"A Stake in the Ground:

The Case for DMA Transparency and Its Future"

Presentation Synopsis

! Conicts of Interest !

If art museums wish to retain their tax exempt status they must learn to operate transparently as public institutions and not as private county clubs. There is no truly private funding of art museums. Donors are given the privilege of a taxed deduction and it is thus legally forbidden for any individual to be personally rewarded by tax exempt institution. Indeed, the remainder of the public must pay more taxes to make up for these deductions.! Many, if not most museums, provide many costly services to its board members or collectors ranging from shopping to restoration and shipping services in unfair competition with private artists, advisors, consultants, galleries and conservators and in doing so constitutes a very direct conict of interest as well as being considered insider trading.! In the process of tending to the museum's public business, staff and committee members gain art market information beyond that used by the institution for the public good. This information is gained at public expense and thus belongs to all the people.! During the "Dallas Art Wars" of the 1970s the galleries recommended to the Dallas city Council, our Congressman and Senator John Tower that if such information is to be shared it should be posted publicly at given times and places for all of the public and private interests to use or not.! Control of these and all other conicts of interest are the duciary. Responsibility of both the board and staff of public institutions and must be addressed with dispatch if the credibility of public institutions is to be regained and maintained for future generations.!

!
Chapman Kelley!

Artists Recognition

One of the major elements in the arts scene in the past, most notably, that for over 150 years, throughout the country, there was the ongoing proliferation of regional, juried art shows. These shows were sponsored by the local museum and, depending on the domain of the show, invitations were extended to artists within the city, the state, the region and/ or ultimately, nationally. Jurors were selected by on the basis of their artistic stature and reputation in the art community. Jurors for these shows were always brought in from the outside of the region to judge the work in a given locale. Jurors relied on the signicance of the artwork as the sole means of judging the winners.! An additional benet of this system was that the museum staff did not have to leave the building to see at-a-glance all of the best work being produced in the area covered by the show. This was a system that, indeed, worked for the benet of all.! In formally recognizing its own, the art community in general passed accreditation on members of itself. If you think about it, doctors (the AMA) accredit doctors, lawyers (the ABA) accredit lawyers and all other professional communities accredit their own members. It seems that in the art community, artists are granted accreditation by seemly anyone other than fellow artists; gallerists, museum staff, speculators and the like.! It is our belief that one of the most important things that the DMA could do, going forward, would be to champion the re-establishment of regional art shows to create the vehicle in which the art world could gain the serious, honest and valuable recognition that only fellow practitioners could provide.! Additionally, establishing a permanent area in the museum to showcase local artists would be a welcome addition. It would provide the more casual museum-goers with ongoing examples of what the local art scene is producing, thereby increasing local artistic awareness and subliminally encourages the artistically inclined to continue to pursue their creative bent, because they, too, might have a chance at being in the museum.!

!
Arthur and Jeanne Koch!

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A Case for the Museum School!

In the relevant past, Dallas art students were privileged to be able to take advantage of studio instruction by some of the most exemplary teachers and professional artists at that time in America. It all started with Olin Travis and The Art Institute of Dallas of 1927. This was the rst professional art school in Dallas.! Back in Dallas, the new school was located at 12151/2 Main Street and was enrolling students, such as Henry Potter and Jerry Bywaters who was a graduate of SMU, Class of 1928, was destined to become the Director of the Museum. This fact may become problematic for the Museum in the years to come.! The school had many credentialed instructors over the years and some adjunct professors, one of which I took from --Ann Cushing (Gantz). During my time there, 1958 to 1960, I benetted from the instruction of some of the most accredited, professional artists of that time, artists like Otis Dozier, Barney Delebano, who was head of exhibits preparation and Octavio Medellin. These people were recognized as being some of the best in their areas of expertise, not just by the public at large but more importantly by several accredited sources. Some of the more well known instructors during those days were; Estelle Heinkel, Lucielle Jeffries, Merritt Mauzy and William Lester in addition to those previously mentioned.! Im not sure exactly what year the museum school was terminated, however, the most salient question is exactly, Why? The answer is most likely geopolitical. Geo because across town the newly established SMU Art Department was emerging and competition from a dominant instructional facility was not politically welcome from a school spearheaded by one of its alums.! What good is all this history? When something is working, why try to x it with alternatives? The history illustrates the reason things were done the way they were: good student successes like John Alexander, Noel Mahaffey, Bob Yarber and Willy Wayne Young. It also shows that an art education by real professionalsones with a provenance in their chosen elds---are probably better qualied to teach the methodology than the merely educated, but unaccredited.Is it enough to take the word of collectors, speculators and marketeers that a favored artist is recognized as a prodigy, a great master, a painting virtuoso? I think not. .Just as the provenance of a collected work is highly sought after, so should the background of its creator. This is the justication for reopening The Museum School once again.! Other museums that have schools are the Boston Museum, the Cochran Museum, the Cleveland Museum, the Chicago Art Institute. The Dallas Museum of Art could again join the company of these illustrious fellow institutions with the re-establishment of a museum school.!

!
Duke M. Horn!

Museum Leadership!
We are delighted the DMA is undergoing the transition to transparency under the leadership of the champion of museum transparency. In order to further the effort to make the museum more transparent and provide a more active and meaningful role in life of the city, a more transparent approach to determining the constitution of the members of the Board of Trustees. The presence of members of the creative community along with the current members from the nancial, civic and academic spheres would be a welcome change that would position the museum as a more central member of the Dallas community. ! Opening leadership positions to a broader range of prospective member could be accomplished by recognizing that nancial generosity is not the only criteria for a leadership position.! Ways that members of museum leadership might include;! - Considering a broader pool of the community from which museum leadership members could be solicited.! - All candidates for leadership positions should be required to provide a list of their qualications and to submit a personal statement to be considered as a member of the leadership.! - Encourage more than one person running for each upcoming board position.! - Enable the membership-at-large to vote for leadership positions instead of having them appointed.!

In a Nutshell!
1) Clean up the underlying, long-term questions of the origins of the museum especially the role of the Foundation for the Arts.! 2) Ensure that museum resources are only used for museum projects and do not benet highly regarded insiders.! 3) Ensure that all information that the museum has access to that could affect the art market as a whole is publicly disseminated in open forum, by both traditional and electronic means.! 4) Champion the re-establishment of regional and national juried shows, open to all and judged by recognized, external jurors.! 5) Establish a mechanism with which to recognize the local artists with a permanent local corner in the museum.! 6) Provide the next crop of upcoming artists the opportunity to learn from the best by allowing visiting artists to lecture at the reopened Museum School.! 7) Open up some leadership positions to members of the community that are recognized by criteria other than nancial contributions to the Museum.! 8) Put Oldenbergs Stake Hitch back as a nod to Dallas art past and a starting point for its illustrious future going forward.!

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Respectfully submitted,! Chapman Kelley! Arthur Koch! Jeanne Koch! Duke M. Horn! Mark McGahan