The Impact of Independent Directors on Organizational Effectiveness in Monetary and In-Kind Stakeholder Dialogue Museums

This study investigates the issue of stakeholder dialogue in the context of art museums. We propose and empirically test the existence of two different kinds of stakeholder dialogue: monetary and in-kind. By relying on a sample of 70 US art museums during the 2007–2010 period, we show that high monetary and high in-kind stakeholder dialogue museums are significantly different. In particular, we test the impact of the number of independent directors on fundraising activity and board monitoring. We find that a higher number of independent directors leads both to better monitoring and to improved fundraising activity, with the effect being stronger for monetary stakeholder dialogue museums.     

Social Media Engagement of Berlin and Prague Museums

ABSTRACT

Attracting visitors and engaging them effectively in the highly competitive and saturated environment shaped by Web 2.0 and online social networking forces museums to creatively and purposefully examine channels for extended interaction with audiences. This exploratory and comparative research aims to compare the state of social media strategies across museums of two regions and to identify the influence of applied strategies on users’ reactions. The surveyed sample considers 296 museums from two European capitals—Berlin and Prague—whose activity has been observed during a three-month period. The findings identify the differences in the approaches of museums and suggest that the frequency and characteristics of published messages correlate to the level of fan reactions, facilitating targeted relationship-building possibilities with online audiences. They further imply that the museums can influence the engagement of visitors by focusing on the particular properties of their posts, both in the sense of post structure, media application, and underlying semantic features.     

The United Kingdom's Immunity from Seizure Legislation

The UK's Department for Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) has introduced legislation to provide immunity from seizure for cultural objects on temporary loan from other countries to approved museums and galleries in the UK. The legislation is aimed at facilitating the cross-border lending of objects and bringing the UK into line with other countries such as the United States, France and Germany, that already afford such legal immunity. In the absence of immunity legislation in the UK, many museums and private lenders had been reluctant to loan their objects because of the risk that they might be seized by creditors seeking to settle financial disputes or by claimants contesting ownership of the works. This article examines whether the new law will be effective to provide museums and lenders with the protection they have been hoping for and asks whether it goes too far in depriving claimants of legal rights and remedies.     

Mentoring and Change in Cultural Organizations: The Experience of Directors in British National Museums

In management and arts management literature, mentoring is generally associated with social reproduction and emulation, and illustrates a phenomenon that is rather conservative in nature. Rarely is mentoring associated with change. In this article, we explore how mentoring has been a force of renewal for the institutional culture of British museums. This qualitative research brings attention to mentoring as a lever for cultural change through the experience of a new cohort of museum directors—one that has translated a new vision and approach to museums and the public into reality, and has brought forward the Labour government's cultural policy ideals.     

The orphan works dilemma and museums: an uncomfortable straitjacket

LEGAL CONTEXT: Orphan works are copyright works where the right holders cannotbe found. Without the consent of the right holder, a user facespotential liability for the unauthorized use of the work. Museumshave a duty to make cultural materials available to the public.However, the orphan works problem may pose obstacles to thenormal functioning of a museum. This article explores the problemof orphan works as it pertains to museums. KEY POINTS: Legislative solutions are being considered in addressing theproblem of orphan works in the United States. The museums, asa lobbying group, initially advocated for a safe-harbour rule.The U.S. Copyright Office recommended a limitation on remediesrule. Any legislative solution tackling the orphan works problemmust balance the benefits of using orphan works against theexclusive rights of creators. PRACTICAL SIGNIFICANCE: This article will inform readers of the orphan works problem.In addition, the lobbying efforts of the museums in trying toobtain desirable legislation are explored. By understandingthe various interests involved, readers can better anticipatethe possible orphan work solutions that the United States mayadopt.     

Critical Punishment Memorialization in Canada

Recent criminological scholarship on penal history museums has shown how sites of popular culture tend to silence the voices of prisoners and present them in ways that legitimate the deprivation of their liberty. While representations that reinforce the penal status quo are observable at most Canadian penal history sites, there are outliers that situate imprisonment as a form of oppression, and account for prisoners’ struggles and resistance. Drawing on three case studies from a 5-year qualitative research project on Canadian lock-up, jail, prison and penitentiary museums, we discuss what critical punishment memorialization looks like in a context of penal intensification in Canada. We show how such critical representations depend on the historical contextualization of penality as a manifestation of colonialism and/or the incorporation of prisoners’ voices and standpoint. We argue that the critical representations and narratives at these museum sites open up possibilities for the social distance between penal spectators and the incarcerated to be diminished by bringing humanizing prisoner narratives into focus in an otherwise dark tourist space.     

