Last month Brandeis University announced that it would close its art museum and sell its collection (boston.com). Reacting to the news, Holland Carter had this to say in the New York Times:
These thoughts strike close to home, because this morning I learned that President Hogan is considering whether to close the William Benton Museum of Art and the Connecticut State Museum of Natural History at the University of Connecticut. According to the Hartford Courant, "Hogan estimates that the university would save $1.25 million a year by closing the museums." We could be facing a $35 milliion budget gap next year, and the president argues that we "have to look pretty hard at the things that are not at the center of the academic mission."
Cease and desist is the advice I give university administrators toying with thoughts of closing their campus museums and peddling the art, as Brandeis recently threatened to do. Just stop. Period. Bad way to go.
If it helps, consider your museum and its collection in purely materialistic terms, as a big chunk of capital, slowly and fortuitously accumulated. Once spent, it is irrecoverable. Your university can never be that rich in that way again. Or view the art in your care as something that doesn't belong to you. Like any legacy it belongs to the future.
These thoughts strike close to home, because this morning I learned that President Hogan is considering whether to close the William Benton Museum of Art and the Connecticut State Museum of Natural History at the University of Connecticut. According to the Hartford Courant, "Hogan estimates that the university would save $1.25 million a year by closing the museums." We could be facing a $35 milliion budget gap next year, and the president argues that we "have to look pretty hard at the things that are not at the center of the academic mission."
I'm not well enough informed about the university budget to know whether President Hogan's estimate of $1.25 million a year in savings is accurate, and I can't suggest another way to save $1.25 million,1 but I know that to close the museums would be a tragedy. Maybe the Benton and the Museum of Natural History aren't central to the academic mission the way a department of english or mathematics is, but they have been a vital part of the university's service to the broader community. Their programs bring thousands of visitors to campus, and both are responsible for the care of thousands of precious objects.
Even if the museums' public programs are canceled, someone will have to care for those objects. The Museum of Natural History is the official state repository for archaeological artifacts found in Connecticut (Connecticut General Statutes, Chap. 184a, Sec. 10-383), and the Benton is the state museum of art (Connecticut General Statues, Chap. 185b, Sec. 10a-112g). And what's the use of having these artifacts if they are locked away, inaccessible to scholars and never available for public display?
A university can survive without an art museum. It can survive without a natural history museum. But it could also survive without a basketball team2 or a School of Business. I hope that President Hogan and other senior administrators will think long and hard about the purpose of a university -- about the purpose of a public, land-grant university --, ask themselves whether eliminating the museums is consistent with that purpose, and target the museums for cuts only if they can honestly say that the cuts are necessary for the University of Connecticut to carry out its mission,3 not simply because they appear to be easy targets.
1I have to believe that there is some alternative. Along with the Connecticut Repertory Theater, the Jorgensen Auditorium, and programs in the School of Fine Arts, the Benton and the Museum of Natural History enrich the cultural life of Connecticut in ways of which the University of Connecticut should be proud.
2Blasphemy, I know.
3"[A]s a land and sea grant institution, [the University of Connecticut] is committed to active engagement with the larger community...through the cultural, economic, and health services it can provide to both the state and the nation" (Univerity of Connecticut Academic Plan, emphasis added).
Even if the museums' public programs are canceled, someone will have to care for those objects. The Museum of Natural History is the official state repository for archaeological artifacts found in Connecticut (Connecticut General Statutes, Chap. 184a, Sec. 10-383), and the Benton is the state museum of art (Connecticut General Statues, Chap. 185b, Sec. 10a-112g). And what's the use of having these artifacts if they are locked away, inaccessible to scholars and never available for public display?
A university can survive without an art museum. It can survive without a natural history museum. But it could also survive without a basketball team2 or a School of Business. I hope that President Hogan and other senior administrators will think long and hard about the purpose of a university -- about the purpose of a public, land-grant university --, ask themselves whether eliminating the museums is consistent with that purpose, and target the museums for cuts only if they can honestly say that the cuts are necessary for the University of Connecticut to carry out its mission,3 not simply because they appear to be easy targets.
1I have to believe that there is some alternative. Along with the Connecticut Repertory Theater, the Jorgensen Auditorium, and programs in the School of Fine Arts, the Benton and the Museum of Natural History enrich the cultural life of Connecticut in ways of which the University of Connecticut should be proud.
2Blasphemy, I know.
3"[A]s a land and sea grant institution, [the University of Connecticut] is committed to active engagement with the larger community...through the cultural, economic, and health services it can provide to both the state and the nation" (Univerity of Connecticut Academic Plan, emphasis added).
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