Friday, October 29, 2010

Chicago Art Magazine on Deaccessioning

Chicago Art Magazine continues their analysis on deaccessioning. Here's the second part of their series.

We previously discussed the basics of the accessioning and deaccesioning processes art museums go through in dealing with their collections, but what about the specifics? A delicate process such as deaccessioning certainly raises a few questions including issues of transparency, maintaining the public trust, and the debate as to whether the current guidelines are enough to keep museum art collections from becoming mere commodities.
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My Thoughts on Deaccessioning Via WNYC

It's been super busy, so apologies for the belated post.

Marlon Bishop, of WNYC, interviewed me on Tuesday, October 19, for a story on deaccessioning. The radio version came out on Wednesday, October 20, but you can read Bishop’s article, Art Deaccessioning: Right or Wrong?, on WNYC’s website, as well as hear a few soundbites from me; Kaywin Feldman, president of the Association of Art Museum Directors and director of the Minneapolis Institute of the Arts; and anti-deaccessionist, Lee Rosenbaum.

I will elaborate more on deaccessioning here and on my other blog, Clancco, soon. What do you think? Deaccession or not? Is there a middle ground?


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Tuesday, October 19, 2010

National Academy and AAMD Friends Again

After nearly two years of museum-world ostracism because it sold two prized 19th century American landscape paintings for about $15 million to relieve a financial crisis, Manhattan’s venerable National Academy Museum & School is being accepted back into the The Assn. of Art Museum Directors.

Why the ostracism? The general public and media consensus: "Keeping art for the public's enjoyment and study is the reason for having tax-exempt art museums in the first place, and failing to do that in the case of the Church and Gifford paintings is what brought down sanctions on the National Academy."

Via the LA Times.
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