Last May I posted a blog entitled "The Corcoran Conundrum - Woes of a Great Art Museum." It detailed the sad history of the renowned Corcoran Gallery in Washington D.C. - various management and governance missteps that lead it a point where its very survival was at stake. (You can read the post at the archive section to the left of this page). At that time the Gallery, to survive, was considering a collaboration with the University of Maryland regarding the Corcoran School of Art and Design, and the National Gallery of Art (NGA) for display of art displaced by renovation of the NGA East Building.
On February 19, after months of secrecy, the proverbial "bolt out of the blue" struck with the news that the Gallery had reached an arrangement not with the University of Maryland but rather with the private George Washington University (GWU), and the National Gallery of Art. It is a far more comprehensive scheme than the first. In several weeks the final details will be announced but the outline is as follows:
GWU will absorb the School of Art & Design and be responsible for the Gallery's iconic 17th Street Beaux Arts building, including the millions of dollars needed for repair. The NGA will, after study, if you pardon the expression "cherry pick" what art from the Corcoran's 17,000 piece collection it will display in DC, either at its facility or at the Corcoran itself in what is will ne called a "Legacy Gallery." The NGA will also use space at the Corcoran to expand its program of contemporary art exhibits. What art the NGA doesn't want will be donated to museums around the country.
The Corcoran's collection of American art, photography, and contemporary art is held in high regard.. In this arrangement the collection will be dismantled and dispersed. The Corcoran Gallery of Art will cease to exist as a discrete institution. Not known is what will become of the Gallery and School's staff.
The news of the deal was greeted in the DC press with a sad resignation, tinged with some anger. One writer called it "euthanasia" and The Washington Post's headline announcing the scheme labeled its a "takeover." There were also post mortems on how such an arrangement should have become necessary in the first place - citing for example mismanagement and a board more interested in socially connecting than in collecting art. The sadness focused on the loss of an independent DC cultural institution (the city's largest in private hands) with a history dating back to 1869.
Washington DC has long struggled with its own self identity, to draw distinction from its just being thought of as a "company town." So the dissolution of one of its more prominent homegrown institutions understandably is a source of emotional distress.
The Corcoran had become a sinking ship, burdened by increasingly large annual deficits, shrinking attendance, a crumbly infrastructure and uncertainty as to its course. The GWU/NGA plan then has reason to be viewed as a rescue. A number of life rings will be thrown out to preserve largely what is important - the art and the building. There was likely no alternative but an arrangement of this kind. Without it, there would remain only cockamamie ideas, like the one floated by the Corcoran board in 2012 to sell its building.
Or worse - the example presented in the announcement March 27 that the Delaware Museum of Art intends to sell as many as four artworks, valued at $30 million, to replenish its endowment and repay debt from a facilities expansion. The museum's director said the board decision was a "last resort" to avoid the museum closing its doors. Such a sale for those purposes is counter to the central core of museum ethics and mission - holding collections in trust for the public.
Comparatively the proposed Corcoran deal is the better alternative, or perhaps the lesser of two evils. In both cases over time the governing boards and management lost their bearings. Perhaps it was because they succumbed to the siren song of facility expansion. What ever the reason, the institution suffers, or in the Corcoran's case, dies. Let us hope the DC plan goes through. The solution shows a degree of creativity and there will be some important salvage. But you can't gloss over the fact that it is a sad denouement.
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