The Cultural Policy Centre at the University of Chicago. has a page on its website about The Arts in Public Life Conference 2000 'Taking Funds, Giving Offence and Making Money: The Brooklyn Museum of Arts Controversy and the Dilemmas of Arts Policy” A number of links to the controversy itself, analysis and coverage of the conference are provided, however, many of these have expired. The best links still available are to articles written in the New York Times.
A most informative link is to an outline (chapter headings and some information) of the book published after the conference titled Unsettling” Sensation”; Arts Policy Lessons from the Brooklyn Museum of Art Controversy. Lawrence Rothfield, the faculty Director of the Cultural Policy Centre Rutgers University edited the book and his introduction to the collection of essays is included in its entirety.
He argues that the initial farcical nature of the events surrounding the “Sensation” exhibition in New York arose from ‘intense but calculated” interests rather than from ideology, passion or commitment, however as Marx noted it was ‘an essential prelude to real and effective political action”.
Rothfield compares the "Sensation" controversy with earlier ones where debates focused on the meaning of the works rather than the motives of the patron, or the museum. The conservative opposition saw the exhibition as a direct attack on the Catholic faith rather than an assault on more general concerns such as family values.Guiliani’s threats were merely a political gesture of a savvy politician.
Interests that were much more narrowly defined were also more easily translatable into political action.The controversy which was reduced to” a more rationalized conflict of interests and interest groups” then allowed policy makers to more fully understand how those interests ‘take shape, interrelate, converge and balance… “
Rothfield concludes that the “more transparent interests are the easier it will be to formulate sensible policies regarding the rights, responsibilities, and reputation of America’s museums”
