While we celebrate the reopening of the Smithsonian American Art Museum and National Portrait Gallery as classic examples of what museum care and innovation should be, the Smithsonian Institution at large may be slowly losing its grasp on the rest of its constituency. D.C.-based art critic and blogger Tyler Green has some critical words in a Los Angeles Times op-ed about the dilapidated conditions the other Smithsonian museums are suffering due to Congress’ underfunding of the Institution, and the questionable sources to which it is turning as a result.
Green writes that while the Reynolds Center renovations cost just over $200 million, Smithsonian needs over $2 billion to plug the leaking holes and even turn the hot water back on at its other venues. The worst case scenarios are already starting to come true, with the Air and Space Museum finding some of its exhibits water damaged—some irreparably—last year.
This certainly isn’t a new problem—the Smithsonian’s guardians have been begging Congress for more funds for years—but it’s certainly starting to reach a breaking point. The New York Times reported in detail last fall about the state of disrepair from which the Institution suffers: leaking pipes at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery; dangerous enclosures at the National Zoo; falling metal panels at the Arts and Industries building. The list goes on, but the current federal funding barely keeps the problems from escalating out of control.
