Committee Sees a Lack Of Money, Leadership at 8 Smithsonian Museums

The Smithsonian Institution's eight art museums and galleries are perpetually underfunded, have uneven collections and leadership, and "have seldom lived up to their names" as national museums, according to a report by a committee of outside museum directors.

The conclusions, which will be released today, recommend reorganizing the Smithsonian's arts institutions to eliminate duplication, increase funding and foster more collaboration among them. In particular, the report calls for the "administrative consolidation" of the National Portrait Gallery and the Smithsonian American Art Museum, which share a newly renovated building across from Verizon Center in downtown Washington.

After studying each of the institutions during the past 18 months, the committee concluded that the Smithsonian's art collections "are far from representing the world's artistic heritage. . . . Their potential for collaborative ventures has scarcely been tapped."

Details of the report were first published in yesterday's edition of the Art Newspaper.

The committee, composed of directors from such museums as the Getty in Los Angeles and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, assessed eight museums and galleries and three arts organizations and venues that are administered by the Smithsonian. It was established by Ned Rifkin, the Smithsonian's undersecretary for art, to provide "a checkup" on the institution, Rifkin said yesterday. He said it contained "a lot of very positive and supportive and constructive comments and some well-placed criticisms that are also instructive."

The Smithsonian institutions studied were the Sackler Gallery, the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, the Freer Gallery, the Hirshhorn Museum, the National Museum of African Art, the National Portrait Gallery, the Renwick Gallery and the American Art Museum, plus the Archives of American Art, the Reynolds Center for American Art and the Smithsonian Photography Initiative. All but New York's Cooper-Hewitt Museum are in Washington.

The committee questioned the Cooper-Hewitt's future, given its limited collection and "low" attendance. It also said the Museum of African Art suffers from a "longstanding lack of visionary leadership" that has failed to produce significant exhibitions or publications.

The committee said repairs to the museum buildings "are urgently needed" and warned that leaks in the Freer and Sackler's storage areas threaten their collections. Smithsonian spokeswoman Linda St. Thomas said that the criticism was "outdated." She said any artworks in vulnerable areas are protected by plastic.

Among the committee's recommendations was expanding the role of the Smithsonian's undersecretary of art. Rifkin, the current undersecretary, appointed the committee in 2005.

The members: Glenn Lowry, director, Museum of Modern Art in New York; Michael Shapiro, director, High Museum of Art in Atlanta; John Walsh, director emeritus of the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles; James Wood, president and chief executive of the Getty Trust; Michael Conforti, director, Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Mass.; Vishakha Desai, president and chief executive, Asia Society in New York; and Susana Leval, director emerita, El Museo del Barrio in New York.