museummuseumVIEWSVIEWS A quarterly newsletter for New Year 2005 small and mid-sized art museums facts is imperative—a responsibility to the stantial part of its activities consist of 1) community, to your own institution, and to attempts to influence legislation by propagan- MUSEUMS AND cultural institutions in general. da or otherwise, and/or 2) participation or intervention in any political campaign on POLITICAL Getting Information behalf of or in opposition to any candidate for ADVOCACY Find out about scheduled meetings of public office.” Court cases have suggested that government officials from the League of the word “substantial” should be defined thus: [The following advice is contained in a Women Voters, the American Association of less than 5% of an organization’s time and "Technical Insert" for the Illinois Heritage Museums, or the government scheduling effort spent on lobbying is not to be consid- Association publication. The insert was office itself. ered substantial; 16% to 19% is substantial. written by Patricia L. Miller, executive Two types of lobbying come into director of the association.] Disseminating question: Information 1) Grassroots lob- Organizations—museums and other bying: The attempt cultural organizations—which boast a Establish personal to influence legisla- 501(c)(3) status in the spectrum of profit/non- contact with local offi- tion through profit don’t have to be dull, noncommittal, cials: put them on your appeals to the gen- gray. They can be advocates, advancing their mailing list; invite them eral public. That is, own interests as well as that of the public, tak- to the museum’s activi- sending a letter, for ing stands, being proactive—but they must do ties; let them know example, to mem- it carefully. about the educational bership asking There are two requisites for a politically and economic benefits them to influence active organization: it must gather information, the museum contributes non-members to and it must disseminate it. to the community. take action for or Do not imagine that to ignore government Let your con- against pending is to escape the thousands of ordinances that gresspersons and sena- legislation. Not affect your non-profit organization. You need tors as well as your local good. to know what they are, and then, act. Some and state representatives 2) Direct museums are impacted by local zoning and know about your con- lobbying: building codes, some by regulations on fund- cerns. Send a personal Communicating raising activities, others on laws regarding letter as opposed to a directly with legis- handicap access, unrelated business income form letter. Contact lators, employees tax, or repatriation of Native American relevant committees of legislators, or artifacts; some may be eligible for several vari- such as the House Ways other government eties of tax exemption, bulk mailing and Means, Interior officials. The privileges, tax deductions for contributions, Appropriation, or organization can even financial support. Committee on Indian Affairs. write directly, or encourage its members to Knowledge of what the laws are and of write directly. However, records of these activ- what perks are available must precede the dis- Lobbying ities and the amount of time spent are essen- semination of information from your institu- The tax-exempt status of a museum is not tial: keep photocopies of letters and the tion to government officials, whose sources of jeopardized by lobbying if it is done with amount of time spent writing them. information about your activities may be limit- attention to certain cautions. According to A ed to the facts that you supply. They cannot Layman’s Guide to Lobbying without Losing Non-lobbying Lobbying know how to proceed in their decision making Your Tax-Exempt Status,” A 501(c)(3) organi- 1) Send direct mailings to members to inform without facts from the field. Supplying these zation will lose its tax-exempt status if a sub- them of pending legislation that affects the organization. 2) Invite local legislators to social functions, FROM THE WEB TO THE STREET: STICKER ART especially if public funding is involved. Media should be invited by skateboarders looking for the means to cover the event. Graffiti–now aerosol art—has edged its to enhance their equipment way onto the art scene (see article “Can 3) Send newspaper articles about with stickers. Now stickers the organization to legislators. Walls Alone Constitute a can be seen pasted anywhere Museum?” in the Fall 4) Use the building as a venue from a shirtfront to a lamp- for public debate on important 2004 issue of post, a mailbox, a street museumVIEWS). Now a issues; include all sides of sign, in the subway (or the debate. new phenomenon—sticker underground), at the airport art—emerges along the 5) Testify before legislative bodies or the train station—anywhere. when requested to do so. edges of our conscious- Due to the ubiquitous internet ness. It comes from the and the speed of e-mail, sticker Web: small designs, graph- art can go from country to Top left: H.O. Hoffman,“Cheers! An Art Deco New Year,” drawing ics, Warhol-style por- country in a matter of seconds, from the New Yorker magazine, 1920. traits, and icons and minutes later appear on Center: Bronzino, Portrait of Cosimo I de’Medici as Orpheus, can be down- c. 1538-’40. Oil on panel. In “Pontormo, Bronzino, and the the streets of cities oceans and Medici,” Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA loaded in color continents apart. or B&W. It was Left: Think, Peace, and Searching. Stickers. Courtesy Wooster “It works particularly well in walk- Collective Gallery, New York City made visible first ing cities,” says Alice continued on page 4 DIRECTORS’ CORNER In a letter to museum friends urging them prices have risen putting across the university, encour- to renew their membership, Fiona M. great objects out of reach aging them to incorporate Dejardin, interim director of the Yager of all but a very few muse- teaching from original works Museum at Hartwick College in Oneonta, ums. This situation does, of art in their classroom work New York wrote: however, have a positive and guiding them in tech- side. Museums are paying niques for doing so. …The Yager Museum’s primary objective is to more attention to the treas- The museum’s commit- help people learn about or be connected to their ures already in their col- ment to enhancing the univer- heritage: their past, their present, and their lections…. Over the past sity’s core mission of teach- future. A year ago, I was asked, “Why do muse- several months our cura- ing and research has strongly ums matter?” At that time I gave an impas- tors have been spending a influenced the choices we sioned response about the importance of our good deal of time in our have made as we prepare to museum and its collection, and I proudly store rooms studying expand our facility. The addi- emphasized that we were a teaching museum on works of art that for one tion of an auditorium, two a college campus full of those who wish to reason or another have classrooms and two seminar learn, and those who are willing to assist in the been neglected or over- rooms in which works of art learning process. I spoke of our stunning collec- looked. The result is that can be studied in the original tions of Native American baskets, pots, and they have rediscovered are perhaps the most visible local history. I mentioned our small but fine art some wonderful things that signs of this commitment, collection, and I boasted about our strong will soon find their way while all the gallery spaces— changing exhibition schedule that brings to the into the galleries…. [In present and future—support community challenging and unique ways of see- many instances,] reevaluation began with a good this academic purpose…. We are now seeking ing and knowing the world. What I didn’t cleaning by our conservator…. Once scholars to provide a physical home to a vital academic address was the heart of the matter: Why do can see what a painting really looks like they program, the Museum Studies Program (MSP), museums matter?... Perhaps the answer lies…in can begin the process of identifying the artist in a structured relationship that will help to one [particular] exhibit: “Friends, One who created the work and assess its ensure teaching use of our collections and allow Day…One Wrong Turn.” This moving exhibit significance. our talented professional staff to more fully explored the last hours of four young college Discoveries [in basements and store rooms] engage with faculty colleagues and students. students who died when they were passengers in are a wonderful reminder both of the skill and …From the 1960’s to the early 1990’s, a car driven by a drunken driver…. The impact knowledge of the museum’s staff…. Michigan was home to one of the nation’s most of the message went way beyond the local com- influential museum studies programs, then munity. And the message was important, James Christen Steward, director of known as the Museum Practice Program (MPP). reminding us of the fragility of things, of hopes the Museum of Art at the University of The program began from the premise of broad- and possibilities, what it means to be human. It Michigan wrote of the museum’s academ- based interdisciplinary humanities. Over time, created an opportunity for people to remember, ic commitment in the member magazine the program evolved into one with more applied to speak, and to move forward. By melding Insight: components…. [A faculty working group, gath- ideas, facts, memory, and experience, an exhib- ered to explore ways in which a museum’s con- it—a museum—matters because it connects the One of the Museum of Art’s most impor- centration might be redeployed, recommended past to the future.