Although I don't have enough information to make an intelligent definitive
statement, it does appear that the Bush nominations are overloaded with
conservatives.  As a confirmed fence-sitter, I wouldn't advocate that the
pool should be exclusively "liberal" either--I'd prefer to see diversity of
opinion, or agendas if you prefer, to stimulate dialogue--as long as all the
members at least have a solid relevant background--qualifications--to justify
their inclusion.

Having said that, I want to use it to segue into a different topic, which is
really just a rumination on my part, and I'd be interested in any related
information or opinions.  It occurs to me that one reason some museums find
themselves in trouble lately is that they are being led by people who have
little understanding of the issues, ethics, and traditions of their
institutions and the field in general.  While a "business" background or
mentality should not disqualify anyone from a leadership position in a
museum--indeed, museums need some hard-nosed bean-counters to help keep their
organizations afloat--I should think that the absence of background in the
field of non-profit cultural institutions and a lack of sympathy with their
aspirations and assumptions--should be a disqualifying factor.  I have in
mind a particular institution, which shall remain nameless--but I know there
are others--whose chief is taking a lot of heat for his hard-nosed "business"
decisions.  Yet perhaps he is just a hatchet man for a board filled with
clueless, unqualified members.

If it is dangerous for the National Council on the Humanities to have members
who are unsympathetic to the arts and humanities by virtue of their political
persuasions and/or lack of understanding of the fields they could influence,
how much more dangerous is it for museums to have boards whose members are
not knowledgeable about museum traditions and who think that bottom-line
considerations and attendance figures are the only measures of success?  The
problems facing museums are enormously complex, but trustees and boards whose
members are without backgrounds in the fields they in effect supervise, and
who hire directors to do their bidding, have the power to subtly--and not so
subtly--skew the direction of their institutions away from their original
mandates.

Comments?

David Haberstich

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