“The tumult at the Whitney Museum of American Art sent a lightning bolt through the entire museum world,” write Robin Pogrebin, Elizabeth A. Harris, and Graham Bowley in Thursday’s (10/3) New York Times about protests concerning a Whitney board member whose company sells controversial weapons. “If board members can be forced out because of what they do for a living, what does that mean for cultural institutions that depend on their generosity to survive?… In the absence of significant public support, some museums rely on board members for upward of one-fifth of their annual budgets…. An emboldened activist movement is holding a mirror up to this bargain, loudly questioning whether the greater good is served, even if not everyone agrees on who and what qualifies as ‘good.’… Pressure is building on other cultural institutions as well, with demands they become more representative of the communities they serve. In New York, Mayor Bill de Blasio has made city grants conditional on boards’ increasing their diversity.” In the article, Ford Foundation President Darren Walker urges “museum directors to get ahead of the issue by re-evaluating the criteria they use to select trustees in a manner consistent with their missions.”
Posted October 7, 2019
