Where’s Clough? Smithsonian Secretary a No-Show for Morning "Hide/Seek" Panels

Last night, at the commencement of the Smithsonian Institution's two-day "HIde/Seek" marathon, the scene at the Freer Gallery's Meyer Auditorium appeared (from the webcast) to be standing-room-only.

Here's what it looked liked for the last of this morning's panels (which, to my mind, was the most interesting, because it covered some new ground):



That's a pensive Martin Sullivan, director of the National Portrait Gallery, in the lower left corner. Smithsonian Secretary G. Wayne Clough, who had occupied front-row center last night, was AWOL this morning. NPG spokeswoman Bethany Bentley confirmed this, in an e-mail to me:

He [Clough] is not here this morning. Linda [St. Thomas, the Smithsonian's spokesperson] didn't know his plans for the afternoon

I'd suggest that he show up. While I am one of the few commentators who has expressed sympathy (scroll down) for Clough's decision to remove the hot-button Wojnarovicz video from the NPG's "Hide/Seek" exhibition, I continue to be astonished by his ham-fisted handling of the aftermath. He should be there, taking a posture that's responsive, not defensive.

The reason I found the last panel particularly instructive was that it consisted of three politically attuned people who understand (for better or worse) how things work in Washington---Frank Hodsoll and Bill Ivey, two former chairmen of the National Endowment for the Arts (under Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton, respectively), and Ford Bell, president of the American Association of Museums.

They all seemed to agree, as Ivey stated, that "the Secretary's decision not to engage in a full-fledged battel with a Congress of newly elected representatives longing for such a battle is understandable."

Hodsoll later said that he could "see why [the threat of retaliatory Congressional funding cuts] could easily be viewed as a substantial threat." Bell reiterated AAM's position that "the Secretary of the Smithsonian had the right to make that decision" and asserted that other museums need to follow the NPG's lead in mounting exhibitions pertaining to homosexuality, "so pretty soon it becomes acceptable. Otherwise, the Smithsonian becomes a lightning rod, and it's a very poor lightning rod."

Also a no-show this morning was the current head of NEA, Rocco Landesman. This is another political decision that's understandable: He's got his work cut out for him protecting his agency's budget from the Congressional ax.

On the morning's first panel, Kerry Brougher, deputy director and chief curator of the Hirshhorn Museum, seconded NPG historian David Ward's opposition to the new directive from the Report of the Regents Advisory Panel, calling for Smithsonian museums to consult with interested members of the public in the "pre-decisional phases" of exhibition planning.

Had such a protocol been followed, Brougher said, it's doubtful that his museum could have included Yves Klein's "Anthropometries"---"nude models rolling around in blue paint"---in its recent Yves Klein: With the Void, Full Powers.

You can view the afternoon panels, beginning at 1:30 p.m., here.