Are Museums Responsible for Their Donors’ Actions?

“Follow the Money,” the informant known only as “Deep Throat” told Woodward and Bernstein during their investigation into the Watergate Scandal that they titled All the President’s Men. Follow the flow of cash behind any endeavor and you’ll find the true source, which can be surprising and, too often, dismaying. Art museums, those bastions of civilization, quite often find themselves in the position of accepting donations from less-than-civilized parties, specifically corporations polluting the world. A group calling itself Liberate Tate staged their latest (and largest) protest against the Tate Modern’s acceptance of money from British Petroleum, aka, BP, who are best remembered for their Gulf of Mexico oil spill in 2010 that continues to plague that region. Should we hold museums responsible for their donors’ actions? Please come over to Picture This at Big Think to read more of "Are Museums Responsible for Their Donors’Actions?"

[Image: The Gift. Performance by Liberate Tate. Tate Modern, 7 July 2012. Credit: Ian Buswell.]