Timothy Rub, director, Philadelphia Museum of Art and president, AAMD
I’ve obtained a copy of the letter sent to the members of the Association of Art Museum Directors by its president, Timothy Rub, director of the Philadelphia Museum, shortly before the public announcement today of AAMD’s sanctions against Randolph College’s Maier Museum. (All of this is going on while I’m preparing to fly home from a workation, during which I wasn’t planning to blog.)
In his letter, Rub states that AAMD’s trustees voted unanimously to impose the sanctions at their Mar. 4 meeting in New York.
He added these instructions for members:
AAMD now asks you to direct your staff to review any loan requests or exhibition partnerships currently being considered with the Maier Museum and take the responsibility to act in accordance with our sanction. While AAMD will not be overseeing your actions in this regard, members should expect that the public and members of the media may note any partnerships associated with loan of works of art or sharing of exhibitions.
Although the leadership of Randolph College has advanced an argument [my link, not his] that the Maier Museum is not an art museum, it remains an organization with a permanent collection and an ambition to organize public exhibitions with loans and partnerships with art museums. We must therefore consider it a museum partner and act accordingly.