Hello Bernadette et al:

        Crude messages left by unsupervised school children are not
indicative of their "museum experience" so much as their
unsupervised mischief.
        What I have already written is that we keep a record of all
comments (relevant and irrelevant to the exhibition), but we
will not leave crude comments on public display.  Do not
pretend that sexually explicit comments irrelevant to art
exhibitions could be interpreted by anyone as other than
crude and offensive.  F***, c*** and s*** and the host of
other four letter words are wholly inappropriate for public
display -- at least in Omaha.  In the Midwestern USA, such
language causes a stir in this environment -- just as the
giant breast with nipple in our painting Tom Wesselman draws
much ire from some parents who would keep the naked body
forever garbed, burn Playboy/Playgirl magazines, and delay
the "bird & bees" talk with their children as long as
possible.
        Maybe these comments are of anthropological interest . . .
but that doesn't solve the short-term issue of what to do
with crude comments in a publicly accessible book.  The
solution: cut those pages out, record the comments, then
dispose of them.  Art museums are under no legal or ethical
obligation to save the actual comment books (or pages) for
posterity, as they do not constitute 'artwork' from the
curatorial/registrarial perspective.  I suppose museums
could donate their comment books to anthropology museums . .
. or the Museum of Sex in New York.  Speaking of which, I
wonder if any researchers have been hired there yet?  <grin>

Sincerely,

Jay Heuman, Visitor & Volunteer Services Coordinator
Joslyn Art Museum, 2200 Dodge Street, Omaha, NE, 68102
342-3300 (telephone)     342-2376 (fax)
http://www.joslyn.org

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