Results tagged “American Association of Museums” from Real Clear Arts

It looks as if the Brandeis University-Rose Art Museum brouhaha is turning some museum associations into, for this field, activists. A group task force is circulating a petition with the theme "Great Universities Have Great Museums," closely following the NEA's slogan, "A Great Nation Deserves Great Art."

When Brandeis announced in January that it intended to close the Rose Art Museum, a few critics complained that neither the Association of College and University Museums and Galleries nor the Association of Art Museum Directors moved quickly enough. Still, when ACUMG did protest, its statement deplored the university's move "in the most unequivocal terms." Branding the Brandeis decision a "dismal example" to other colleges and universities, David Alan Robertson, ACUMG's president (left), told The New York Times, "One fears that this opens a floodgate." (Robertson is also director of the Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art at Northwestern.)

Now ACUMG, AAMD, the College Art Association, the American Association of Museums, the Association of Art Museum Curators, the University Museums and Collections group of the International Council of Museums, and the Samuel H. Kress Foundation are seeking like-minded academics in an effort to make sure that floodgate stays closed.

The task force is asking university professors, presidents, provosts, and deans to sign an online petition. One email urges, "Pass the link on to all colleagues you know who care about academic museums and wish to support them during these challenging times."

The key paragraph:

At the heart of many of our great colleges and universities stand museums of art, science, archaeology, anthropology, and history, as well as arboreta and other collections of living specimens. Along with our libraries and archives, these academic museums advance learning through teaching and research. They are the nation's keepers of its history, culture and knowledge. They are essential to the academic experience and to the entire educational enterprise.

The task force plans to publicize the petition in a full-page ad in The Chronicle of Higher Education this fall, along with "selected signatures."

In the meantime, you can read the entire petition here, and you can see who has signed at www.acumg.org/webelieve. When I checked late on the evening of 7/28, there were pages and pages of signatures, some from museum directors and independent scholars as well as academics.

Ordinary folk can offer support at Save The Rose Art Museum.

Photo Credits: Courtesy Northwestern University and Save the Rose 

While the arts world has had its eye on the White House, watching to see what President Obama is doing for the arts (the most recent report is from Politico, which published an article quoting yours truly on Wednesday), not enough people have been paying attention to Congress.

To wit: The other day I received an email update that floored me. It reported, glowingly, that 25 Representatives had signed a "Dear Colleague" letter circulated by Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY) and Rep. Paul Tonko (D-NY) urging the House Appropriations Committee to allocate $50 million for the Office of Museum Services at the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).

Let's see: 25 is less than 6% of the 435 members of the House. But Ford W. Bell, the president of the American Association of Museums, said: