G. Wayne Clough in his Georgia Tech days
A donor might want programming input—there is always going to be
that element of nuance there. You have to understand
the dangers and the possibilities.
So said G. Wayne Clough, the new secretary of the Smithsonian, in his recent interview with the NY Times‘ Robin Pogrebin.
The only “possibility” that can emerge from allowing patrons to influence museum programs is trouble, as the Smithsonian should well know by now after the many embarrassing controversies that ensued from allowing undue donor meddling. Perhaps it’s Clough’s background in engineering academia (former president, Georgia Tech), where so much of the scholarly focus is dictated by the needs of government and corporate funders of research grants, that makes the new secretary feel that an outside-influenced agenda may also sometimes be appropriate in the museum world.
It IS entirely appropriate for donors to say which museum programs and projects they would like their benefactions to support. But it’s not appropriate for donors to try to dictate what those activities should be or how they should be realized.
Speaking of donors, what are we to make of this week’s election of Patricia Stonesifer, former CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, to the chairmanship of the Smithsonian’s board, effective this January?
According to another Pogrebin article:
Part of Ms. Stonesifer’s mission will be stepping up the Smithsonian’s fund-raising….While Ms. Stonesifer has ample experience in giving away money at the
Gates Foundation, which currently has a $35.9 billion endowment and
more than 600 employees, she has little experience raising it.
Nevertheless she said she felt confident about her ability to pull in
more private support. “I’ve had to learn new things before,” she said,
“and this is one of them.”
Could her relationship with the world’s third richest person have anything to do with her confidence of success in an area in which she lacks substantial experience?
And WHEN is the Smithsonian going to appoint an art historian as new undersecretary for art, replacing Ned Rifkin, who left five months ago? (They do have—in an acting, not permanent, capacity—Richard Kurin, whose expertise is in cultural anthropology, appointed in April to the position of undersecretary for history, art and culture.)