Continuing our ongoing tracking of the effect of the Covid-19 lockdown on museums and arts organizations, I penned a column in Apollo magazine today. You can read the full article here (subscription required for more than three articles), the first paragraph is reprinted here as a teaser:
One key question for museums boards, management, and their supporters to ask right now is this: what do they actually want to accomplish when the Covid-19 crisis subsides and the lockdowns end? Is a museum its collection, its location, its staff or its visitors? Until recently we had the comparative luxury of asking these questions one museum crisis at a time. Should a small museum (for example, the Berkshire Museum in Pittsfield, Massachusetts) survive at all costs without the collection that created its very importance? Should it seek a better home for its collection but perhaps lose some of its unique character or even its individual existence (see the Corcoran Gallery of Art’s merger with the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.)? Or should it evolve in a way that is perhaps contrary to its founders’ specific desires (the Barnes Foundation’s move to Philadelphia from the truly sui generis yet remote home in Lower Merion created by Dr Barnes)?
Now, with [read more here]
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Topics:
National Academy Museum,
National Gallery of Art,
Metropolitan Museum of Art,
ICOM,
American Alliance of Museums,
Philadelphia,
AAM,
Association of Art Museum Directors,
International Council of Museums,
Corcoran Gallery of Art,
AAMD,
Barnes Foundation,
Pittsfield,
Berkshire Museum,
Apollo Magazine,
UPMIFA,
endowment,
Uniform Prudent Management of Institutional Funds
Few things have brought consensus recently more than the revulsion over the allegations against comedian Bill Cosby, a Philadelphia native. Yet in a desire to distance itself from Cosby, the city may have crossed a First Amendment line when a well-known mural entitled “Father’s Day” that depicts Cosby was painted over. And even if the city did not run afoul of that constitutional protection, the artist of the mural may have had under the Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990, 17 U.S.C. § 106A (VARA) rights too. Ultimately it will come down to whether the artist or artists object to the fact or the timing of the removal—an objection that would not necessarily be any endorsement or support of Cosby (or have anything at all to do with Cosby), but which might relate more to the right of expression.
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Topics:
Philadelphia Inquirer,
King Jr.,
Philadelphia,
Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990,
Martin Luther,
VARA,
Philadelphia City Mural Arts Program,
Temple University,
University of Massachusetts,
17 U.S.C. § 106A,
Nelson Mandela,
Bill Cosby,
The Washington Post,
First Amendment
After months of uncertainty about the future of the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, the Corcoran’s Trustee’s filed a petition on June 17, 2014 for cy pres—to revise the terms of the trust that administers the museum and the Corcoran College of Art + Design. The Corcoran’s financial condition, they argue, make the current situation untenable and in the long run impossible, to sustain. The petition proposes an arrangement with the National Gallery of Art (NGA) for the bulk of the artwork, and with George Washington University (GW) for the college functions, all to sustain the mission of the trust “as nearly as possible.”
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Topics:
Frank Gehry,
Deaccession,
National Gallery of Art,
William Corcoran,
George Washington University,
Philadelphia,
Rule 24,
Renwick Building,
Cy Pres,
Washington DC,
Flagg Building,
Corcoran College of Art + Design,
William Flagg,
Trusts,
Museums,
Friends of the Barnes,
Corcoran Gallery of Art,
intervention,
Senator William Clark,
Barnes Foundation
The FBI said today that the bureau has received “confirmed” sightings of the works of art stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in 1990. Thieves dressed as police robbed the museum of thirteen major works of art on March 18, 1990, including works by Rembrandt, Vermeer, Degas and Manet. Read carefully, however, the story is nothing new at all, just a retelling of last year’s “news” released around the anniversary of the theft and a raft of conjecture.
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Topics:
Gardner Heist,
Philadelphia,
Robert Guarente,
Degas,
and Robert Gentile,
Carmello Merlino,
The Storm on the Sea of Gallilee,
Manet Richard DesLauriers,
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum,
Boston Globe,
FBI,
Rembrandt,
Vermeer,
Museums,
Special Agent Geoff Kelly,
La Cosa Nostra
Montgomery County Orphan’s Court Judge Stanley R. Ott, the presiding judge in the unsuccessful challenge to the Barnes Foundation’s move to Center City in Philadelphia has upheld his award of sanctions against the plaintiffs challenging the move. After a recent hearing, the judge awarded the Barnes $25,000 in attorneys' fees from the Friends of the Barnes, and a separate $15,000 form a lawyer who had filed a challenge in his own right.
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Topics:
Charitable Foundations,
Philadelphia,
attorneys' fees,
Estate Planning,
Barnes Foundation
To paraphrase the famous Saturday Night Live skit about General Francisco Franco: this just in: Museum members and supporters still cannot go to court to challenge the administration of the institution. The Barnes Foundation has defeated the latest challenge to its right to move from its original home in Lower Merion outside of Philadelphia to its new home in the center of the city. The relocation will go forward.
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Topics:
Rose Art Museum,
Philadelphia,
Saturday Night Live,
Cy Pres,
Collections,
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum,
Trusts,
Barnes Foundation
