Old Auntie Corcoran has been talking crazy for so long, nobody knows what she’s up to. But the latest news — that after decades of trying to find herself she wants to sell the family estate and move to a McMansion — is beyond bewildering. It suggests the need for an intervention.
In interviews Tuesday, museum insiders stipulated to many of the problems faced by the 143-year-old gallery and art school, including what could be a very expensive bill to update its 1897 Beaux-Arts building on 17th Street and New York Avenue NW. They acknowledged years of erratic leadership and a board of directors that has flailed about from crisis to crisis. The cumulative impact of becoming embroiled in the culture wars (a 1989 exhibition of photographs by Robert Mapplethorpe was canceled after a political firestorm erupted), of having pursued and then abandoned plans to build a major addition by Frank Gehry, and of having lost at least two recent directors under less-than-happy circumstances has been crippling. These things don’t just demoralize staff, they create the toxic sense of a rudderless institution, which makes deep-pocketed supporters “run for the hills,” in the words of one observer.
(Bill O'Leary/WASHINGTON POST) - The Corcoran Gallery hosted a world-traveling exhibition of protest art, “Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here,” last year.
But even with all that accumulated negative history, there is a collective sense that something about the current state of affairs simply doesn’t compute. Are things really so bad that the institution has no choice but to leave the center of Washington, sell off a building that is both a prize and a symbol of its collection, dilute its identity and focus on its art school? This is at best amputation, and very likely euthanasia, except euthanasia is supposed to be painless, while moving the Corcoran is likely to lead to a slow, excruciating demise.
The Corcoran is a major museum with a wonderfully rich collection, but it has grown distressingly remote from the larger museum community. Although the Corcoran belongs to the American Association of Museums, its director, Fred Bollerer, doesn’t belong to the Association of Art Museum directors. That’s a small thing, but emblematic of leadership that may be so focused on numbers that it has cut itself off from the best thinking available to an institution in trouble.
Largely absent from Monday’s announcement was any meaningful discussion of the greater role the Corcoran plays in Washington life, its roots and history, and the way its collection has been (and could again be) a treasured community resource. There is the impression that the current leadership thinks the Corcoran brand will simply follow, no matter where they move, and that the loss of cachet and the damage to its reputation can be amortized over a few years.
The Corcoran public relations office was swamped Tuesday, and top Corcoran leaders weren’t available for interviews. So much of what is puzzling about the news remains puzzling. How on earth did the institution spend $600,000 on consultant fees? Why, when many museums show only a fraction of their collections, did museum leaders say the fact that they can exhibit only 3 percent of the collection was a factor in their decision? Still confusing are the details of how a $35 million to $40 million estimate on necessary improvements given to The Washington Post in 2005 ballooned to $130 million in 2012. Why, if the institution wants space to expand its art school, did it parcel off its best hope of growth, an empty plot on New York Avenue, for an office building, without securing some floor space for the school?
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