Rose Art Museum: A letter from Brandeis president
January 26, 2009
Dear Friends,
The global financial crisis and deepening national economic recession require Brandeis to formulate and execute decisive plans that will position the university to emerge stronger for the benefit of our students. To this end, our response to the crisis is to focus and sustain our core academic mission. I am writing to tell you that the Board of Trustees met today and voted to close the Rose Art Museum. The decision was difficult and was reached after a painstaking assessment of the university's need to mobilize for the future and initiate a strategy to replenish our financial assets.
The Rose has been a marvelous addition to the Fine Arts program, and we are grateful to everyone who expressed their love for art and admiration for Brandeis's academic mission by helping to create, build, and support the museum. Choosing between and among important and valued university assets is terrible, but our priority in the face of hard choices will always be the university's core teaching and research mission. Today's decision will set in motion a long-term plan to sell the art collection and convert the professional art facility to a teaching, studio, and gallery space for undergraduate and graduate students and faculty.
The university's official public statement can be found below. I will be writing to the community shortly to update you on other initiatives currently under discussion by the faculty and the administration.
Sincerely,
Jehuda Reinharz
WALTHAM, Mass., Jan. 26, 2009 -- Brandeis University's Board of Trustees today voted unanimously to close the Rose Art Museum as part of a campus-wide effort to preserve the university's educational mission in the face of the historic economic recession and financial crisis. Board members stressed that the museum decision will not alter the university's commitment to the arts and the
teaching of the arts.
"These are extraordinary times," said Brandeis President Jehuda Reinharz. "We cannot control or fix the nation's economic problems. We can only do what we have been entrusted to do -- act responsibly with the best interests of our students and their futures foremost in mind."
Opened in 1961, the Rose Art Museum houses a large amount of modern and contemporary art. Plans call for the museum to close in late summer 2009, and transition into a fine-arts teaching center with studio space and an exhibition gallery.
After necessary legal approvals and working with a top auction house, the university will publicly sell the art collection. Proceeds from the sale will be reinvested in the university to combat the far-reaching effects of the economic crisis, and fortify the university's position for the future.
Brandeis officials said the decision to close the museum is part of an emerging new vision for the university aimed at streamlining it for the future while bolstering its focus on undergraduates, the liberal arts and research.
In recent months, the university has been reviewing expenditures and discussing new initiatives to meet the serious economic challenges. Belt tightening has already brought substantial decreases in administrative budgets.
In a special session on Jan. 22, the Brandeis faculty voted unanimously to support the president and trustees as they combat the effects of the economic recession and work to make Brandeis stronger academically and fiscally for the 21st century. Faculty members agreed that the university should maintain the strengths that have helped position Brandeis among the nation's top liberal arts and research institutions.
Brandeis officials have estimated that the economic recession will continue to adversely affect operating expenses, performance of the endowment, financial aid and scholarships. At Brandeis and schools around the country, fundraising revenue is declining and families are looking for more financial aid to help them cope with their own unenviable economic straits.
Reinharz said the Rose Museum decision was very difficult. But he characterized it as an important step in the ongoing resource management and allocation process on the school's campus. "I am satisfied that our commitment is unwavering; that someday we will look back and say that when the quality of education and student services was at stake, we made hard choices so that Brandeis could emerge even stronger."
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These academics and the half-wit administrators are criminal in their outrageous expenses and their inability to invest securely and manage conservatively. This is the only reason they are having a fire sale.
They have nobody to blame except themselves. Maybe someone should take a look at their pay and benefit packages for their part-time work!
Where was the board? Control your employees. Join the real world and have a little financial foresight.
I know that none of you signed on for a full-time job with responsibilities but guess what...you blew it and now you will blame everyone/anyone else.
Another former great institution will now just be another 2nd rate has-been.
The biggest travesty is that throughout this entire process, students were left completely in the dark. Brandeis is a top institution partly due to the exorbitant tuition and room and board fees that the students pay--you would think at any university students would be included in the dialogue--let alone one with the history of social responsibility, transparency, and activism that Brandeis touts to its prospective students. This fight is not over for us students as we will demand transparency and representation in these decisions that ultimately affect us the most.
Either they start w selling the books in the library or burning their starter wood - thing of the scenes in Bolshevik Russia when the market collapsed and jewels were sold on the streets!
I am saddened by this decision. The Rose Art Museum is a top flight institution for contemporary art, an asset for the Greater Boston community. I appreciated Brandeis for being a leader in contemporary art.
