BlogBack: Museum Director Steven Miller on Lawrence Small's Sudden Disappearance

Steven Miller, executive director of the Morris Museum, Morristown, NJ, and adjunct faculty member at Seton Hall University's graduate program in museum professions, responds to The Secretary Vanishes: Smithsonian's Lawrence Small Resigns:

I think the best news in the museum world today is the resignation of Larry Small at the Smithsonian. He never should have been hired in the first place. He had no extensive on-the-job or governance background in any of the various academic disciplines represented within the Smithsonian. He had a similar glaring lack of experience in leading a major nonprofit cultural entity.

Small was a banker/financial type [formerly at Citibank and Fannie Mae]. How often do we hear that cultural institutions should be run like businesses? That was why Small was hired by the Regents. No sooner was he hired than problems flared: First he was cited [and sentenced to community service and two years probation] for owning South American cultural materials that contained parts of endangered species.

Then he decided he would close major research components of the Smithsonian. That caused a huge uproar. He continued to knock around ignorantly and in the process alienated some significant donors. Finally, his outrageous salary, perks and unauthorized expenditures did him in.

We can only hope that this time the Regents get it right when they hire.