http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/180/living/Controversial_restructuring_at_
MFAP.shtml is the URL for the article on the restructuring of the MFA.
According to the article, Malcolm Rogers has indeed eliminated 18 positions,
but he has created 20 new posts at the same time.  The article reflects less
concern with the restructuring than it does with the summary firing of
prestigious curators and senior administrators.  There is one notable oddity
in the restructuring: that Asian art is going to be conflated with African
and Oceanic art, ostensibly to provide a better funding base for the latter.
Very odd decision...Other decisions are a bit less odd, but still thought
provoking, like merging separate departments of American decorative arts,
American painting, and "ancient Americas" into an "art of the Americas"
department.  I would assume each of these sub-departments will have
curators, for it will certainly be difficult to find a curator to handle
pre-contact period South American art and Frank Lloyd Wright furniture.

Essentially, they seem to be merging departments by geography to reflect an
evolving master plan for the museum.  It sounds as though that is how they
will be displaying art in their newly configured museum.  Hardly
groundbreaking or radical.

One question raised and unanswered is to what degree the Museum Board was
involved in the decision making here.  I would assume they were intimately
aware of the plan, or there will be a Museum Director position vacant
shortly.  But one member of  a visiting committee complains about not being
apprised of the changes.

I personally am sympathetic with the changes as they are presented here.  I
don't really understand the idea of tenure as it applies to universities,
and certainly not as it might apply to a museum.  Forcing a senior manager
out after 20 years is business as we now know it, and I can't help but think
that these senior people were consulted about the changes and were
resistant.

I am always fascinated by these "museum in crisis or in flux" stories,
because there is so much that is invisible...But having been on both sides
of this game, the reorganizer and the reorganizee, I am generally more
sympathetic with the former than the latter.


Eric Siegel
Director, Planning &
Program Development
The New York Hall of Science
http://www.nyhallsci.org


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