Brandeis University's recent decision to close its Rose Art Museum and auction off all of its artwork has sparked disappointment and anger in the school community.
The Waltham, Mass. university's Board of Trustees unanimously voted Jan. 26 to shut down the museum and sell its art collection of over 6,000 works in order to deal with the anticipated effects of the current financial crisis.
According to a press release from Brandeis, the Rose, founded in 1961, will be closed this summer and then become a "fine arts teaching center with studio space and an exhibition gallery."
Over the past seven months, Brandeis' endowment has lost 25 percent of its value, according to The Justice, the university's student newspaper. Combined with other administrative measures, the proceeds from auctioning off the art works are intended to help the university make ends meet in coming years.
But this decision has been met with vehement opposition and criticism from students, the museum staff and art lovers across the country.
In an effort to save the Rose, Brandeis students organized a sit-in last week to protest the decision. They also wrote letters to administrators, put up posters in front of the museum and held an art exhibition, "Comeseeart," at the student center to raise awareness about the decision.
The exhibition was intended to send a message to Brandeis' president and trustees that students disapprove of their "treating their art collection as a commodity," said Brandeis senior Eliana Dotan, who helped organize the exhibition.
"Nobody - the students, the museum, the faculty - knew (about the decision) except for the Board of Trustees and the president," Dotan said. "The entire student community is outraged."
Dotan said the museum is used frequently by the university's art and art history departments.
"It's like a lab for us," she said, adding that the backlash against the decision is not just about selling off a university asset, but also about "what this means and how this administration values art within a university setting."
"Both the staff and the board of the museum were completely shocked," said a museum official who asked to remain anonymous. "We only learned of the decision a couple of hours before it went to the press."
The museum attracts between 13,000 and 15,000 visitors annually. The Rose also loans art work to museums across the country.
"The people who are buying art are not necessarily institutions," the official said. "The art is being kept very carefully for the students and for the public here in this museum. However, it might be sold to individuals and that will mean a great loss to future generations."
The value of its art collection, according to an insurance estimate done three years ago, was $350 million, the official said. But art prices have gone down, he said, so the current expected value may be less.
The museum has been receiving angry calls and e-mails from its financial donors, the official said. "Some of them were furious. They even yelled at us," he said.
Brandeis' decision is unprecedented, said David Robertson, president of the Association of College and University Museums and Galleries. Colleges and universities historically have sold individual works when faced with economic difficulties, he said, but not entire collections.
The ACUMG sent letters protesting the decision to the Board of Trustees, the president of Brandeis and the Attorney General of Massachusetts, who has to sign off on the sale.
"Most responses from member colleges and universities around the country are dismayed and angry," Robertson said. "Dismayed because Brandeis is closing off its museum and selling all its artworks and angry at the lack of process by which the decision was made, with no consultation from the University or the Board of Trustees."
