Five things I think I think

1.) I continue to be disappointed in the strange behavior of many of Washington's under-performing museums. The latest unfortunate trend: DC museums are teaming up with dealers in their programming: The Hirshhorn has signed up at least one dealer for a talk. The Phillips and the University of Illinois placed three salespeople on panels during a recent symposium. And then there's the Corcoran...

Later this month a DC commercial space, Irvine Contemporary Art, is hosting a show of Shepherd Fairey, Al Farrow and Paul D. Miller. That's fine, that's great, there's obviously nothing wrong with a commercial gallery doing a show.

But there is a problem when a non-profit art museum (and school) explicitly promotes a business, which is what the Corcoran is doing on on Oct. 17 when it hosts a Fairey and Farrow Q&A with a Corcoran curator in the Corcoran auditorium. Worse, the Corcoran admits that it's eager to promote the commercial exhibition: "We most certainly coordinated our program around the exhibition opening for a number of reasons -- from availability of the artist to building buzz through cross-promotion of the program and exhibition," a Corcoran spokesperson told me via email.

The Corcoran is making a mistake so obvious that it's hard to believe no one inside the museum flagged it. That kind of non-profit-promoting-a-business is discouraged by both museum industry association guidelines and by the federal tax code. The Corcoran should immediately cancel this promotional event.

2.) As good as New York is this exhibition season, I'm pretty excited by the mid-Atlantic too. The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts hosts Dan Cameron's well-received Peter Saul retrospective and, as I mentioned last week, a Franz West retrospective is coming in Baltimore.

3.) Quick preview of next week on MAN: Throughout this year-(plus)-long presidential campaign season, the American flag has been an issue in a way last seen in 1992, when flag burning was a major topic. Republicans have tried to make patriotism an issue, strangely seizing on American-flag lapel pins as a kind of litmus test. Progressives such as Jon Stewart have pointed out that Republicans love America and symbolism, but that they seem to have less regard for Americans. Meanwhile, artists have used the American flag in art for decades. So next week: Prominent contemporary art curators will share favorite works of art that include or address the American flag.

4.) Art Institute of Chicago boss Jim Cuno is featured on this Bad at Sports podcast.

5.) I think I'm developing a slight obsession with Francis Alys' work. C-Monster has great pics of the Fabiola installation at LACMA.