What does Brandeis selling its museum mean for Jewish art?
January 27th, 2009 by Menachem Wecker
As everyone is reporting (e.g. here), Brandeis is selling off the 6k works in its Rose Art Museum (website).
The proposed sale is even more outrageous since Rose site lists some great press for its current Hoffman show, including the Globe calling it “… one of the Boston area’s most ambitious shows on modern art in recent times” (link).
If Brandeis sees art as disposable and unessential to its liberal arts mission, one would imagine that the Department of Fine Arts (site), the History of Art program (site), and the Studio Art Program (site) would be soon to follow. After all, it wouldn’t make much sense to sell your chemistry lab and still have a major in chemistry, would it?
The Times picks up on the question of what ramification this will have for Jewish art. Jonathan Lee, chairman of the museum’s board of overseers, told the paper, “This is one of the artistic and cultural legacies of American Jewry,” but the article leaves it at that.
The article fails to mention though that university president Jehuda Reinharz (bio) is also Jewish, and a professor of Jewish history. I’d love to hear more about the museum’s Jewish holdings, and what ramifications, if any, this would have if the pieces get separated or sold to private collectors. (The past exhibits listing has just one Jewish show, which came from Spertus: The New Authentics: Artists of the Post Jewish Generation [site, review].)
Also, the museum site says its collection is larger than 8,000, but all the news stories say 6,000. Can anyone explain that?