Please join us on Sunday, July 17 at 10 AM PT for a discussion with the author.

Selection

I want museums to reflect our society’s democratic vision, however imperfect. Nizan Shaked’s Museums and Wealth reveals how all too often public art museums create private economic gains for a select few through philanthropic relationships and curatorial maneuvers. The public mission of museums is at odds with the governance structure of boards, which aim to secure investments under the guise of charity. This is done by exploiting the ambiguous public/private nature of the modern museum, allegedly belonging to the many while “stewarded” by only the few.

As an artist and a nonprofit director, I have long been concerned with my own complicity and agency within this model of structural dependency. Can we imagine different ways of art display without legitimating a speculative circuit that does not benefit us? How might we demystify the opaque governance of our museums? How can we craft a different future in the arts that we want? It is these concerns that make me invested in community as a question.

– Hailey Loman