DEB,
My husband recently pointed out an "odd coincidence" concerning corporate
naming. It seems that all of the major sports stadiums in our new town (St.
Louis) bear the names of now-defunked businesses. A few years back, they
re-named the Kiel Center (named for a former mayor), the "Savvis Center". A
"dot.com" paid about 20 million for naming rights only to go bankrupt within
2 years. The football stadium is named the "TWA Dome". No need to explain
TWA. The same can be said for our former town (Houston): Enron Field was
completed in 2000! Again, no need to explain.
I have two thoughts to come out of this observation concerning museums: (1)
I hope the museum directors and boards who negotiate these deals are smart
enough to get the money UP FRONT to avoid situations like Savvis Center
where the stadium bears the name of a sponsor who is no longer paying; and
(2) I hope the museum directors and boards are giving adequate consideration
to the negative publicity a bankruptcy or scandal could cause the museum
which has the company name all over it.
A case in point on the sponsorship issue: last semester I was assigned to
read "Museums for a New Century" and Museums for the New Millennium", both
published by AAM and then write a paper comparing the two documents. The
very first thing I noticed was that New Century, dated from the early
1980's, was "made possible by Phillip Morris". Who, today, would put
Phillip Morris all over their publication?? And yet, I can certainly
remember the importance of the tobacco companies' money in the arts prior to
the 1990's.
Just my two cents' worth.
Lori Allen,
Graduate Student, UMSL
"Well behaved women rarely make history."
- Anonymous
-----Original Message-----
From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On
Behalf Of Deb Fuller
Sent: Saturday, March 02, 2002 5:35 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Corporate donor gripe
Hi all,
I must vent a bit and I know you will sympathise. I get to work today at the
National Air and Space Museum to find that our IMAX theater has been renamed
to
the "Lockheed Martin" IMAX Theater.
This is just ridiculus. It was already named after a pioneer in flight,
Samuel
P. Langley, so I find renaming it after a corporation just insulting. Sure
they
paid the mega$$$ to install new 3-D IMAX cameras, put up a big plaque in
their
honor. But renaming the theater is just too much.
The day is nearing when the SI museums will be renamed after corporate
donors.
Heck, half the galleries are already that way.
Deb - disgruntled at the SI but what else is new :)
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