Category: Museum Assoc

Save the Art group receives a “Champion of Artists” award from the Massachusetts Artist Leaders Coalition (MALC) at the State House in Boston

The 2018 MALC Champions of Artists Award Winners. Left to R, Ken Green (STA), Adrienne Hawkins (Dance Artist, Master Teacher, Choreographer, Meri Jenkins (Former Cultural Districts Program Manager/Mass Cultural Council, Julie Hennrikus (Founder of Your Ladders, Arts Advocate, Mystery Author), Lou Jones (Photographer) and the Save the Art – Save the Museum group (Art Advocates Protecting the Public Trust at the Berkshire Museum)

12th Annual Artists Under the Dome
Great Hall at the State House
November 14, 2018

SAVE THE ART–SAVE THE MUSEUM (STA) received a “Champion of Artists” award from the Massachusetts Artists Leader’s Coalition (MALC) in recognition of its efforts to stop the sale of the Berkshire Museum’s treasured art collection and increase awareness of the critical issue of protection of the Public Trust.

MALC is a statewide coalition formed to ensure that Massachusetts artists have a voice in key public policy initiatives that impact artists and the creative economy. The award honored STA for “the protection of all artists’ rights with regard to their legacy wishes, from donating work to their designated collecting institutions, to protecting work held in the public trust by art museums. We all owe them great thanks.”

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Sanctions Are Imposed on Berkshire Museum for Sale of Artworks

Colin Moynihan, The New York Times
May 27, 2018

One of the country’s professional museum organizations announced on Friday that its board of trustees had voted to impose sanctions on the Berkshire Museum, which recently sold artworks to support an expansion initiative.

“Selling art to support any need other than to build a museum’s collection fundamentally undermines the critically important relationships between museums, donors and the public. When museums violate the trust of their donors and the public, they diminish the opportunity and responsibility to make great works of art available to the public.”

Association of Art Museum Directors
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AAMD Statement on Sanction of Berkshire Museum and La Salle University Art Museum

AMD Logo

For the Media / Press Releases & Statements
New York, NY
May 25, 2018

The Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD) announced today that its Board of Trustees has voted to impose sanctions on the Berkshire Museum and the La Salle University Art Museum. This follows the decision made by each institution to use the proceeds from recent art sales to support operating budgets or expansion initiatives, a decision that violates one of the core principles of art museums. These actions are in opposition to AAMD’s policy that such funds must be used only to support acquisitions of art.

AAMD has a long-standing policy that restricts the use of funds obtained through deaccessioning to the acquisition of works of art. Selling art to support any need other than to build a museum’s collection fundamentally undermines the critically important relationships between museums, donors and the public. When museums violate the trust of their donors and the public, they diminish the opportunity and responsibility to make great works of art available to the public. This hurts the individual institution and affects the museum field as a whole.

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