How to Donate Art

              

People who donate art to museums don't always realize the hopes and dreams they have for their donations. The most common complaint from donors is that museums don't show their donations, but rather assign them to various storage facilities where they sit and gather dust. A less common but more serious complaint is that the museums sometimes sell donated art in order to raise funds. These problems arise in almost all cases because donors don't understand how museums operate and how they treat donated art (or any other donations, for that matter).

When a museum accepts donated art, that art becomes part of what is referred to as the museum's "permanent collection." Most donors assume that the permanent collection is made up of all the art in a museum, including donations, and that every piece of that art remains in the collection for all time. This is not the case. The permanent collection exists as a continually changing and evolving body of art, but individual pieces in that collection remain there only as long as they're relevant to the collection as a whole.

Museum curators are quick to point out that, unless otherwise stated, when a museum accepts a work of art for donation, that museum believes the art is beneficial to its permanent collection and intends to keep it in the collection for all time. Curators also point out, however, that they're not infallible. Tastes change, museum staffs change, the content and direction of collections change, museums acquire works of art that are better than similar examples that they currently own, some art turns out to be not as important as curators first thought it was, and so on. A few museums, such as the National Gallery of Art, keep all donations and never deaccess, but the majority of museums reserve the right to sell or otherwise deaccess art that no longer serves any purpose in their collections. Even so, the substantial majority of today's donations are never sold and remain permanently within their permanent collections.

As for exhibiting donated art, curators do their best to accept art that they believe will eventually be exhibited, but here again, they're not infallible. Deciding which works of art will one day go on display often involves speculation and judgment calls. For example, a museum may accept or even purchase a painting by a promising young artist thinking that it will eventually hang in the permanent collection, but that artist's career may fizzle, and they may fade into permanent obscurity (along with their art). Not only will that art probably never get shown, but chances are also excellent that it will eventually be sold. Other reasons for not showing art are that museums have limited display space, curatorial changes impact what museums show, exhibition schedules are put together years in advance, some art has more research value than display value, and some art may be great, but out of fashion and not what the museum thinks the public wants to see at the moment.

For all you potential donors out there, understanding the fate of your donations before you donate is your responsibility. Never assume anything; donation policies vary from institution to institution. When meeting with curators, ask direct questions, tell them why you want to donate, make all special requests before you donate, and most importantly, keep your ego in check.


                                                                       By: gpeacefoundation.org