Brandeis Rose Art Museum

What's up with Brandeis?  By now most people are aware of the scandal that has unfolded at Brandeis University.  Let's face it, times are tough.  As one drives up to the Rose Art Museum one sees a sign designating the Shapiro's donations at work.  The Shapiro's, large donors to education, arts and other institutions, have been hit hard by the economy and most notably Madoff.  So when the President of Brandeis freaks out and declares the Rose Art Museum will close and sell off its art who can really blame him.  Listen or watch one hour of news media and you start to get a nagging feeling that we are about to implode economically.  It really starts to freak you out.

But what I think is much more significant from this debacle at Brandeis is the fact that the board decided that art must pay.  Individuals such as Madoff (and there are many of these individuals out there: individuals who evidently thought that they could loan money where it was not appropriate, individuals who thought that an economy was not based on reality but instead inflated figures on a piece of paper, corporate execs who borrow money, don't make it go right and walk away under the shield of the protective corporation, Presidents who borrow money endlessly for war, etc.) have ruined the economy and the first place one looks to shear costs is art.  Maybe this is appropriate as art certainly is not food, or a home, or health insurance.  And let's face it art has ballooned just like the rest of the economy selling for outrageous sums of money, amounts that truly seem absurd. 

But I'm thinking otherwise.  I'm thinking that this type of thinking and prioritizing is what got us in the soup to begin with.  Art is often imaginative, but it also has a way of getting at the truth of reality.  Let's really look at this.  Art is the antithesis of war.  Remember how the Iraq museums were sacked after our "victory"?  It's starting to come home to roost.  How much money is spent on war?  How much is spent on art?  

I could go on and on about this.  However I'm getting this nagging feeling that I better do something more productive so I don't implode.  My point:  The selling off of art at Brandeis is symbolic of what is wrong with America.  Hopefully the economy starts to turn around and Brandeis can use this infamy and media attention to bring about a resurgence of interest in art in their environment.   

BRANDEIS ROSE ART MUSEUM MONTAGE was created by Robert Castagna.