The Musical Tie-In

Frederick Lawrence has sung at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and the Kennedy Center as a member of the New York Choral Society. The press release doesn't say whether he's a tenor or a bass.

Jim Olesen to the white courtesy phone, please. Perhaps you can recruit President-Elect Lawrence for the chorus.

Brandeis Update, Part XIV (or whatever)

Brandeis has chosen a new president, Frederick M. Lawrence, who is currently the Dean of George Washington University Law School. There's a press release on line here.

I don't know a thing about him; I just hope he'll be able to repair the damage done to the university by the Rose Art Museum scandal.

I hear, also, that the university has hired Sotheby's to look into alternatives to selling items from the Rose collections. I don't really understand this. What's needed is more and better fund-raising. Last year's crisis was a great opportunity that no one took advantage of: okay, we'll keep the Rose as is, but we need to raise this much money. Oh, well.

"Now is the Right Time for Me to Focus on the Next Chapter of My Career"

That's what Jehudah Reinharz said in the email announcing his resignation from the presidency of Brandeis Univeristy. I'd say that after the amount of criticism he has gotten this year over the dumbass decision to close the Rose Art Museum and sell off part or all of its collection, yes, this would be a good time to leave. The Globe article I link to has this, which makes me roll on the floor laughing:

Reinharz dismissed suggestions that he is resigning under pressure arising from the museum controversy, saying he strongly considered stepping down in summer 2008 before signing a five-year contract extension. At 65, Reinharz said he felt the time had come to move on.

Honestly! He was willing to stay until 2013 but he's leaving ASAP? And this has nothing to do with what's actually going on at the University??

Turning Points: Rose Art Museum Honors Michael Rush

A symposium at the Rose to honor Michael Rush and discuss the future of the museum. Details:

Rose Art Museum

May 12, 2009, 2:00-4:30 p.m.

The Rose Art Museum currently faces one of the most extraordinary, and puzzling, moments in its history. After months of uncertainty over the fate of the Museum itself, the Brandeis University administration has declared that the Museum will stay open as a public art museum. However, the fate of the collection and the curatorial and educational missions of the museum remain unclear. We gather to celebrate and reflect upon the extraordinary accomplishments of the Rose Art Museum team under the leadership of Michael Rush, including a series of distinguished exhibitions, public programs, and publications. We also gather to discuss the future of the Museum; how can we work together to honor and carry on the remarkable legacies associated with this remarkable, precious institution?

Reception to Follow

Speakers include:
Margaret Evangeline (artist)

• Jane Farver, Director, MIT List Visual Arts Center
• Margaret Evangeline (artist)
• Steve Miller (artist)
• Ellen Schattschneider (faculty, Anthropology)
• Joe Wardwell (faculty, Fine Arts)
• Mary Baine Campbell (faculty, English)
• Dirck Roosevelt (faculty, Education)
• Andreas Teuber (faculty, Philosophy)
• Mark Auslander (faculty, Anthroplogy)
• Nancy Scott (faculty, Fine Arts)
• Ramie Targoff (faculty, English)
• Pennie Taylor (graduate student, Cultural Production)
• Aly Young, Yael-Rooks Rapport, Sonja Gandert, Aubrey Knox (Rose Interns)

For full schedule see: http://rose-friends.wikispaces.com/Honoring_Rush

Rose Update

This ArtInfo.com article has information on the current status of the Rose. The situation appears to be improving, but note the quotations toward the end of the article, from a letter written by the Rose's chairman of the board:

Thus, the Rose has no director, no curator, no education director, no administrator, no funding stream and no program. Exhibitions close on May 17. The Provost says samplings of the permanent collection will go on view beginning July 22. Curated by whom we do not know

Still More on the Rose Art Museum

More email from Jehuda Reinharz this morning. This time, there's some backpedaling and some bullshit. I quote directly:

The initial statements regarding this decision 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. 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. A faculty committee is expected to make recommendations on this issue shortly.

To paraphrase: we screwed up our original announcement. To take this apart a bit:

• "The University may have the option, subject to applicable legal requirements and procedures, to sell some artworks if necessary" means "we'll sell what we can when the lawyers get done looking at the documents."
• "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" means "The Rose won't be a museum any more."

There are some details about other places the University has made cuts, but no specific numbers about the budget, the past and future size of the endowment, no admission that it's a raid, etc., etc. I'm sure you can hear me banging the table from wherever it is you're sitting.