Globaloney: Economic Versus Cultural Convergence Under Conditions of Globalization

Using the theory of the commons and social obligation theory of inclusion, this article critically examines current art museum fundraising practices in the United States that rely too much on traditional White, wealthy patrons. This leads museums to emphasize the limited interests of traditional donors, neglecting the needs of and potential support from their broader communities. This results in the tragedy of the anticommons, where museums are underused by diverse publics. The article advocates for more inclusive relationship-based fundraising practices that build relationships with local community members and include their perspectives on fundraising practices through diversifying fundraising leadership, understanding diverse giving patterns, and utilizing innovative fundraising methods while remaining sensitive to cultural differences.     

The Reform of the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage: Implications for Governance of the Museum System

The Reform of Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism (L.171/2014) has resulted in the restructuring of the Ministry and its organization, redefining the relations between the central and peripheral bodies and external stakeholders. The study is focused on the reform process that involves the Italian state museums highlighting the changes that led to a strengthening of the process of decentralization, streamlining tasks, and granting autonomy. The study begins with an analysis of the evolutionary path of public reforms in the museum sector and analyzes the law texts related to the Italian state museums through the network governance perspective.     

Organized crime and the theft of Iraqi antiquities

Amid the chaos following the downfall of Saddam Hussein, thousands of treasured artifacts from Iraq’s museums and ruins disappeared. Many were trafficked out of the country and into auction houses in the West. This occurrence highlights the often-overlooked role of organized criminal networks in the collection, smuggling, and sale of illicit antiquities. By taking advantage of the breakdown in social order that surrounded the U.S.-led invasion in {dy2003}, criminals were able to profit from Iraq’s heritage and deprive its people of their past. This report examines the looting of Iraqi museums and archaeological during the fighting of 2003. Details of the antiquities theft that accompanied the chaotic aftermath of that conflict are investigated for signs of infiltration by organized criminal actors. In addition, the role of organized crime in the international trade in illicit antiquities is examined to shed further light on this obscure aspect of international criminal activity. Finally, the international response is evaluated to determine its effectiveness in combating both the theft of Iraq’s archaeological treasures and the increasing power of criminal actors in the country.     

A Genealogy: Tracing the Origins of Museum Admission Charges

Using Jim Scheurich's “Policy Archeology” as a theoretical framework, a genealogy of museum admission charges in the United States is presented. The three factors that ultimately led to the implementation and expansion of charges are the income/expenses balance, isomorphism within the museum field, and the philosophical stance of museums regarding the public purpose of the institution. These factors are tracked from early museum history through the 1980s, when admission charges become a new norm in the field.     

On the commodification of the black female body: the critical implications of the alienability of fetal tissue

Recent scientific experimentation has revealed that fetal tissue yielded from abortions has remarkable therapeutic value. This Note posits that the demand for fetal tissue likely will expand to the point where the current supply no longer satisfies it. Therefore, in order to obtain tissue from women who would not otherwise donate their abortuses, should research organizations, pharmaceutical companies, and doctors be allowed to offer women a "financial incentive" for their fetal tissue? That is, should women be allowed to sell their fetal tissue? This Note explores the question from a Critical Race Theory perspective. It analyzes the impact that a market in fetal tissue will have on Black women, who are more likely to participate in such a market due to their precarious economic situation, their higher abortion rate, and the effects of internalized oppression. The Note concludes that because Black women will be disproportionately exploited, as well as disenfranchised from the benefits produced by a market in fetal tissue, fetal tissue should not be made market alienable.     

COOPERATIVES FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS: A PROSPECTUS

The author describes research that addresses the problem of organizational change associated with the use of new information and communication technologies. The author focuses on the change processes associated with the use of the World Wide Web by cultural heritage organizations: archives, galleries, libraries, and museums. This research note outlines the research problem and the theoretical perspectives and research methodologies to be used in the research.     

Ontogeny and dental genetics in forensic problems

Teeth are an excellent and reliable source of information useful in establishing identities in the absence of dental records providing that matching dental casts or teeth of other possibly related family members are available and that information on dental trait frequencies can be obtained. Such demographic data is generally available from physical or odontological anthropology departments in universities or museums. The data collected is subjected to statistical scrutiny and treatment of probability methodology.     

‘National Antiquities’ and the Law

National museums, housing ‘national antiquities’, were a nineteenth-century cultural phenomenon throughout Europe. In the United Kingdom, they afforded the Treasury a means of preserving relics of antiquity claimed as treasure trove. While satisfying the desire of the scientific community for the preservation of archaeological finds, and national sentiment in Scotland and Ireland, Treasury practice undermined the British Museum's eponymous mission. This paper traces the development and legal consequences of the Treasury policy of national allocation of treasure trove, including the discussion in the Museums Committee of 1898–99 of the ‘nationality’ of objects and artefacts, and considers the potential wider significance of ‘national antiquity’ in the context of changing constitutional arrangements in the United Kingdom in the 1920s, and in the future.     

