Tuesday, February 23, 2021

Goodbye and Good Riddance to Venable

"By eliminating free general admission, instituting an $18 admissions charge, erecting costly barriers to keep the public from enjoying its expansive grounds without paying, and implementing extravagant ticketed 'attractions', the museum excluded its Black and lower-income neighbors and was left with a much smaller, whiter, and more privileged audience."

Thus sayeth Maxwell Anderson in a scathing takedown of the recently resigned IMA president, Charles Venable, on Artnet.com.

Anderson is hopeful of a reset: "by resuming a sane business model, the museum can return to its historic purpose and its obligations to the field at large."

Maxwell L. Anderson is president of the Souls Grown Deep Foundation and was the Melvin & Bren Simon Director & CEO of the Indianapolis Museum of Art from 2006 to 2011.

Read the whole item here.

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