More About the Rose Art Museum

The New York Times web site has a bunch of letters from Brandeis students and alumni. Dennis Slavin, one of the correspondents, was a music student at Brandeis around when I was there.

The Rose web site has lots of information. Their own Board was not informed that closure of the museum was under consideration until the University BOD told them it was happening. You can sign a petition they link to, and join a mailing list.

Here's the letter I sent to Jehuda Reinharz and various other people:

Judah Reinharz, President of Brandeis University
Allen Alter, President of the Brandeis University Alumni Association
cc: Peter French, Jacob Bockelmann, Nancy Winship
415 South Street
Waltham, MA 02453

Re: Rose Art Museum Closure

Dear President Reinharz and Mr. Alter:

Last week, I received email from both of you about the Board of Trustees' decision to close the Rose Art Museum and sell its collection. I am extremely disturbed by this for several reasons.

First, it's wrong to close the museum, which would require dispersing its collection, a strong and important one. These works of art may never be seen in public again or be available for study, if they are sold into private hands. How many donors would have given art to the Rose without an assurance that the works had a home in perpetuity?

Second, the University has been anything but transparent in making this decision and in providing information about why it's necessary. According to the NY Times, the director of the Rose, Michael Rush, heard about the possibility only after the decision was made. In other words, he never got to respond before being presented with a fait accompli.

Please re-read the letters you sent. There are no numbers, no specifics about the financial problems Brandeis is facing, such as current and future shortfalls, the exact shrinkage in the endowment, etc. There is nothing about the alternatives that were considered or why they were rejected in favor of this extremely drastic step. There is nothing in your communications reflecting the fact that the Rose has its own endowment and that Brandeis would take it over upon closing the Rose. And Michael Rush reports that the Rose is financially self-sustaining. The latter two points are especially disturbing: it is apparent that Brandeis is making a raid on the Rose and its free-standing endowment.

Further, President Reinharz's letter includes the outrageous statement that "Board members stressed that the museum decision will not alter the university's commitment to the arts and the teaching of the arts." Closing the Rose and selling its collections are in and of themselves changes in the university's commitment to the arts.

Here's a relevant story. Many years ago, the instructors of the martial arts school where I studied decided, without consulting the students, to close the school. They didn't succeed, because we, the students, bought the equipment and recruited our own instructors. Had there been more transparency in the teachers' process, much angst could have been avoided.

Brandeis is in a similar situation now. By failing to consult the greater community, you lost the opportunity to draw on our collective wisdom (and bank accounts). The university's standing and reputation are suffering greatly from the decision to close the Rose. I urge you to take the following steps to correct the errors you have made:

• Release to the public all financial information the Board of Trustees used to make this decision. This shouldn't violate confidentiality,considering that as a nonprofit institution, you must publicly disclose a great deal of financial data annually.
• Release to the public information about the Board's decision-making process and alternative considered.
• Call upon the Brandeis community and ask for ideas about how to fundraise the money Brandeis needs to maintain its programs,
  including the Rose, at their current levels. I expect you would find many individuals, including myself, willing to increase their donations for the next several years, for example.
• Reverse the decision, which is so damaging to the University and its reputation.

Thank you for taking the time to consider this letter.

Rose Art Museum

I'm a graduate of Brandeis University. I was surprised last week to get email from President Jehuda Reinharz informing me - and everybody other alum on the university mailing list - that the Board of Trustees had decided to close the Rose Art Museum and sell off its thousands of 20th century artworks. A couple of days later, I received email from the current president of the Alumni Association defending the decision. I was assured that the Board of Trustees had been pained to make this decision, and that the academic senate had previously voted to support the Board in whatever decisions it made. Yeah, yeah. The phrase "self-serving" did cross my mind as I read both email messages.

There's been outrage throughout the art world. The Boston Globe had an article up almost immediately and has had a couple more since (use the search box at boston.com to find them all). The Times had a news story last week, and also an editorial in today's paper. ArtsJournal has a Q&A with Michael Rush, the Rose's director.

Times art critic Roberta Smith closes her article, published yesterday, with this zinger:

The message out of Brandeis University last week — to its own students and to the world — was that when the going gets tough, none of this matters. Art is dispensable.

You bet. I've got an outraged letter of my own going to Brandeis in tomorrow's mail.