The “Gaelic Gotham” Dispute: Analysis of an Exhibition Controversy in New York City

THE “GAELIC GOTHAM” DISPUTE: ANALYSIS OF AN EXHIBITION CONTROVERSY IN NEW YORK CITY FRANK NAUGHTON a special session of the Columbia University Seminar on Irish Studies took place on April 12, 1996 when it convened a month after the controversial exhibition, “Gaelic Gotham: A History of the Irish in New York,” opened at the Museum of the City of New York. Departing from usual concerns, the Seminar session was devoted to this exhibition and its issues —topics of importance for the history of the Irish and the histories of other groups in America. During the year preceding “Gaelic Gotham,” the Museum’s actions in preparing the exhibition, and reactions to these, connected the New York exhibition with an ongoing wider debate over the construction of history though public institutions. Thus, the “Gaelic Gotham” controversy occurred simultaneously with a national discussion over the administration of historical and cultural exhibitions at major institutions like the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian Institution.1 Issues in this discussion remain unresolved and are centered on questions such as: who should be involved in constructing the histories of ethnic and other social groups through museums and similar institutions; what experience and credentials should individuals bring to this involvement; what should be the cultural and intellectual sensitivities of administrators at museums, and what should be the public accountability of museums and their funding organizations, particularly organizations like the National Endowment for the Humanities that get money and authority from public sources. ANALYSIS OF AN EXHIBITION CONTROVERSY IN NEW YORK CITY 176 1 Differences in controversies surrounding these exhibitions need to be examined. As a whole, however, the controversies raise issues including those of meaningful community and scholarly involvement in exhibitions, appropriate institutional responsiveness to affected communities and groups, and the extent to which publicly funded organizations are answerable to their constituents. This essay attempts to assist readers of Eire-Ireland in thinking about such questions by examining the “Gaelic Gotham” controversy and identifying elements in it. Presented is a descriptive analysis of the dispute over the exhibition. This analysis is followed by Allen Feldman’s review, focusing on the exhibition’s content, presented at the Columbia Seminar session. EMERGENCE OF THE “GAELIC GOTHAM” CONTROVERSY In November, 1994 the Museum of the City of New York received notification from the National Endowment for the Humanities that NEH was prepared to make available $250,000 in outright funds and $50,000 in matching funds in response to a major grant application from the Museum . The grant application had proposed a $1.2 million exhibition about the Irish in New York City that was unprecedented in size and plan, and that was to be funded mostly by non-NEH monies raised by the Museum. With its intellectual groundwork supported by an earlier NEH planning grant to the Museum of $49,900, the application had been developed largely from three years of research and conceptualization by Marion R. Casey, a Ph.D. candidate at New York University and a scholar with exceptional credentials in New York Irish history.2 Because of her work on the application , her academic background, and her extensive involvement in New York Irish American community, it was widely expected Casey would be guest curator of the exhibition at the Museum. During the six months after this notification, the crucial elements making up the controversy over “Gaelic Gotham” emerged. These were: 1. the Museum’s goal of removing Casey from roles traditionally filled by guest curators for historical exhibitions of similar size and scope; 2. the Museum ’s unyielding guardedness about the exhibition and an increasing use of innuendos by Museum officials in response to questions about implementation of “Gaelic Gotham,” and 3. continuing questions and statements of concern over exhibition development under changed budgetary ANALYSIS OF AN EXHIBITION CONTROVERSY IN NEW YORK CITY 177 2 Casey is author of the article on the Irish in New York contained in The Encyclopedia of New York City (Yale University Press, 1995). She was the central advisor for The New York Irish (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996), the first history of the Irish in the City, for which she was also contributor of an essay on social and geographic...