NPR roundup

Though much of the information regarding Brandeis' Rose Art Museum's closure has been posted elsewhere, a few people who follow my ramblings asked me to post what I've been finding, so for the time being, I will continue to do so. I hope the repeat isn't too mundane for those of us in Boston / Waltham.

This is the NPR "All Things Considered" roundup. Collector David Genser talks about his frustration and Prez. Reinharz's piece is particularly interesting.

Enjoy. More to come, I'm sure.

Reinharz: "I screwed up"

This is the latest:

Dear Members of the Brandeis community:

The past ten days have been extremely difficult for all of us. I have heard from many of you and listened carefully to your criticisms and constructive suggestions. I have read every message on the faculty list serve, and the thoughtful letter sent to me by a group of faculty last night. I have also heard from students, staff, alumni, university presidents and complete strangers about my statements regarding the vote by the Board of Trustees concerning the Rose Art Museum.

In retrospect, I wish I had handled the initial statements I made in a far more direct way. Unfortunately, those statements did not accurately reflect the Board’s decision authorizing the administration to conduct “an orderly sale or other disposition of works from the university’s collection.” The statements gave the misleading impression that we were selling the entire collection immediately, which is not true. The University may have the option, subject to applicable legal requirements and procedures, to sell some artworks if necessary, but I assure you that other options will also be considered. The Museum will remain open, but in accordance with the Board’s vote, it will be more fully integrated into the University’s central educational mission. We will meet with all affected University constituencies to explore together how this can best be done.

I regret as well that I did not find a more inclusive and open way to engage the Brandeis community in the deliberations that led to the Board’s decision.

I take full responsibility for causing pain and embarrassment in both of these matters. To quote President Obama, “I screwed up.”

Having learned from this experience, I will do my best, as will the entire administration, to work together with all of you in a collaborative manner. We must cooperate as we move forward to confront our financial crisis. But we also have to take bold steps. Obviously, we have many tasks ahead of us regarding the curriculum and the budget.

In meetings with members of the faculty and with students in the past few days, I have been heartened by the enormous reservoir of good will, imagination and willingness to work hard to guarantee that Brandeis will continue to thrive as a first-rate institution of higher learning.

Sincerely,

Jehuda Reinharz

I urge everyone to see that this statement does not in any way mean that the Rose Art Museum will not close, nor that this is solved. We must continue to pressure the administration of Brandeis University to remain committed to, as Reinharz states, "the University's central core mission."

Wow. What a few days.

A Rose is a rose is a rose

I'm sure many of you have been following the growing discussion about the potential closure of Brandeis University's famed Rose Art Museum. As a student of the university, I have been spending the last week reading though the thoughtful responses, keeping my ears open on campus, and my mind working in an effort to begin to formulate a position and a response to the administration's decision.

Before beginning to unfurl the University's tenuous relationship with the Rose Art Museum within the context of the potential changes happening throughout the greater university, I should give a short biographical note. I am a second year graduate student in Brandeis' interdisciplinary program, Cultural Production. The program is only in its third year, and the two big buzz words "cultural" and "production" in practice for us students ends up being a mixture of museum studies, anthropology, community engagement, and the arts. Beyond being a student at Brandeis, I am an employee of the university working in the Robert D. Farber Archives and Special Collections Library with primarily with materials relating to the history and development of the University. I am also a young artist and curator.

The closure of the Rose is being couched in the financial hardship of the university; however, it appears from accounts by previous donor Lois Foster that this is not the first time discussion of the museum's closure has surfaced. While the university is seeing a decrease in its endowment of over twenty-five percent, Brandeis is certainly not the only institution with similar problems. Indeed, the giants likeYale and Harvard are seeing similar plummeting figures. Sure Brandeis and Harvard are Apples and Oranges, but when Brandeis University (even when joking) sees itself as a comparable school to the ivy leagues, the idea that artwork is not a large portion of the university's mission to create whole liberal arts students with a humane education is absurd. Indeed, it makes us question if the closing of the university museum is not a part of the larger plans to reorganize the structure of the university (also framed as a reaction to the financial times, the university has discussed laying off roughly ten percent of its faculty and more staff in a move to create mega-majors and thus save on administrative costs) in some new plan that the rest of the university community has had little say in policy decisions.

In discussing the language used by Jehuda Reinharz, Peter French, other administrators, and the PR firm of the university, we must ask what we will trade the Rose for? Though the word at Brandeis has been layoff staff or sell the art, really, no one administrator is saying that if we sell the work we will not layoff staff and faculty. Most of us at Brandeis are sure that more staff layoffs are coming and that the faculty will be reduced by roughly ten percent in the next five years. This is not an either/or situation. This is getting your cake and eating it too. What do the students and community of Brandeis gain by having the museum close? It seems that this is an issue of lack of transparency. There is the ominous feeling at Brandeis (tomorrow a funeral march will take place on campus) that the situation is in actuality far worse than we have been led to believe and that the administration is frankly just not letting on. We are being told that four PhD programs will be closed. One of the best Brandeis professors I have worked with is losing his job. 70 staff members were laid off with little notice. And yet, at a recent graduate student meeting with deans regarding the financial situation, we were not being told what is really going on. We are instead in limbo being asked to trust in the administration at the very same time they are making PR blunders like this fiasco. Though calls for openness have been put forth, we are facing the same general numbers of a $10 million budget deficit and less donations. Just what does that mean?

To be selfish, in these last two points I will address my own position in relationship to the Rose. As a student studying at Brandeis and looking to go into careers in the museum field and working as an artist, hailing from an institution with such little concern for the arts will reflect quite poorly on me. My degree, for which I will be in debt for many years, is worth, I suspect, less than I paid when potential professional contacts see my name next to Brandeis University on my CV. What a shame. I ask the university how it might have a degree offered with an emphasis on museum studies when there is not a museum on campus? To look beyond myself, what about those studying fine arts, art history, or receiving a post-bac in studio arts from Brandeis. It will be interesting to have to position myself against the policies of this institution for the remainder of my working life. I fear I will be justifying myself and condemning this university for long to come.

Finally, the Rose's remarkable collection will leave another hole in the Boston art community. LEF foundation has decided to no longer fund visual arts. Art Interactive closed, Axiom lost its director, MIT's Bill Arning is leaving, Harvard's museum is closed for the next few years, and at least eight other galleries (just off the top of my head) are closing in the Boston area. Without this collection, how will other institutions in Boston pick up the slack in post-war American art?

I'm interested and hopeful about what comes next at Brandeis surrounding the Rose. Students are riled up and beginning to do and say some interesting things, which we anticipate to gain momentum over the course of the semester. The faculty have voted to create a special committee to investigate. Dollar signs have cropped up on all of the Rose Art Museum signs so that they now read "RO$E Art Museum." I have faith that there is more wiggle room to be had with the administration, particularly with the board of trustees, the faculty senate, and so forth. Public pressure can go a long way, but I doubt we'll see a change in the policy and opinions of Jehuda Reinharz and the development office (who have warned not to criticize the decision). We shall see.

Linconiana and Brandeis

I just wrote this piece about Brandeis' collection of Lincoln memorabilia in honor of the bicentennial coming up. Check it out if you've got a second. Handling this stuff makes me giggle.