The Berkshire Museum has now hired extra crisis-PR help. So here are a few ideas about what it should do next, on the messaging front. The tl;dr: try engaging your critics a little bit, and being much more honest about the realities you’re facing and the trade-offs you are making.

I’d love it, of course, if that meant you would talk to me, or to Lee Rosenbaum, or to representatives of the various major institutions which have come out firmly in opposition to your current path. After all, since I wrote about the museum’s deaccessioning plans a couple of weeks ago, a lot of public stances have been taken.

Most importantly, the Association of Art Museum Curatorshas joined the the American Alliance of Museums and the Association of Art Museum Directors in opposing your plans: as far as I can tell, no national organization thinks that what you are doing is a good idea.

Instead, while you did did respond to the national associations, that response took the form of a short press release which basically said “yeah, we knew what they were going to say, but we’re right and they’re wrong”. Where the associations said “We stand ready to assist, in any way we are able, to find other solutions to the institution’s needs without resorting to the selling of works that can never be recovered,” your response was basically “shut up and go away, we’ve made our decision”.

Read the source article at causeandeffect.fm