The Deaccessioning Debate in Museums
August 1, 2018 | In the PressFrom Hyperallergic (https://hyperallergic.com/453416/the-deaccessioning-debate-in-museums/ (opens in a new window))
Collections, the very heart of the work of museums, have long been one of the major issues the American museum field has grappled with. It was no different in the 19th century as American museums first built their collections. Nor was it in 1942, when Theodore Low published The Museum as a Social Instrument (opens in a new window), in which he castigated museums for focusing on collections instead of an educational mission.
Deaccessioning — the permanent removal of objects and/or art from a museum’s collection — has been at the forefront of many discussions of museums of late. Some institutions, such as the Baltimore Museum of Art (opens in a new window), are selling works and using those funds to improve the diversity of artists in their collection (opens in a new window). Others, like the Berkshire Museum (opens in a new window), will use the proceeds from the sale of 40 art works to carry out museum operations, including a plan to shift the museum’s focus away from art (opens in a new window).
These decisions run counter to the ethical standards of the museum profession, most notably those articulated by the American Alliance of Museums (opens in a new window) (AAM). Their code of ethics statement notes: (opens in a new window) “Proceeds from the sale of nonliving collections are to be used consistent with the established standards of the museum’s discipline, but in no event shall they be used for anything other than acquisition or direct care of collections.” For this reason, both AAM and the Association of Art Museum Directors (opens in a new window) have censured the Berkshire Museum (opens in a new window).
The ethical precept serves an important function in maintaining the public’s trust in museums (which is remarkably high (opens in a new window)). Cinnamon Catlin-Legutko writes in Museum Administration 2.0 (opens in a new window). “If proceeds are used in a different manner, the collection appears as a cash reserve to be used anytime it is needed.” This opens up the possibility for an institution to sell collections to cover a multitude of financial sins. Because of this concern, standard museum practice says collections should not be capitalized on a museum’s balance sheet, and thus the restrictions on deaccessioning were put in place.
Yet despite these ideals, individual museums continue to struggle for financial sustainability. Some are choosing what has long been considered verboten: to attempt to save the entirety of the institution at the cost of a few pieces of its collection. The Berkshire Museum is not an isolated case, but it’s the one currently in the headlines. Its decision raises an existential question for museums as a whole: should an institution be allowed to die on the vine to preserve collections? (And who or what will preserve them in the absence of the institutional support?)
“Do museums exist to protect and preserve collections for an unknowable future, or are they here to serve their communities here and now?” Ruth Taylor of the Newport Historical Society (opens in a new window) asked in an email conversation with colleagues she shared with me. “It is way too easy to just say ‘both,’ but this controversy highlights the fact that sometimes these ideas will create conflict.”
Mary Baily Wieler of the Museum Trustee Association (opens in a new window) went a step further. “Are we as a field saying that museums are ethically bound to continue ‘business as usual’ and never change their missions?” she asked (opens in a new window). “Should boards’ hands be tied by collections donated decades or even centuries earlier? At what point does the survival of the organization outweigh professional standards?”
Concurrent to these discussions, some have suggested it is time to revisit the stricture about using deaccessioning proceeds only for acquisitions or direct care — particularly because of the ephemeral nature of the latter. In 2014, the National Trust for Historic Preservation published a revised collections management policy (opens in a new window) that established historic structures and landscapes as part of a museum’s collection (and therefore qualified for deaccessioning funds under the direct care principle). In 2016, AAM published a white paper, Direct Care of Collections Ethics, Guidelines and Recommendations (opens in a new window), remanding the definition of “direct care” to the guidelines of the specific discipline the museum represents (art, science, history, children, zoos, and aquaria, etc.).
The restriction for acquisitions or an ill-defined standard of “direct care” itself needs a more careful reexamination. But the larger issue remains: how to ensure that funds related to the sale of collections does not violate public trust and the museum’s responsibility to its community.
This is what Nina Simon identified as the core issue (opens in a new window) in the Berkshire Museum situation and, I believe, the entire deaccessioning debate. Simon wrote, “By deaccessioning the most valuable art in their collection, the Berkshire Museum is transferring valued public assets into private hands.” But rather than censure the museum for its violation of ethical norms — selling art to finance operations, we should, she posited, “create new rules — rules that put the public trust, not objects, first.” In Simon’s view, American museums and nonprofits should strive for an increase in “the number of assets in the public trust.” Her view is wide ranging, but offers one possibility to the deaccessioning dilemma: seeking more public access to the assets held in trust by American nonprofits.
Adrian Ellis has offered what I think is one of the best ways to address the deaccessioning dilemma. His solution, dubbed the Ellis Rule (opens in a new window), is similar to what Donna Ann Harris proposed for historic houses in her terrific book New Solutions for House Museums (opens in a new window): sell the artifacts/artwork with a “collections easement” in place. Ellis posited that “A museum selling a work should ensure that the institution or individual to which or whom the work is sold commit in some binding form to equal or higher conservational standards and equal or higher public access to the work in question” [emphasis in the text]. By doing so, he argues, “The museum should be able to exercise appropriate discretion with respect to how it spends or invests the proceeds of the sale, and specifically, should not be required to use it solely for the acquisition or conservation of art.”
It’s important to remember two things in all of this discussion. First, collections’ deaccessioning and sale is perfectly legitimate museum practice. Second, it is not a decision that should be taken lightly. A key question remains: what to do with the funds. As Taylor, Wieler, Simon, and Ellis have articulated, the primacy of a museum’s role as a public and community entity is sacrosanct.
From the beginning of the republic, the founding ideal of the American museum movement has been about service to the community. Today’s museums must keep this in mind as they make the variety of (very tough) institutional decisions in the name of institutional sustainability.