Professional Ethics: The Smithsonian and Bill Cosby

The Smithsonian is including two items featuring Bill Cosby in their new African-American history museum but now is not the time to display these items when he has been accused by more than fifty women of sexual assault and the cases are pending. Instead of defending the fact that there are only two items out of 3,000 that they are utilizing, they should have simply stated that they have opted to withdraw the items. Why? There are several reasons, the first of which is that Cosby, despite his past television and comedian celebrity status, is current and controversial news. His story isn’t history. Yet. Still, attorney Lisa Bloom missed the point when she wrote that the Smithsonian and “its silence on the dozens of rape allegations against Bill Cosby only perpetuates ignorance” (New York Times). It would be inappropriate for the museum to comment on the rape allegations. Again, these allegations are ongoing news, not history.

Granted, museum management of controversy doesn’t follow these precepts. The typical response is, and should be, in favor of free speech and curatorial freedom. Allowing the display to remain and defending  your ground, while carefully collecting public comment, is the preferred stance. The problem is that the Smithsonian muddied the water. They first displayed a private art collection of the Cosbys’ and didn’t disclaim that they had received a $716,000 grant from the Cosbys’ until the collection had closed under pressure (New York Times). With this second inclusion in a different museum, the curator noted that it was the decision of one person to add the two pieces and that it wasn’t the decision of any high-level meetings. This makes it appear that they didn’t properly curate the exhibit if the curator was either oblivious or worse yet, wanted to promote an agenda.

This shouldn’t be attributed to taking an apolitical or non-confrontational position on our part. We know museums have a long history of gut-wrenching displays. The Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles is focused on the holocaust, not only because it is history that shouldn’t be forgotten, but in part to point out the consequences of prejudice and discrimination. Madame Tussauds may be a favorite for wax figures of celebrities and historical figures, but we remember that Marie Tussaud’s original work during the French Revolution included searching through corpses for severed heads to make their death masks. Grim and horrific realities are not something that we as directors, historians, curators and conservators pretend didn’t happen. What we can’t forget in this ‘era of instant’ and the desire to be the forerunner in communication is the delicate balance that we must retain: the respect and trust of not only our peers but of the public. This trust was damaged when the Smithsonian failed to acknowledge that anything related to Bill Cosby is a current event.

In the interim, the Smithsonian can carefully conserve those two pieces, and any other Cosby memorabilia. There are 2,998 pieces significantly representing the African-American story in eleven separate exhibits, and for now, that will be enough. The governing authority of the Smithsonian, under the ideals of the ethical governance of museums, needs to restore its image that “it is responsive to and represents the interests of society” (aam-us.org). Baldly stated, a museum isn’t anything without the trust of the public.

Works Referenced

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2016/03/29/us/politics/ap-us-smithsonian-bill-cosby.html?_r=1

http://ncac.org/resource/museum-best-practices-for-managing-controversy

http://www.aam-us.org/resources/ethics-standards-and-best-practices/code-of-ethics