Thanks David!
This is a big issue that is rarely addressed, and perhaps we are afraid to,
why these inexperienced non-professionals are being tapped to run museums.
There have been a lot of retirements and deaths among the leadership
generation in recent years. But why isn't the next wave stepping up to
replace them? Is it a lack of training? Fear of the rabid public? How do we
nurture and grow our own leaders who have that experience to run a museum?
What is the museum world not doing? Is there anything from the corporate
world we can steal, besides their leaders? They obviously know how to do it-
how do we?

Pamela

> -----Original Message-----
> From: David E. Haberstich [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Thursday, March 11, 2004 1:12 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Trickle-down Stickiness
>
> In a message dated 3/10/2004 10:08:52 AM Eastern Standard Time,
> [log in to unmask] writes:
>
> << What has lacked in the discussion thus far is a consideration of the
>  fundamental error that the museum made in contracting for this exhibit-
> not
>  contracting an exhibit based on a review of all materials beforehand. No
>  serious museum just agrees to an exhibit and them tries to "dig itself
> out
>  from a sticky situation." Agreement to what items constitute the exhibit
>  needed to have been negotiated out before an exhibition agreement was
>  signed. This would have raised the issue early on and in a very limited
>  scale. All affected parties could have laid out their needs and concerns
> and
>  in all likelihood a reasonably satisfactory solution could have been
> found.
> >>
>
> The above is certainly good advice.  I'd like to use it as a point of
> departure for a tangent--perhaps a new thread.  Curators often have to
> learn their
> lessons the hard way, and I suspect that many have had comparable
> experiences.
> (Those who get burned and can profit from the experience are probably
> better
> curators in the long run.)  It's the job of museum directors, it seems to
> me,
> to guide inexperienced staff and help them avoid pitfalls.  But this
> assumes
> that senior managers have sufficient training and experience (such as
> curatorial
> experience) to recognize potential pitfalls.  It is my impression that
> many
> museums, including some of the largest and most prestigious, are
> increasingly
> afflicted with directors and trustees from the corporate world who have no
> museum experience and who are creating havoc in their institutions through
> their
> ignorance and headaches for the professional staff.  Lack of sympathy with
> and
> knowledge of museum traditions, ethics, and values at top levels of
> management, combined with the arrogance acquired from climbing corporate
> ladders, and
> the never-ending quest (dare I say lust?) for ever higher attendance
> figures and
> greater earned income help to redefine (and sometimes distort) the work of
> museums.
>
> Candace will probably never make the same mistake again.  Imagine then her
> frustration, after having learned her lessons well in the school of hard
> knocks,
> if some future know-nothing administrator has a whim which forces her into
> a
> similar position against her better judgment.  Excuse my vagueness and
> reluctance to give specific examples, but I'm aware of situations in
> several
> institutions where arrogant administrators who lack museum training have
> forced
> experienced professional staff to implement their bad decisions on major
> exhibitions
> and other programs, resulting not only in bad publicity but actual damage
> to
> their institutions, including but not limited to the demoralizing of the
> staff.  This is a problem which I would love to see an organization like
> the AAM
> address.
>
> It's something to think about, IMHO...
>
> David Haberstich
>
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