My letter to the AAM on Giuliani's assault on the BMA.

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Date: Wed, 29 Sep 1999 13:58:21 -0400
To: [log in to unmask]
From: "Robert A. Baron" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: AAM on Giuliani tactics

Dear Mr. Hall,

I wish to urge the AAM to issue a strong statement condemning the tactics
being used by Mayor Rudolf Giuliani to control the Brooklyn Museum's
exhibition policy.

There are two issues that are vitally important to the museum community. The
first, of course, is his effort to coerce the Brooklyn museum to change its
exhibit policy by threatening to withhold their funding and to break their
lease.  It is clear that this is an unconstitutional effort to thwart the
first amendment right of free expression. The Brooklyn Museum is taking this
position and is acting on it. They need every expression of support.

The second issue, not one that has aired much in the news, concerns
Giuliani's manipulation of the public understanding of a work of art (the
Africanized Madonna image) by revileing it in such a manner as to cause a
kind of mass hysteria aimed at the work and at the people who wish to
support the right to have it shown. His methods are reminiscent of those
employed by Joseph McCarthy. Within our codes affording artists moral rights
there is a safeguard against unwarranted defamation of a work. In this Mr.
Giuliani is guilty of the worst demagogary and represents a worst-case
example of the closed-mindedness and intolerance that museums fight so hard
to abolish.

In short, his tactics of instilling fear of his vindictive whimsy into those
who depend upon public funds, is a scenario that promises a dangerous future
for the cultural community. A concerted effort by the most influential
instituions and their representatives can serve to stem these actions and
prove that people everywhere won't allow politicians to employ these methods.

(The above statement represents my private views and do not necessarily
represent the institutions and committees for which I serve.)

Robert Baron
Museum Computer Consultant
chair, CAA Committee on Intellectual Property.
-----end of forwarded message-----
===========================
Robert A. Baron
mailto:[log in to unmask]
http://www.pipeline.com/~rabaron/

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