Anne Pasternak | Director, Brooklyn Museum
At last a book that interrogates the role of collections and deaccessions in museums at this crucial time for questioning all orthodoxies and paving a smarter, brighter path forward. [On Conversations with Museum Directors]
Steven Lubar | Professor, American Studies, History, History of Art and Architecture, Brown University
In these conversations some of America’s most distinguished art museum directors wrestle with the ethical concerns arising from new rules about how the proceeds of deaccessioned art can be spent. What makes the conversations so fascinating is the way that they open up into all of the interconnected challenges facing museums today. Come for the deaccessioning debate; stay for thoughtful reflections on the big questions of racial reckonings, colonial roots, and inequality, and for insight into the ways museum directors are thinking about the balance of collections, research, public programs, and community connections. [On Conversations with Museum Directors]
Cara Starke | Executive Director, Pulitzer Arts Foundation
This timely, thought-provoking book opens up pressing conversations about the role of museums in our society, about what it might take for them to adapt to our era of inequality, racial injustice, and social reckoning. In twelve insightful exchanges, Jandl and Gold ask museum leaders to consider some of the most urgent and controversial questions in the field — about who museums serve and how, the needs of museum audiences, and what it means to care for culture. [On Conversations with Museum Directors]
Sebastián Encina | Chair, Collections Stewardship Professional Network, American Alliance of Museums
Deaccessioning is often seen as a scary, anxiety-inducing topic, but it can also be an important tool for museums. The authors of Collections and Deaccessioning: Towards a New Reality take a deep dive into the topic, bringing the field essential information and making thoughtful cases for why deaccessioning is useful and sometimes necessary, and when maintaining the status quo is optimal. With this work, museum leaders can make confident decisions building off the experience and perspectives of their seasoned museum colleagues. [On Towards a New Reality]
Andrew Saluti | Assistant Professor and Program Coordinator, Museum Studies, Syracuse University
At a time when our collecting institutions finds themselves facing a paradigm shift in how we define the museum’s responsibilities and goals within our communities, conversations about how to approach collection building and management has never been more critical - or divisive. This text offers an invaluable and objective resource for both the academic discourse and the practical reality that will shape the future professional standards. It will certainly be an asset to my curriculum. [On Towards a New Reality]
Sally Yerkovich | Author, A Practical Guide to Museum Ethics
Towards a New Reality explores the reasons for the controversy arising about deaccessioning and disposal in museums and raises questions about the purpose of these common practices in a post-pandemic world. It explores issues that museums are grappling with at this moment as they re-examine their mission and priorities in the face of demands for equitable pay, challenges to current governance structures and practices, and pressures to decolonize their collections and operations. Jandl and Gold provide a thorough and provocative exploration of the subjects in a manner that will educate those unfamiliar with the issues, offer guidance for museums struggling with decisions, and provide fodder for further debate. [On Towards a New Reality]
Peter Frumkin | Heyer Chair in Social Policy, The University of Pennsylvania
This new study of the dilemmas of collection management and the nagging question of deaccessioning illuminates the difficult practical challenges that the custodians of culture must wrestle with regularly. In so doing, it lays bare how cultural patronage is imprinted not just with the donor’s good intentions, but also with ego, hubris, power, and dreams of perpetuity. Essential reading for anyone who collects, who manages collections, or who just plain cares about the future of our collective culture. [On Towards a New Reality]
Elaine Heumann Gurian | Senior Museum Consultant
Rarely does one book look so fully and dispassionately at so many examples of a single issue - the collective responsibilities associated with dispersing museum collections, with all the associated gut-wrenching decision-making processes. As a proponent of complexity theory, I find the book invaluable for another reason. Every decision examined is a close call, filled with regret, urgency, justification, debate over alternatives, and at best provisional and temporary certitude. When any museum’s board members read these studies in their entirety, they will have everything needed to understand the many issues involved, but taking a position will continue to be based on one’s own sense of personal responsibilities and judgment. [On Case Studies]
Greg Stevens | Director, Master of Arts in Museum Professions. Director, Institute of Museum Ethics, Seton Hall University
This volume presents a useful and timely collection of cases about the complexities of deaccessioning in museums, but it does so much more. The editors have wisely and deftly contextualized these historical deaccessioning cases against the backdrop of a sector forever undergoing a major paradigm shift. The authors each present a compelling case of institutional sustainability, legal and ethical challenges, risk-taking, relevance, and reputational management, rich with detail and reference far beyond the headlines. My gears are turning about how to integrate this essential material into my courses at Seton Hall, including history and theory of museums, legal and ethical issues, registration methods, and activism and social issues. My graduate students are sure to engage fully and vocally about these cases and the lessons they present for the future of museums. [On Case Studies]
