For Valparaiso University junior Ashley Vernon, a visual media arts major, news that the university plans to sell three cornerstone works from the Brauer Museum of Art to raise funds to renovate dorms for first-year students was just another thing that makes her feel as if the university is increasingly pushing arts programming to the side.
“The shock should have come from, ‘I can’t believe they’re doing that’ and less from, ‘Why are they doing this to us,’” said Vernon, of LaCrosse.
She noted that the Art-Psychology Building burned down in July, moving art studios that had been housed there to the Brauer. The university also recently cut its 3D art program and combined the communication and visual arts.
Additionally, the university announced in 2020 that the theater major and minor, among others, were being dropped as part of across the board cuts, including salaries and an assortment of jobs, as a result of financial constraints from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Jose Padilla, the university’s president, announced the decision to sell three pieces of art from the museum in a campus wide email Tuesday.
The announcement has generated strong reactions, and the possibility of legal action, from many people connected to the university, though not all the response is negative. Valparaiso Mayor Matt Murphy said in an email that the city supports both Padilla and the university and the “current plan for resource reappropriation.”
Though Padilla didn’t specify which artwork is pegged for sale, Dick Brauer, the museum’s founding director, and John Ruff, a senior research professor in the English department long affiliated with the museum, told the Post-Tribune the paintings are “Rust Red Hills,” perhaps the museum’s famous work, by Georgia O’Keeffe; Frederic E. Church’s “Mountain Landscape”; and “The Silver Vale and the Golden Gate” by Childe Hassam.
Collectively, the paintings are worth several million dollars. Brauer has threatened to have his name removed from the museum if the sales go forward.
“There’s definitely a consensus of, we need to do something. What do we want to do?” Vernon said, adding discussion has focused on an email campaign to Padilla, the board of directors, donors and alumni.
The most important thing, Vernon said, is that the student body be consistent in their response and not let up.
“We can’t stop after a week because it’s not a done deal. They haven’t been sold yet,” she said.
For some, the email campaign is well underway. Teresa Blomquist of River Forest, Illinois, provided the Post-Tribune with an email she sent to Padilla about the sale. Her husband Robert is a retired VU law professor and her stepson Drew graduated from the university in 2006.
The artwork, she wrote, is irreplaceable, and has put the university on a global stage.
“No one is disputing that freshmen deserve nice dormitories. However, we deeply disapprove of your idea to sell off storied art from Valpo’s collection to accomplish that end. Such a sale makes Valpo look crass and shortsighted,” Blomquist wrote. “Please redeem your and the university’s reputations by finding a more creative and civilized way to pay for dorm improvements. This type of fundraising demeans the Valpo community.”
Murphy, meanwhile, said the city of Valparaiso will continue to benefit from an influx of students to the university and that the proposed dorm renovations will be good for the university and its host city.
“The City of Valparaiso supports Valparaiso University and President Padilla as they move forward with the current plan for resource re-appropriation to attract and retain students to Valparaiso University — the only private, Division I university in the region,” Murphy said in an email. “We know this plan has not been made lightly, and the proposed renovations to the University’s freshman residence halls will be an immense asset to both the University and the City moving forward.
“As a result of this decision by President Padilla and his team, our City will continue to benefit from an influx of bright, young minds eager to learn, contribute, and engage in order to make a positive impact on our community,” Murphy added.
Bharath Ganesh Babu, chair of the faculty senate, declined to comment. So far, the student senate has not issued a statement about the sale of the artwork, according to an email from Sophia Behrens, president of the student body.
“The Student Senate understands that there are many opinions about this topic and that some students are upset about the decision,” Behrens said in her email. “Students and classes will continue to take advantage of the Brauer and its collection to enhance their educational experience.”
Behrens declined to comment on how the university administration could have handled the situation differently.
“The Student Senate was not involved in the decision making process, therefore without a more thorough knowledge of the issue, I am not able to give an answer as to what should have been done differently,” she said.
The O’Keeffe and the Hassam paintings were purchased through funds from the 1953 Sloan Trust Agreement, a restricted endowment, said Philipp Brockington, a retired VU law professor who also is a museum benefactor.
Percy Sloan acquired the Church painting from the Art Institute in 1950 and later donated it to the museum, he added.
“In my opinion, the sale of these pieces violates that trust,” Brockington said, adding supporters of the museum have been in touch with Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita’s office with the hope of stopping the sale because of that violation.
Rokita’s office did not return a request for comment Friday.
Regardless of any legal action, the nation’s major art museum associations condemned the sale in a joint statement Thursday as a violation of museum standards and protocol, which call for funds from the sale of artwork to be reinvested into new pieces.
The statement came from the Association of Academic Museums and Galleries and the American Alliance of Museums, both of which the Brauer Museum has ties to, and the Association of Art Museum Directors and the Association of Art Museum Curators.
“This remains a fundamental ethical principle of the museum field, one which all institutions are obligated to respect: in no event shall funds from deaccessioned works be used for anything other than support for a museum’s collections, either through acquisitions or the direct care of works of art,” the statement noted.
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