Friends, 
 
I send you the following message from the Association of College and 
University Museums and Galleries listserve. Unfortunately I am unable 
to forward through this Museum-L listserve the AAMD letter in PDF 
format that was attached to the original. 
Karol Lawson 
Lynchburg, VA 
 
Dear Colleagues, 
 
As you have been hearing on this listserve, members of the Board of 
Regents at the University of Iowa have floated the idea of selling 
Jackson Pollock’s painting Mural in order to raise funds needed to 
rebuild the Art Museum and other buildings at the U of I damaged in 
this summer’s floods. To give you a full picture of the situation, 
particularly if you would like to write letters or have this 
information for your own struggles, I am attaching the media log of 
articles, letters and responses to date on the subject, and a letter to 
the Regents from AAMD, strongly protesting the possible sale. In 
addition, the staff at the UIMA are trying to post daily updates on 
their blog, which can be accessed from their website 
(www.uiowa.edu/uima) or directly at uima.blogspot.com. 
 
Let Pam White and her staff know that you support all that they are 
doing to combat this proposed action. They have enough on their plates 
already this summer since they were evacuated from their museum and 
have no clear idea of what will be happening next. 
 
Than
ks for all you do, 
 
Lesley Wright 
 
Lesley Wright 
Director, Faulconer Gallery 
Grinnell College 
Grinnell, Iowa 50112 
641.269.4642 
 
MEDIA UPDATE: JACKSON POLLOCK MURAL 
UIMA Advisory Board 
Wednesday August 13, 2008, Old Capitol Senate Chamber 
 
Summary: On Thursday, August 7, 2008 at an Iowa Board of Regents 
meeting in Cedar Falls, Regent Michael Gartner requested a study that 
would explore the possibility of selling Jackson Pollock’s Mural, a 
celebrated work of Abstract Expressionist painting in the UIMA 
collection, to help pay for the University’s estimated $233 million in 
flood damages. Mural, which was given to the State of Iowa and the 
University of Iowa as a gift from art collector Peggy Guggenheim and 
arrived in Iowa in 1951, is an integral part of the UIMA collection and 
educational mission. There are a number of ethical issues surrounding 
the sale of a work of art for university operations, and UIMA Interim 
Director Pamela White has spoken out strongly against the sale of this 
painting. The story has received much attention locally and nationally. 
Here is a summary of the press coverage: 
 
News articles have appeared in: 
• The Des Moines Register 
• The Gazette 
• The Iowa City Press Citizen 
o “Regents float pricing Pollock for flood relief” 
o “Regents to put value on20UI’s Pollock painting” 
• KCRG-TV9 
• The Chronicle of Higher Education 
o News section 
o Brainstorm blog 
 
  The Boston Globe 
• Modern Art Notes, a prominent national arts blog (listed in order 
from most to least recent) 
o On Gov. Culver’s statement 
o From Iowa newspapers and others on Mural 
o Interview with Jeff Fleming of DMAC 
o Museum world begins to chime in against UI regents 
o Conflict-of-interest? 
o Interview with Pam 
o Weekend roundup 
o Coverage of possible sale 
o UI to assess Pollock options 
• Culture Grrl, another prominent national arts blog 
o Repose? 
o More on Pollock 
o UI’s Pollock: Possible Source of Flood-Recovery Cash? 
• Artinfo.com (national arts website) 
• Corridorbuzz.com (arts and entertainment offshoot of the Corridor 
Business Journal) 
 
UIMA Interim Director Pamela White has given interviews speaking out 
against the sale of the painting to: 
• The Des Moines Register 
• The Gazette 
• The Iowa City Press-Citizen 
• ABC News 
• Little Village Magazine (Iowa City monthly magazine) 
• The Daily Iowan 
• KCRG-TV 9 
• Lee Rosenbaum of the Wall Street Journal and Culture Grrl blog 
• Tyler Green of Modern Art Notes, a prominent national arts blog =0
D
• Corridorbuzz.com 
 
Supportive editorials have appeared in: 
• The Iowa City Press-Citizen 
• The Gazette (link unavailable) 
 
Letters-to-the-editor have appeared in: 
• The Des Moines Register (from Donald Bartlett Doe of Grinnell, IA) 
 
Forthcoming press that20we know of at this time: 
• Guest editorial by Pamela White in the Press-Citizen 
• Story on ABC news by UI Journalism School graduate Kyle Gassiott 
• Editorial in Wall Street Journal 
• Ongoing coverage on Modern Art Notes and Culture Grrl blogs 
• Story in Trusteeship Magazine 
• Story in Daily Iowan 
• Story in Little Village Magazine 
 
Non-media support: 
Many of our friends and colleagues have written letters of support for 
our position against selling the Pollock. Here is just a short list of 
some of our non-media support: 
• Statement of support from Governor Chet Culver (I have yet to find a 
link to the complete statement) 
• Letter from Michael Conforti, President of the Association of Art 
Museum Directors, and William Eiland, Chair of the Professional Issues 
Committee of the Association of Art Museum Directors, to David Miles, 
President of the Board of Regents (see attached PDF) 
• Offer of support from the American Art Museum Curators Association, 
George Shackelford, President 
• Letters 
in the works from organizers of the Getty Leadership 
Institute, including Lesley Wright, Director of the Faulconer Gallery 
at Grinnell College 
• Tom Nixon, an Iowan with strong feelings about the Pollock who is 
living in Minnesota and attending graduate school, has created a 
Facebook group “Save the Jackson Pollock.” Here’s a link to Tom’s blog 
p 
ost on the Pollock, and here’s a link to the Facebook group 
 
In addition, we have heard personally from many people regarding their 
personal connection to Mural and vehement opposition to a sale, and 
numerous former students have spoken out online (via the UIMA blog and 
others) regarding their very strong feelings about the importance of 
the painting to their lives and education. We would encourage all of 
you who have not written formal letters to consider doing so. 
 
Negative: 
While nearly all of the media attention to this issue has supported our 
position that we should not sell the Pollock, there are some on the 
other side: 
• Art Cullen, Editor of The Storm Lake Times, wrote an editorial on 
Saturday, August 2 advocating the sale of the painting. (Online article 
unavailable.) He writes: 
 “Sell that painting and we can rebuild the entire, flood-devastated 
fine-arts campus in Iowa City without asking the public for a dime. 
There would be money left over to buy works of renowned Iowa=2
0artists 
such as Grant Wood, who actually attended the University of Iowa 
(unlike Pollock, who has no connection whatsoever to the Tall Corn 
State), or unrecognized Hawkeye artists.” 
• Condé Nast Portfolio “Market Movers,” a blog by Felix Salmon. Salmon 
advocates selling the Pollock to another museum. Just a taste of some 
of the infuriating things he says: “Some paintings belong not to ‘the 
people of Iowa’ so much as to the people of the world, and belong in a 
world-class collection. Which, frankly, the University of Iowa Museum 
of Art isn’t.” 
 

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