A die-in at Harvard.
Photographer: Tamara Rodriguez ReichbergArt
The American Museum Is in Crisis
The latest attacks on private philanthropy remove one of the only methods museums have to survive.
Most art world squabbles never make it past the echoes of white-walled galleries, but a recent series of scandals and protests have spilled into the mainstream, plunging some of the world’s greatest museums into a crisis that hasn’t been seen since the furor of the 1980s culture wars.
Back then it was a group of senators attempting to defund the National Endowment for the Arts. This time, it’s private philanthropy that’s in the crosshairs. And it’s not politicians leading the charge but the artists themselves.