I would like to thank Candace for being brave enough to bring this
problem to our large and potentially critical forum. I have repeatedly
voiced concerns here in our own small museum that exhibits are developed
by individuals and community groups with very little oversight from the
museum. (A recent exhibit had something in it that I felt risked
lawsuits if someone had used the information 'published' on the museum
walls for identity theft or PR problems from irate persons not
appreciating having personal information posted on museum walls for the
public to see. My concern about publishing personal information about
living persons was ignored in the belief that the genealogist who
installed it was an 'expert' so it must be o.k.)

Thus, I'm thrilled to have concrete examples to take to the other Board
members, so they might see that I'm not just being critical of how
things have 'always been done and it works fine.' Maybe this will help
our museum gain understanding about the need to develop guidelines and
policy to guide exhibit development and curation, and to have some kind
of written agreements.

Those of you who are willing to stick your necks out in talking about a
problem do a great service to the rest of us in helping us and our
institutions avoid similar problems.

Many thanks,
Lucy Sperlin



Candace Perry wrote:
>
> Mr. Burlakoff...
> Hind sight is 20-20 for me...we are a small history museum in a rural area,
> and though is is no excuse, I was frankly unprepared for this possibility.
> We don't "contract" for exhibits at this point, although we do have written
> agreements, which I will step up in the future. Perhaps that's naive of me,
> and as I mentioned, we will not be pulling the artwork (which I would not
> have done anyway...I would have discussed it with the artist).  I will,
> however, keep the list apprised should something actually occur with the
> situation.  I am still nervous about it.  I don't think my director feels
> there is even a "mess"...it is the potential for something to occur that
> worried me.
> Given the mistakes I made in this situation, which you aptly pointed out, I
> will certainly take measures in the future to approach such situations in
> the future. We're not all the Metropolitan or the Smithsonian; many of us
> make our way and do the best we can, and learn from our mistakes.
> Candace Perry
>
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