Flash Art January-February 1998 (pg. 45)

 

DETROIT (MICHIGAN)

Mail harassment?

 

The Guggenheim Museum sent a letter to Detroit’s MCA telling them they would no longer accept by post any further press-packets or museum news.  “Take us off your list immediately,” ordered Diane Dewey, of the Guggenheim, to Detroit’s  Museum of New Art.  “Should you not comply, any further mailings will be returned unopened and will be considered a breach of our rights.” 

The Guggenheim’s reason for rejecting the mail is that it is not “germane to use geographically, nor in relation to our mission or interests.” 

Why the hostility towards one museum from another and why such offense over common publicity mailing?  Richard Mann, director of the MONA, could only shake his head.

“When is a museum not a museum,” he posed.  “When it’s a global conglomerate?  Or to quote Ms. Dewey, when it is geographically irrelevant?  And when did we begin to draw such lines?”