The Berkshire Museum
by Mark G. Auerbach
There’s enough drama happening at Pittsfield’s Berkshire Museum to fill every theatre stage in Massachusetts.
The Berkshire Museum, in Pittsfield, MA, in order to fund museum operations and refresh its new mission, boost its endowment, and pay down its expenses, has engaged Sotheby’s to sell off up to forty pieces of art, two by Norman Rockwell, and others by artists like Alexander Calder. The community, from donors to community leaders, to arts administrators, is outraged. The sale begins in November, and a large group of people are protesting loudly.
Two sons of Norman Rockwell have filed suit against the Museum, because they believe the sale of the art violates the public’s trust and the donor’s wishes: to donate art for the people of Berkshire County. Once the art is sold, it will fall into the hands of collectors or museums elsewhere. Museum professionals and arts activist question whether the Museum’s finances are as dire as stated, and want to see the finances, so they can evaluate and help. They’ve been rebuffed. The Berkshire Museum leadership has refused to meet. The Massachusetts Cultural Council put a hold on a $22,000 grant pending an inquiry by the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office. The Smithsonian has cut ties with the Museum. Van Shields, mastermind of the art sale, is now on medical leave through year’s end, and is not available for comment.
The Berkshire Museum’s plan is ambitious. https://berkshiremuseum.org/
And many people are willing to advise them on how to proceed, without selling off the art. Opponents say they’re not being listened to.
The Berkshire Museum, located in downtown Pittsfield between The Colonial Theatre, owned by Berkshire Theatre Group, and Barrington Stage, has been the center of Pittsfield’s cultural life since 1903, when the museum of art, natural history, science, and ancient civilization, was founded by Zenas Crane. The third-generation owner of Crane and Company, who made paper for the U.S. Treasury, envisioned a cultural center similar to that of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Smithsonian for the people of Pittsfield and Berkshire County.
Like many other museums nationwide and other cultural institutions in Western Massachusetts, major corporate support and the donor base is diminishing. Pittsfield’s major corporation, General Electric, downsized in 1987, leaving a gap in funding. The donor base of philanthropists aged out of giving. Berkshire Museum hired Van Shields, a museum administrator, in 2011 to move the museum in a more stable direction. Shields and his board and staff developed a new plan to boost the future of the museum. They involved the community in focus groups, but they weren’t transparent as to how the plan might be paid for, through de-accession of the museum’s art.
The Museum’s President of the Board of Trustees, Elizabeth McGraw, posted a statement summarizing the Board’s stance.https://berkshiremuseum.org/
Meanwhile activists are compiling news stories and setting up actions through several venues. Save the Art – Save the Museumis a citizens’ group dedicated to serving and preserving the integrity of the Berkshire Museum and its collections. It began as a grassroots effort on social media shortly after the Museum announced plans for the sale in July. Members now meet regularly to organize opposition to the deaccession as well as to educate the public on viable alternatives to it.
Save the Art – Save the Museum will hold a public event on Saturday, Oct. 28, from 11 AM-1PM on the sidewalk outside the Berkshire Museum on South Street in Pittsfield, to “pause” the sale.
Leslie Ferrin, co-founder of Pinch Pottery in Northampton, and Director of Ferrin Contemporary on the MASS MoCA campus in North Adams, has been a leader in the arts community for decades. Ferrin says, “ If there is a pause on the sale, the Museum board would have time to explore the many viable options available to the Berkshire Museum allowing them to keep the art and build a collection that connects the best of the past to the present day art, artists and regional collections. We have sought out dialogue with the trustees since the sale was announced. We hope they accept the invitation of this public letter and join us in finding an alternative solution to selling the art and destroying the public trust.”
For information on the Berkshire Museum. https://berkshiremuseum.org/
For information on the FoleyHoag lawsuit: FoleyHoag Announcement of law suit: http://www.foleyhoag.com/news-
For information on Save The Art–Save The Museum: www.artberkshires.org or visit the Facebook Page. SAVE THE ART at the Berkshire Museum of Natural History AND Art.
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Mark G. Auerbach studied theatre at American University and the Yale School of Drama. He’s worked for arts organizations and reported on theatre for newspapers and radio. Mark produces and hosts ArtsBeat Radio on 89.5fm/WSKB.
