This website features an article called “Is it art or product placement” and discusses the trend of increasing commercialisation of museum exhibitions. The article touches on a few key issues regarding the influence of corporate sponsorship on art museums and mentions specific exhibitions of American museums which have blurred the line between commerce and art; the author of this article argues against this excessive blurring between the two and uses Mark Rectanus’s arguments to support this claim. Ultimately, the author of this article argues for a need for greater transparency when it comes to the interaction between museums and their sponsors to minimise the commercialisation of art and hence the power of the sponsors over the museum’s decision making policies. The article features link to other websites which however do not really provide relevant information for this case study.
www.acfnewsource.org/art/culture_inc.html
Shane Simpson works for a leading legal practice which specialises in museum and gallery law. Within this article he discusses ethical problems within the art world and furthermore illustrates examples of those problems through case studies and how these conflicts can be tackled. He locates the main problems between the tensions that may arise between the interests of personnel as sometimes being in conflict with the museum and its mission as a whole. He believes that ethical self-regulation by the museum staff is dangerous and that museums should adhere to an ethical code of conduct and that each museum should discuss and produce explictit working guidelines. He briefly discusses the exemplary Administrative Practice Guide produced by the Australian National Gallery and believes that other Australian art museums should follow suit. Simpson argues that funding and sponsorship are one of the key aspects that need to be explicitly addressed so that there is no room for misconduct. Again ultimately this article indirectly asks for greater transparency in the interactions between the museum and a sponsor, thereby the interests of the sponsor would have to be clearly formulated and if they are agreeable with the mission statement of the museum.
www.simpsons.com.au/documents/ museums/museumlaw/ETHICALP.pdf
The Powerhouse’s website provides information on the history of regulation regarding Museum Governance and Management Issues in Australia. It discusses the short comings of the MAAS act (Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences Act) from 1945 and goes on to discuss more recent developments of museum regulations and acts and explains in great detail what these entail and how they work.
www.powerhousemuseum.com/about/aboutGov.asp
www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/ed/myvirtualgallery/curator_interview
In this interview Barry Pearce the Senior Curator of Australian Art at the AGNSW discusses his profession as a curator at the gallery and the Australian Icons exhibition (the interview is from 2000). The interview for the most part is only relevant for this case study when he discusses the decision processes involved for launching an exhibition as it illustrates what exhibition types the AGNSW may favour. He also briefly discusses a donor’s influence over the nature of a specific exhibition. Otherwise this article does not hold information on museum ethics.
URLography
www.acfnewsource.org/art/culture_inc.html
Article on the commercialisation of art in museums.
www.simpsons.com.au/documents/ museums/museumlaw/ETHICALP.pdf
Shane Simpson (solicitor) discusses the ethical problems that arise within museums and advocates an ethical code of conduct.
www.powerhousemuseum.com/about/aboutGov.asp
Discusses Museum Governance and Management issues.
www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/ed/myvirtualgallery/curator_interview
Interview with Barry Pearce, Senior Curator of Australian Art at AGNSW.