What is Art worth? Money or Knowledge or Inspiration? Brandeis will find out.
The announcement that Brandeis University was going to close the Rose Art Museum and sell off part or most of the collection, a collection that includes one of the best representations of America in the 1950s and 1960s – a time when the center of art theory and practice moved from Europe to the USA, caused a ruffle in my house. My artist wife is very fond of the Rose, was just up there in the past year, and, frankly, couldn’t believe the University’s decision.
It is clear that some of Brandeis’ major donors have been affected by the Madoff Scandal and will not likely be able to replace the 23% drop in Brandeis’ endowment with cash donations. But to sell off the art, which probably retains its value in the face of all the current economic shenanigans, only provides money to the institution. It takes away academic sources of art history. It takes away a single location for the inspiration of future artists.
President Jehuda Reinharz could make cuts across the board of all departments and use the Museum’s collection as a source for income in academic ways with other institutions: rental of individual pieces for short terms, foundations for books and catalogs to be sold, as backups for loans perhaps.
This will wipe out a museum, split up a collection (how many pieces will go overseas and into private hands, no longer available to American students?) and make a major University a minor player in the Fine Arts.
This should be rethought.
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Brandeis University decided to close the museum in response to economic strains brought on by the recession, and the institution hopes the auction of their collection will help them out of a $10 million dollar budget deficit.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."l suppose one could have guessed bernie madoff’s ponzi scheme had something to do with this.
but the collection is worth far more than a piddling $10m. what price art?…indeed.
the museum director, michael rush, has published a scathing denunciation of this action:
this is a travesty, all in the name of greed.
selling precious art that was given (or bought) in the deepest trust between donors and the university
Apparently, if one is of the ruling class, honor and trust are passe. Makes me wonder what BS will be thrown to attract future donors to the university. Good luck with that, Brandeis.
art, see here.
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Feb. 2007 – Major donors to Brandeis University have informed the school they will no longer give it money in retaliation for its decision last month to host former President Jimmy Carter, a strong critic of Israel.
The donors have notified the school in writing of their decisions–and specified Carter as the reason, said Stuart Eizenstat, a former aide to Carter during his presidency and a current trustee of Brandeis, one of the nation’s premier Jewish institutions of higher learning.
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The apparent donor crisis comes on the heels of a series of Israel-related free speech controversies on the Waltham, Mass., campus, of which Carter’s January appearance is only the latest and most high-profile. Critics of Israel last year protested Reinharz’s removal of an art exhibit from the school library containing anti-Israeli paintings–denounced by some as crude propaganda–by youths from Palestinian refugee camps.
The university got flack from the other side when it awarded an honorary doctorate in June to renowned playwright and frequent Israel critic Tony Kushner, who once referred to Israel’s founding as “a mistake.”
The run-up to Carter’s appearance was also punctuated by acrimony when the former president declined an initial invitation to appear in a debate format with Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz. Instead, Dershowitz appeared only after Carter left the hall.
Yet, the school has also won notice for a course it offers on the Middle East conflict co-taught by Shai Feldman, a prominent Israeli strategic analyst, and Palestinian Khalil Shikaki, a leading West Bank demographer. It also conducts an exchange program with Al Quds University, a Palestinian school in East Jerusalem. The Brandeis student body of about 5,000 is about 50 percent Jewish but also contains a significant population of Muslims.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."