The Holocaust Through Latvia's Eyes: How the Nazi Party Became the Lesser of Two Evils

Internationalization of exhibitions creates cost structure distortion. What costs are being reduced thanks to international collaboration in the museum field? To determine the profitability of the model, international strategies are analyzed with two exhibitions—“Matisse, Cézanne, Picasso…the Stein Adventure,” coproduced by the Réunion des Musées Nationaux–Grand Palais organization, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and “Masterpieces from the Musée National Picasso, Paris,” exhibited in major museums such as Centro de Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid, the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg, or the Seattle Museum of Art.     

Fetal death. A 10-year retrospective study

Fetal death has been defined by the World Health Organization as death before complete expulsion or extraction from its mother of a product of conception, irrespective of the duration of pregnancy. Certain causes of fetal death, including syphilis, Rh isoimmunization, toxemia, and diabetes, have shown significant declines over the past several decades. However, many fetal losses continue to occur from intrauterine infections, lethal malformations, fetal growth retardation, and abruptio placentae. Fetal death with no identifiable specific cause is another consideration when dealing with these cases. Other risk factors can include maternal, sociodemographic, and medical care factors. The authors reviewed all forensic cases referred for autopsy to the Forensic Section of the Medical University of South Carolina, Medical Examiners' Office over the 10-year period 1990-1999. All cases listed as fetal death or stillbirth were included. The 42 cases were analyzed as to fetus' gestational age, sex, race, weight, location of delivery, history of prenatal care, maternal drug use, chromosomal abnormalities, cause and manner of death, and autopsy findings. The black:white ratio was approximately 2:1, and the male:female ratio was virtually 1:1. Most fetuses were older than 20 weeks' gestational age, with one third between 20 and 29 weeks. The majority were externally normal aside from maceration. Only 7.5% had congenital anomalies. Twenty-one of 38 placentas were grossly and microscopically normal. Of cases with toxicologic analysis, 21% were positive for drugs, and 17% were positive for cocaine/benzoylecgonine. The manner of death was classified as natural (28), accident (2), and undetermined (12). Few studies have reported the specific causes of fetal death, and the lack of uniformity in data collection and classification of causes of fetal death has made comparisons difficult. The authors present this retrospective study to better determine the factors leading to fetal demise in the hope of assisting death investigators in this challenging arena.     

Vandalizing Meaning,Stealing Memory: Artistic,Cultural, and Theoretical Implications of Crime in Galleries and Museums

This paper discusses two different types of crime that occur in art museums: the theft of art objects and the vandalism of works of art. This paper explores the extent to which theft may affect our memory of a given work of art (regardless of whether the object is ultimately recovered), as well as our experience of the museum (especially if efforts are subsequently undertaken to improve security, such as with the Munch Museum following the theft of the Scream). With respect to vandalism, this paper considers whether and how such acts subsequently affect the value we place on the assaulted items as cultural icons and the meaning of the paintings as art objects. This paper argues that how we regard such events should be determined not by their criminality, but by the individual’s or individuals’ intent and the effect of the acts on the meaning and memory of the works.     

Can Audience Development Promote Social Diversity in German Public Arts Institutions?

Despite generous public funding, arts institutions in Germany are primarily serving a small, educated section of the German population. This article presents findings from arts participation surveys, research from an empirical study on “Intercultural Audience Development” in public theaters and museums, and an analysis of cultural policy debates to reveal the role of audience development in overcoming the social imbalance of audiences in German cultural institutions. Research findings suggest that traditional concepts of audience development do not lead to sustainable changes in the social structure of the audience. More substantial institutional changes are necessary, supported by new cultural policies.     

Differentiation of fetal and adult bloodstains by pyrolysis-gas-liquid chromatography

A pyrolysis-gas-liquid chromatographic method has been developed for the differentiation of adult and fetal bloodstains. In a blind-coded study, five adult and three fetal bloodstains were correctly identified on the basis of the pyrograms of stain extracts. The differentiation between adult and fetal bloodstains is based on the peak height ratio of two long-retention-time peaks appearing in their pyrograms. The first of these peaks has been tentatively identified as indole derived from the pyrolysis of tryptophan, while the second peak is an as-yet unidentified molecular fragment produced by the pyrolysis of some component of the hemoglobin molecule other than the amino acids tryptophan, tyrosine, and phenylalanine.     

Managing the People: Art Programs in the American Depression

How do “classical” big art institutions (museums, the ballet, the opera, symphony orchestras) react to phenomena of globalization such as migration flows, the “denationalization” of artistic movements, the enormous growth of the number of artists, the trend of a global cultural branding of cities, etc.? And which cultural policies do governments develop to interfere in the relationship between those art institutions and their changing environments? Those were the central questions I asked while doing research about the position of art institutions in society today. The research concentrated on a very diverse sample of big art institutions in Europe. The research begins with the insights of Actor Network Theory and the political philosophy of Antonio Negri and Michael Hardt and leads to an ideal typical two-dimensional model to classify the possible strategies that such institutions and their responsible governments can use on the local, national and international level.