This article from NYTimes.com
has been sent to you by [log in to unmask]

I'd like to know what your thoughts on this are.  Things like taking money away from museums, compelling them to take down suggested donation signs, etc.

/-------------------- advertisement -----------------------\


Let NYTimes.com Come to You

Sign up for one of our weekly e-mails
and the news will come directly to you.
YOUR MONEY brings you a wealth of analysis
and information about personal investing.
CIRCUITS plugs you into the latest on
personal technology. TRAVEL DISPATCH offers
you a jump on special travel deals and news.

http://email.nytimes.com/email/email.jsp?eta5

\----------------------------------------------------------/

Giuliani's Panel on Decency Focuses on Finances Instead

By JENNIFER STEINHAUER



Four months after Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani appointed a panel to
set decency standards for city cultural institutions, the effort is
beginning to show some movement.

 But a draft set of recommendations has little to do with elephant
dung or naked female Christ figures or the art exhibitions that
angered the mayor and led him to create the 22-member panel.

 Instead, the preliminary recommendations drafted by one of the
panel's members urges that 10 percent of the budget for the city's
major art institutions be given to other groups instead. It also
accuses the city's Department of Cultural Affairs of failing to
audit how museums spend their city money.

 The recommendations, a copy of which was provided to The New York
Times, also include removing the suggested donation signs from the
entryway of museums, and requiring that institutions adopt a "code
of ethics," similar to those written by the American Association of
Museums last summer.

 The decency panel, officially known as the Cultural Affairs
Advisory Commission, was appointed by Mr. Giuliani, who, outraged
over a 1999 exhibition including a painting depicting the Virgin
Mary with a dollop of elephant dung on one breast and other graphic
imagery, attempted to shut down the Brooklyn Museum, where the
exhibition was held. The mayor lost a court battle over the issue.
This year, incensed by a depiction of the Last Supper with a nude,
black female Christ figure, the mayor vowed to establish criteria
for museum art.

 As such, he reconstituted the dormant commission, which became
more popularly known as the decency commission, to develop
standards for museums that receive city money, which is nearly all
of them. The full panel has not had a meeting yet.

 The preliminary recommendations were written by Martin Bergman, a
freelance journalist, who said yesterday that he had been assigned
to write them by Leonard Garment, a Washington lawyer who is
chairman of the subcommittee charged with coming up with the
recommendations. They have yet to be approved by the full
subcommittee; indeed, few of its members have seen or heard about
the draft, since some of them have not been contacted since the
commission was appointed in April. It is unclear whether these
recommendations will be accepted, formalized, or ever come close to
being adopted. The commission has no independent authority and is
totally reliant on the mayor's acquiescence. Mr. Garment is out of
town and did not return calls to his office.

 But the subcommittee of about a dozen members was formed to write
the standards meant to address, as the mayor said last spring,
"whether or not there should be a different assessment made when
public dollars are being used than when private dollars are being
used" in city museums. That group is expected to review the
three-page letter containing the recommendations, which was sent to
Lawrence Herbert, chairman of the entire commission, yesterday, Mr.
Bergman said. Mr. Herbert would not comment yesterday.

 "I think the idea is to open the debate," said Mr. Bergman, who
added that he did not think that the exhibition at the Brooklyn
Museum, "Sensation," would have been displayed under the national
association's suggested code of ethics. He is suggesting that city
museums accept some version of those guidelines, which include
promotion of programs that "respect pluralistic values, traditions
and concerns," and that "promote the public good rather than
individual financial gain," which Mr. Bergman said would keep art
that is potentially for sale off museum walls. He said that others
on the commission might opt for stronger language about the content
of art.

 He interprets those guidelines, particularly the section on
respect of pluralistic values, to mean that "Sensation" would have
been rejected because, in his words, it was "offensive to
Christians." A Brooklyn Museum spokeswoman would not comment
yesterday.

 Mr. Bergman said that his objection to signs in museums that
suggest donations is that they are often unclear that the fees are
not mandatory and are therefore "prohibitive to the poor."

 The advisory commission has never held a meeting since the mayor
pulled a group of friends, artists and legal experts into a room 20
minutes before a press conference last spring to tell them of their
new duties, said several of the members contacted.

 "We all sat around as he explained it to us, nodding our heads,"
said Bud Konheim, chief executive of the Nicole Miller fashion
company. "And the second he left the room, we all said, `How are we
going to do this?' I think we are all happy it went away."

 Some members of the subcommittee, however, have talked among
themselves, in one meeting and subsequent telephone conversations,
said Mr. Bergman and others. Mr. Konheim said he was never too
thrilled to be brought in to begin with. "There are some things you
do for your friends," he said.

 For the 2002 fiscal year, which began last month, the entire city
budget for cultural affairs is $138 million, $110.5 million of
which is earmarked for 34 of the city's major art institutions. Mr.
Bergman has suggested that 10 percent of the money for those
museums be reallocated to "other projects and to enhance the
Department of Cultural Affairs audit compliance functions,"
according to the letter. Of particular interest to him, he said,
would be apprentice programs for young New Yorkers in the arts.

 Better auditing is needed, Mr. Bergman said, adding that he had
learned in a meeting with the Department of Cultural Affairs that
it had not audited the museums that received funds in "almost 30
years." The draft letter said that the department "has not
conducted on-site inspections of any of these institutions to see
how funds are being used."

 Schuyler G. Chapin, the commissioner of the department, vehemently
denied that he had told anyone from the commission that his agency
did not monitor the museums that receive city financing. "I have
never said any such thing in my life," said Mr. Chapin, who has an
ex officio part on the commission. "We always look through every
penny."

 The budget for cultural institutions is presented each year by the
mayor, who in the past few years has attempted to cut it, and then
is approved by the City Council, which has ultimately restored the
funds. But how much each institution receives is decided by the
mayor's office, with recommendations from the Department of
Cultural Affairs, which in turn is responsible for allocating the
money.

 The chances of any major shifts in the way the money is spent
before Mayor Giuliani leaves office, should these recommendations
reach his desk and be approved, are fairly slim. He could attempt
to move the money around during the budget modification process in
November, but taking money away from major art museums and
funneling it to other groups has no precedent that Staci Emanuel,
the assistant director in the finance division of the City Council,
could recall.

 As for content and adopting new guidelines, Mr. Chapin said he did
not know how the national association's standards could be
codified. But, he said: "I would presume there is nothing in there
that would violate the process we have. Generally speaking, it is a
good organization."

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/03/nyregion/03DECE.html?ex=997875373&ei=1&en=835aa33d32810460

/-----------------------------------------------------------------\


Visit NYTimes.com for complete access to the
most authoritative news coverage on the Web,
updated throughout the day.

Become a member today! It's free!

http://www.nytimes.com?eta


\-----------------------------------------------------------------/

HOW TO ADVERTISE
---------------------------------
For information on advertising in e-mail newsletters
or other creative advertising opportunities with The
New York Times on the Web, please contact Alyson
Racer at [log in to unmask] or visit our online media
kit at http://www.nytimes.com/adinfo

For general information about NYTimes.com, write to
[log in to unmask]

Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company

=========================================================
Important Subscriber Information:

The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes).

If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).