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Forget the Rose, what about the mishegas at the Gardner?
By adamg on Sun, 02/01/2009 - 8:23pm
Former Brandeis grad student Jeff Hayes finds it hard to get upset about the Rose Art Museum when the museum is in a lousy location and the school is in financial trouble. But efforts by Gardner trustees to modify Mrs. Jack's will are another matter, he writes:
OH MY GOD ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME????
Isabella Stewart Gardner built a highly eccentric and deeply individual museum which is in itself a work of art. Her will very specifically said: DON'T SCREW WITH THIS.
There's a good reason for that. The Gardner is an exhasperating, frustrating, thrilling, absolutely uniquely beautiful experience; it's my favorite museum in the whole wide world, and I know many, many others think exactly the same thing. I don't for a minute buy the argument that the museum is in deep trouble, but even if it were, punching holes in it is NOT the way to fix it. ...
Not so fast there, Brandeis alum Martin Lieberman writes:
... The Rose is symbolic of, and part of, the singularity and greatness of Brandeis University, and I don't want to see the museum be sacrificed in such tough times.
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Comments
I think that holes have
I think that holes have already been punched through the will. A high school teacher told me that a condition of the will was that admission would be free and that the museum skirts this requirement by labeling the admissions as "suggested donations."
Regardless, no will such as Gardner's can be observed over a long period without legal work arounds. No document can expect and document all future possibilities.
Never heard that before
Never heard that before about free admission; are you sure it's not an urban legend? Although the Gardner does have the truly awesome policy of allowing all women named Isabella to attend for free.
Museums offering free admission in perpetuity are most often those which received a large measure of state funding. Both the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Natural History in New York City must always offer all visitors free admission, except to special exhibitions - not that they go out of their way to tell you that.
Bigger Deal
The Gardner is pretty special. Despite the size and breadth of the MFA, it's my favorite museum in Boston. It'd be a shame if the original museum turned into the curiosity wing of a corporatized museum experience tower.
As for the Rose... I think most people in Boston read the paper and said, "Huh. Brandeis has an art museum. How about that?"
I'm sure it's a much-beloved campus tradition. But I doubt many people not already associated with Brandeis even knew about it.
Mr. Hayes may be referring
Mr. Hayes may be referring to the Gardner Museum's plans to demolish an important carriage house--which most certainly WAS part of Ms. Gardner's vision for her museum--the building acting as a kind of gate-house carrying one into her "sacred" space. The only term that comes to mind is philistinism when thinking of the type of mind capable of such a desecration of her vision. Anyhow--I would imagine that their idiotic dream of destroying the museum with a metal and glass function hall addition have been grounded by the economic crisis. There is at least one good thing to come out of it.