And we think we have trouble... The chairman of the Hirshhorn Museum’s board of trustees has resigned, citing a “lack of inclusiveness with which a number of trustees and staff associated with the Hirshhorn and the Smithsonian have behaved over the past year.” In a strongly worded letter obtained by The Washington Post, Constance Caplan painted a picture of a board, a museum and the larger Smithsonian Institution roiled by a lack of transparency, trust, vision and good faith. These factors, Caplan wrote, led to the resignation of Director Richard Koshalek, who announced he was leaving in May after the board’s failure to reach consensus on his signature project, the Seasonal Inflatable Structure, known as “the Bubble.” According to Caplan, these factors also led to the resignation of several board members, including the former board chairman, J. Tomlison Hill, for whom Caplan took over in October. In a statement then, Hill did not cite a reason for stepping down. Caplan is the third board member to resign since early last month, and the seventh to resign since last year, leaving a dozen board members still serving. “Of even greater concern to me is the fundamental direction that I now see the Hirshhorn taking, with both overt and tacit approval by the Smithsonian: a regression to programming that imitates a predictable pattern at many other modern and contemporary museums,” the letter says._WashingtonPost My first job out of college was working for the Smithsonian. They had me working for the engineering office designing new parking lot markings. Three months in, I saw an ad for a job at the Portrait Gallery working in exhibits with their moody but fabulous designer Riddick Vann. He pushed me along and gave me a lab to work in, but the best part was: no supervision. I made all kinds of prints, one of which will appear in a forthcoming Gallery. He pushed me out and into the Art in the Embassies program, and from there to work for Howard Baker. I was 23 and didn’t know my ass from a hole in the ground. If I am fresh guy, you can blame Riddick and Howard. They set me on the path to being an inquisitive photographer. Who taught me the most? The black guy! Combined with Howard giving me incredible opportunity... as in a race car: Gas, Gas, Gas, Gas, Gas..... and never mention the word “Brake”. . Art Faul The Artist Formerly Known as Prints ------ Art for Cars: art4carz.com Stills That Move: http://www.artfaul.com Greens: http://www.inkjetprince.com Camera Works - The Washington Post . |
