What this is about...

I started this blog because I have a strong interest in strategic planning, increasing revenue while maintaining organisational integrity, and making museums engaging places that are accessible to the widest audience possible. It is my goal to start conversations or trains of thought that can help museum stakeholders improve their organisation.

Monday, December 13, 2010

A Tug of War

I have been wondering how diversifying funding streams would affect things like the Smithsonian family of museums since the Fire in my Belly debacle broke. Today the Warhol Foundation has announced that unless the portion of Wojnarowicz's video that was a part of the Hide/Seek exhibit (scroll down for details) is restored, they will not consider funding future requests from the Smithsonian Institution. The New York Times article can be found here: http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/13/warhol-foundation-threatens-to-end-financing-of-smithsonian-exhibitions/.

There are many issues to unpack in this development. Will the government move to ban outside support from Smithsonian exhibits so they can continue to censor as they please? Or will the Smithsonian find itself in a place to fight back? Are we re-enacting the culture wars like it may have seemed a couple of weeks ago, or is there a greater shift at the horizon?

No comments:

Post a Comment