Candace
You are to be commended for sticking to your guns and prioritizing the
artists vision, while at the same time weighing all the possible
ramifications.  Being prepared for public scrutiny/criticism and questions
is your best tact at this point.
All the better if you have everyone on staff who will face the public, in on
a strategy discussion to design ways to address questions when they come up.
Even large institutions with lots of contract experience deal with
contractual disagreements and public scrutiny of challenging exhibits.
Like Jay Heuman says, the more attention you draw, the more the issue will
get.
Ignore it as best you can, but being well prepared is better than being
nervous.
Best of luck.


Bennett J. Siegel
Chief Preparator/Exhibit Designer
Teaching Artist
Delaware Art Museum
800 S. Madison St.
Wilmington, DE 19801


-----Original Message-----
From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On
Behalf Of Candace Perry
Sent: Wednesday, March 10, 2004 10:35 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Help...sticky situation


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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