a sample of the Rose Art Museum's collection

Some really great news, The Boston Globe reports that the Rose Art Museum's collection will not be liquidated to augment Brandeis University's budgetary situation. The Rose Art Museum is one of the better university museums in the country and has a fabulous collection of postwar art.

We have been following this story for a very long time as Brandies' now former president sent a chill through all university museums... suddenly museums were seen as a source of revenue rather than a collection held in trust for the students and community.

I love University art museums since they are a little more nimble than larger generalist art museums. Now if only alums like Peter Norton and Steve Jobs will push for a University museum at Reed College? Reed does have an interesting collection but it will take some major alumni muscle to make it happen. Also, the Museum of Contemporary Craft has certainly stepped up after merging with PNCA, though University museums are nearly always challenged financially unless they have a decent endowment... that wasn't the issue with the Rose Art Museum.

Instead, Brandeis University (of which it is part) sought to remedy its own larger financial difficulties by selling off the collection, which went against the wishes of many Rose Art Museum/Brandeis donors. It was essentially a financial/cultural civil war within Brandeis University.