Red Cross and the former Barnett Building,.." - I find this confusing. The Red Cross what? And was the Barnett Building "former" at this point?
• "Cummer's children center, Art Connections - this is referred to below as the education center. I'd suggest consistency with "education" centre, unless it's specifically for children.
• "The museum's collection was on exhibit" - Perhaps; "The museum's collection was on display"?
• "In 1989, the museum acquired an ancient Egyptian stela" - stela redirects to stele on Wikipedia. Suggest the more common usage.

Collection

• "The Cummer Museum’s art collection has grown" - grown is fine but, as above, I'd suggest "developed" or "expanded".
• Sculpture - "is located in the Upper Tier of the gardens" - suggest lower cases for upper tier

The Gardens

• "They are split into three themed gardens and a large lawn, which sit on the St. Johns River." - Presumably, not literally. Perhaps remove "which sit"?
• "The Olmsted Brothers also advised Ninah on a wall garden in 1922, which was never built. The wall garden.." - In England, this would be walled garden, which gets you the bluelink. Again, ignore, if it's wall in the States.
• "It also features a wall garden, which was built in 1922" - the paragraph above suggests this was not built. I'm confused.
• "the Wisteria garden " - Capitalise the Garden, as with the others?
• "statue of Mercury" - You mention it in the first para. of The Olmstead Garden, and then again, in the second para., which reads oddly. Perhaps; "The statue of Mercury, which was given away in the 1960s, was returned to the museum around 2013."

Education

• "Most of the work went into including new, high-tech activities, including..." - "including" twice in 5 words. Perhaps; replace the first with "installing"?

b (MoS):

Generally, the article follows MoS. A few points for consideration below:

Lede

• Length - At two, brief, paragraphs, the lede is short. Nor does it fully summarise the article. For example, the educational work undertaken by the Museum, which merits a full section, is not mentioned. I would suggest expanding to three paragraphs - Intro (the Cummers and their buildings) + the Collections and education work + the Gardens.
• Cites in the lede - It's not a deal-breaker but as all material in the lede should also appear, and be cited, in the body of the article, I favour not having cites in the lede. As an example Today's Front Page Lead doesn't use them.

General

• Linking - You wisely don't overlink, but I think there are some instances where it may help readers: "member of the National Academy Eugene Savage", is the National Academy the American Academy of Arts and Sciences or the Design Academy linked above? / Seminole / "the designer of Central Park in New York City"? / Gian Lorenzo Bernini - see below.

Gallery

• My limited understanding of the details of MoS suggests galleries of images are generally not favoured. Rather, the approach is to use the images within the body of the article. I don't think it's a dealbreaker for GA, however, but may be an issue if you ever try FAC. On a personal level, I think they're quite appropriate for articles on collections of art, such as this, and the images here are well-chosen.

2. It is factually accurate and verifiable.

a (references)

• Have checked all the sources except 9/11/12, which are inaccessible and 21, which doesn't work. The last needs replacing. I have a concern re. source 4. This focusses on the gardens, and doesn't seem to support the statement re. the collection's range. Other sources do, however. Again, I'd suggest replacement.

There are a number of instances where I think further cites are required.

• History Cummers - the two direct quotes from Ninah Cummer should be sourced.
• History Museum - the second para. has only one cite but quite a lot of information.
• Wark Collection - "one of the largest collections in the world" - needs citing.
• Sculptures - a whole uncited para.
• The English Garden - the first para. is uncited.
• The Italian Garden - ditto.

b (citations to reliable sources):

• All sources I can check appear reliable.

c (OR):

• There is nothing I've seen to indicate original research.

d (No evidence of plagiarism or copyright violations):

Paraphrasing - There are some instances of close paraphrasing, given below, which should be addressed.

History

• "The painting depicts two men in horse-drawn carts along a beach where the Rhine meets the sea." Source 7 says "Along the Strand depicts two men in horse drawn carts along a beach in the Netherlands village of Katwyck aan Zee where the Rhine meets the sea."
• "In 1931, after the death of Ada Cummer, the brothers tore down their parents' old house and split the property." Source 8 reads: " In 1931, after the death of Ada Cummer, the brothers tore down their parents’ old house and split the property." This one's definitely too close.
• "Ninah Cummer turned her passion for her gardens into a passion for art." Source 10 says "Ninah Cummer redirected her passion for her gardens into a passion for art."

3. It is broad in its scope

a (major aspects) A few thoughts/questions below:

History

• Follow the money! - Nowhere does the article tell me the source of the Cummers obvious wealth. A number of the sources do, and I learn they were Michigan lumber barons. I think the article should mention the source of the wealth that enabled the creation of both the collections and the gardens.

Collection

• "The Museum’s collection has grown from the group of more than 60 works to nearly 5,000" - Can we have a little more on how the collection has expanded so massively? By donation, like the Wark Porcelain? Or acquisition? Does the DeEtte Foundation manage a large bequest, like the Getty, that allows it to buy?

b (focused): The article focusses appropriately on the Museum, its collections and its gardens, and does not stray off-topic.

4. It follows the neutral point of view policy

The article takes a neutral viewpoint but I make one suggestion below::

History - Museum Section

• The termite invasion - Source 17 says the demolition of the Woman's Club costs the Museum its $7M investment, which could not be recouped through insurance etc. Should the article mention this? It's quite a loss, even for a well-endowed museum. Didn't they have a survey done prior to purchase? Not suggesting we shade into OR, just think it's worth a mention.

5. It is stable

The article is stable and not subject to edit-warring.:

6. It is illustrated by images, where possible and appropriate.

a (images are tagged and non-free images have fair use rationales):

The article's images seem fine.

b (appropriate use with suitable captions):

Generally fine. A few suggestions below:

• Stela of Iku and Mer-imat - "Stele" as per above?
• Unknown Artist, Mosaic with mask of Silenus - "Unknown artist,....?
• Workshop of Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Armand Jean du Plessis, Cardinal de Richelieu, c. 1641 - link Gian Lorenzo Bernini?

7. Overall:

Pass/Fail:

All I've time for now. Will return in the next day or so. Shall put it on hold and notify nominator when review's complete. KJP1 (talk) 18:44, 22 March 2017 (UTC)

Ok, I'm done, I think. I'll set to On Hold and notify the nominator. KJP1 (talk) 21:07, 23 March 2017 (UTC)

Thanks for addressing the issues so fully and so promptly. Pleased to Pass; a good article on an interesting museum. KJP1 (talk) 08:50, 25 March 2017 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.