Yesterday the Independent newspaper in London published an article with the headline “It’s Oil Money that Fuels our Museums” by Tiffany Jenkins that discusses the pros and cons of museums accepting money from oil companies and others who may not always take the high ground when it comes to the gathering of wealth. This has been a conversation in non profits as long as they have existed. In fact, it is a conversation in every situation where fund raising occurs. Think about political fund raising and how many politicians have shamefacedly had to hand back donations from crooks. Bernie Madoff was a trustee of several charitable organizations, and Enron senior executives were pillars in their communities. What’s a non profit to do?

Typically Jenkins suggests that arts organizations should take the money and run. Take it and turn lemons into lemonade. Others, including protesters at the Tate Modern and other museums around the world take a different view and believe that tainted money perverts institutions and should be avoided at all costs. What do you think?

Rembrandt's Night Watch

Van Gogh's Sunflowers

Following this, are more specific genres of writing for students to explore – gallery notices for works on the wall and more general, longer exhibition introductions as well as brief catalogue descriptions of the artworks. Discussions centre around the best ways to balance facts for the visitors without being intrusively instructive or “lecturey”…

Other opportunities are for journalistic exercises, learning to be a reviewer for a national paper, or preparing and writing an academic paper, or a fully-fledged essay for an exhibition catalogue (all these are optional). So, how many yellow can you discern in the Van Gogh sunflowers?

James Malpas

Amalia Dayan and Daniella Luxembourg

Daniella Luxembourg and Amalia Dayan claim they never intended to open their new gallery to the public. According to Dorothy Spears, writing for the Huffington Post, the two young gallerists were sick of spending all of their time talking with the public and wanted to spend more time with art. Eventually, according to the article, they were forced to maintain public hours by sheer audience demand when they mounted an exhibition of Jeff Koons’s infamous porn paintings, Made In Heaven. But, they held their ground by not staying open on the most popular gallery going day, Saturday. Now, however, they do open on Saturdays in New York. What a shame.  They tell Spears that they are planning a London venue now and will try the closed- to-the-public strategy again. Good luck ladies.