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41 4 Cooperative Relationships with Museums barry pritzker The college art association’s intent from the beginning was “to promote art interests in all divisions of American colleges and universities ” for “all instructors in the history, practice, teaching, and theory of the fine arts in a college or university of recognized standing.”1 This “big-tent” formulation included museums both on and off campus, since from the outset scholars working in museums, either as full-time employees or as guest curators, have been involved with CAA. Nevertheless, despite the integral involvement of museum professionals and despite the obvious relationship between art historians and practitioners and museum professionals, for most of its existence the organization has served the latter constituency less well than it has the former. From its early years, CAA maintained formal relations with two of the most prominent museum organizations, the American Association of Museums (AAM) and the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD), for the purpose of collegiality as well as mutuality of interest. CAA has had several museum directors on its board over the years, and each association has provided formal liaison positions for the other. For instance, AAMD has had from time to time a formal liaison on CAA’s board of directors, and the executive director of the latter is invited as a guest to AAMD’s board meetings. CAA became an affiliate of AAM, and thus a member of the Council of Affiliates, in 1990,2 arguing in the application for affiliate status that although the requisite percentage of museum professionals did not appear in the organization’s membership, its members were involved in larger numbers in museums, especially as guest curators. The 42 ∏ Barry Pritzker membership of all three associations has overlapped, and continues to overlap to a certain degree. Moreover, issues of art education and college museums were, not surprisingly , debated in the pages of College Art Journal from the early days of the organization . A 1942 review of College and University Museums, by AAM Director Laurence Coleman, for instance, noted that “plans for a college museum should reflect the nature of the courses offered” and the “exclusion of modern art cannot be justified, particularly when courses in the practice of art form a considerable part of the teaching.” The reviewer further noted that “art historical courses and the purchases of a college museum should not only be parallel but should also supplement one another.”3 In a 1944 essay titled “Of Education in an Art Museum,” Roberta M. Fansler warns against the threat of “vocational education ” to the “wholeness of a college student’s education.”4 In general, however, despite formal and informal linkages and shared interests , the degree of cooperation between CAA and professional museum associations has not been strong. The status of a formal Museum Committee within the organization reveals that ambiguity. The first (and last for nine decades) mention of an Exhibitions Committee occurred as early as 1919.5 Fifteen years later, a Committee on Museum Activities was proposed, although this committee appears to have languished as well.6 In 1956 the first mention of a Joint ArtistsMuseum Committee appeared in the minutes, but despite a spectacular burst of initial energy and activity (see below), this committee died out within just a few years.7 The record does not show when the current Museum Committee was established, but there is mention of its existence as early as 1971, when John Spencer, director of the Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College (who had just resigned from the board), wrote to the CAA board pleading for CAA to “provide a home for the University and College Art Museums within the organization by way of sessions devoted to appropriate topics at the annual meeting.” The plea was echoed in an additional letter from the president of the Association of Art Museum Directors. Mr. Spencer was appointed chair of a committee to investigate the formation of a subgroup within CAA.8 A “Report of the Museum Committee to the Board of Trustees of the College Art Association” signed by Sherman Lee, director of the Cleveland Museum of Art, is appended to the minutes of the board meeting two months later, but there is no mention of the report or its three recommendations, all of which involve the development of relations between colleges and universities and museums, nor is there a subsequent mention in the board minutes.9 According to CAA’s current Web site, “the...

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