понедельник, 9 октября 2006 г.

Not an "Art Palace" after all

After returning to Cincinnati and doing some research in the Museum's library I discovered that my last posting will need to be edited. The Cincinnati Art Museum was never called the "Arts Palace of the West" by the international press. This label was invented by the Assistant Director of the Museum in 1981 to host the institution's centennial celebration exhibition. This exhibition was titled, "Cincinnati Art Museum: Art Palace of the West." Assistant Director Betty Zimmerman, who organized the show and authored its catalogue did not cite her sources when she made the following claim:

"The Cincinnati Art Museum building opens to international acclaim on May 17, with elaborate dedicatory ceremonies, the first general art museum west of the Alleghenies in its own building, and called "the Art Palace of the West" by the press" (Zimmerman 1981, 40).

The rest of her history is detailed and exhaustive. I used many sources from her bibliography, but I could not find the vague reference to "the press." The current Assistant director, the curator of the most recent exhibition on the museum's history, and the head librarian all could not cite the article. Finally, the head librarian claimed that for the fifteen or twenty years that she had been at the museum, neither she, nor anyone on the museum's staff could find documentation of this title.

This self-published catalogue claimed an historical title that it never actually had. Whether this is a result of a desire for sensationalism or self-glorification, the title has somehow become part of the museum itself. It is a very popular and often cited title. I think the museum is one of the best museums in the world. Its collection spans the entire breadth of human creativity. But its claims to a false history only hurt its image.

SOURCE: Zimmerman, Betty. Cincinnati Art Museum: Art Palace of the West. Cincinnati Art Museum: Cincinnati, 1981.