I trust other alternatives were considered before deciding to close this wonderful facility. Raising fees for admission, seeking funds for its preservation, corporate sponsorship, etc.
Hopefully the economy will improve in a few years, and the financial situation of the college will become more viable. We all hope that things will improve in the future. Closing this institution is a permanent decision.
While I am sympathetic to the financial constraints facing nearly every institution of higher learning in the country, slashing an entire museum to grab at a potential $350 million is just irresponsible and short sighted. First, who, exactly, will have the money to buy all of the artwork? Certainly not the Wall Street fat cats who regularly plunder art sales to show that they have money and sophistication. All of them are now, finally, being closely watched for extravagance since they have access to federal dollars to bail their companies out of the results of their poor financial decision-making. Other art museums? They are all suffering from the same financial/donation meltdown. And as for that laughable claim that the university will remain committed to their academic art programs, exactly how many art students do they expect to retain or attract after they eliminate one of the strongest reasons to attend the school in the firt place? This is academic short-sightedness in the extreme and I truly hope that students and the alumni hold the feet of each and every member of the Board of Trustees and the administration to the fire until they hand in their resignations or cut their own compensation for their years of profligate spending waste.
As a parent of a recent Brandeis graduate I am deeply saddened by this news because it indicates that the institution's finances must be in terrible shape. My experience with the University staff and Professors was entirely positive and I believe them when they say that this move is unavoidable. I would love to support Brandeis with a donation, but it's not an option for me this year.
Brandeise has never been as large or well endowed as comparable institutions that are far older, and it has always relied on benefactors to provide outstanding facilities and programs. This is just another terrible consequence of the greed and short-sightedness of people like Bernie Madoff and Wall St. insiders who misrepresented risky investment strategies to all of us. Hopefully the school will be able to weather this downturn without cutting educational programs.
I was neither a student nor parent at Brandeis, just a lover of modern art. I spent 12 wonderful years donating both my time and money to the Rose Art Museum.
What a big loss to Brandeis and the community.
The requirement that the museum honor the wishes of the original donors of the works of art remains as an issue. This may have to be reviewed by the Attorney General's office, possibly on a case-by-case basis, before any sale can proceed. With so many pieces of art involved, and the potentially large number of unhappy donors, this could take a long time.
I remember back in 1977 being sent from my undergraduate of Wellesley to look at the collection at the Rose Art collection for appreciation of modert art. Such a gem. Such a loss to the students. How can prevent this. Even I, not an alumna of the school, would rally and contribute. This can't happen.
This is no different than Enron.
Attached letter I plan to send to the President, BOT and Alumni Board:
I disagree vehemently with your top-down decision to close the Rose Art Museum and liquidate all of its holdings. Please read the article in Jan 27’s Boston Globe for a cogent argument. In addition, I believe you have grossly mismanaged the current situation. You have broken ethnical promises to donors. You did not have the courage to discuss options with the head of the museum before making a decision. Moreover, you have not been honest with the Brandeis community regarding the University’s financial situation. You are no longer leading Brandeis to realizing its goals of being an outstanding but small liberal arts college (notice “arts”). As an alumna (Ph.D. 1988; B.A. 1973), I can no longer support your leadership of the university and I call on you to resign. Brandeis needs a truly courageous leader who can call on community support for innovative solutions to the current financial difficulties, ones that do not dismantle important institutions that have been part of the University for over 40 years. I will be sending copies of this letter to the chairpersons of both the Board of Trustees and the Alumni Board to let them know how disappointed and angry I am.
A difficult decison but one that the Board of Trustees needed to make. Their mission is to preserve Brandeis as an academic institution. Liquidating the art collection is a reasonable option given the financial situation. The President and Trustees should be supported.
I can only imagine how dire things are becoming for institutions like Brandeis as they see their endowments shrinking and their donors disappearing. Yesterday it was reported that another 40,000 plus Americans lost their jobs, the unemployment claims nationwide are too many to handle, homes are being lost, health insurance is unaffordable for many, and hard earned 401k accounts are vanishing. It is a time of hardship, suffering and fear. There is a children’s book by Leo Lionni entitled “Frederick”. It is about a little field mouse who is simply gathering colors and sun rays while the other mice are gathering food for the cold winter ahead. They chastise him at the time, but as the winter unfolds and the food runs out the field mice turn to Frederick for his “supplies”. He warms them with his recollections, painting the colors of summer in their minds. Now more than ever we need art to warm us. How sad that the Rose is closing and that the collection is simply considered a saleable asset – rather than part of the soul of the University and of the Boston area community.
Things to do in Waltham