The "Museum as Lightening Rod" may be a suitable topic, but as applied to
the Brooklyn Museum the fit is not quite perfect.  In Brooklyn's case, the
Mayor was laying in wait for the first opportunity to ambush such an
exhibit. Indeed, it is even possible that he planned this from the moment
City Hall knew the exhibit was coming. For Giuliani, the motive was to
transform himself into a conservative culture hero.

On second thought, perhaps "Lightening Rod" is a good metaphor after all.
Remember it is not the Lightening Rod that attracts the lightening, it is
the lightening that seeks out the Rod.

Robert Baron
[log in to unmask]

At 06:18 PM 11/3/99 -0500, Albert Sperath wrote:

>I am about to propose to our joint Ky. Assoc. of Museums and Tn. Assoc. of
>Museums annual conference (Mar. 22-24, 00) to organize a committee a
>session dealing with just that issue.
>
> "The Museum as Lightning Rod; Exhibitions/issues that bring attention to
>you, whether or not you want it."
>
>At my gallery it was sexually explicit art by a student and we had to jump
>through some very small hoops. I hope to find other panelists who have had
>positive experiences to hear what they have to say. It is important that
>everyone from the maintenance people at the museum to the sunday visitor be
>made aware that there may be some offensive material in the show. That
>creates a Catch 22. You have given them fair warning but you also bring
>attention that such stuff is on exhibit thus piquing their interest. Yours
>sounds like fairly tame stuff compared with ours and we weathered the storm
>(so far). Try not to get defensive, use a explanatory approach. If anymore
>ideas come up at the panel, if it is accepted, I will try to let you know.
>
>Albert Sperath, Univ. Art Galleries
>
>>
>>I'm currently working on an exhibition titled Confrontational Clay: The
>>Artist as Social Critic that will be traveling for the next two years to a
>>variety of museums around the country (the tour begins this January).
>>Etc. Etc.
>>Sincerely,
>>
>>Mike
>>. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
>>Mike Willis ([log in to unmask])
>>Curator of Education
>>ExhibitsUSA
>>1-800-473-3872 x214
>
>=========================================================
>Important Subscriber Information:
>
>The Museum-L FAQ file is located at
>http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ museum-l.html. You may obtain
>detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line
>e-mail message to [log in to unmask] The body of the message
>should read "help" (without the quotes).
>
>If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to
>[log in to unmask] The body of the message should read "Signoff
>Museum-L" (without the quotes).

===========================
Robert A. Baron
mailto:[log in to unmask]
http://www.pipeline.com/~rabaron/

=========================================================
Important Subscriber Information:

The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ museum-l.html. You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes).

If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to
[log in to unmask] The body of the message should read "Signoff
Museum-L" (without the quotes).