TAM Kerfuffle Raises Questions Over What Defines NW Art

The Tacoma Art Museum has gotten itself into a bit of an awkward PR situation.

In the 1970s Col. John and Mary Young, a Chinese-American couple, donated a collection of Chinese Qing Dynasty embroidered robes, jade, and other items to the growing museum. The TNT has a nice summary of the history of the collection, and the Young family’s story. Various parts of the collection have been on display at the museum over the decades since the donation.

In 2010 TAM redefined its mission to focus more narrowly on Northwest art.

Tacoma Art Museum serves the diverse communities of the Northwest through its collection, exhibitions, and learning programs, emphasizing art and artists from the Northwest. Our vision is to be a national model for regional museums by creating a dynamic museum that engages, inspires, and builds community through art.

Following this change, last winter, TAM sold some of the items at auction, deeming them not to fit with its mission. It planned to sell the rest this year. The $230,000 the items auctioned in December brought in was a pleasant surprise to the museum.

The way the auction was handled may have been a surprise to the Young family, too, although a less pleasant one. The Youngs have complaints about lack of transparency and communication, and TAM’s failure to pursue housing the collection at other Northwest institutions. They claim that TAM’s handling of the situation has been disrespectful to the donors, their descendants, and to Asian culture.

TAM says the Youngs were made aware of the planned auctions, and that the money raised will go to purchase works by Northwest Chinese-American artists.

The museum’s decision that the items in the Young collection did not support this mission, and subsequent sale is fully within their rights. Museums do this sort of thing – it’s called “deaccessioning” – they assess their collections, and weed out things that don’t fit with their mission. The controversy over the TAM decision in this case comes from how they went about it.

The Young family and dozens of other community members say what’s left of the collection should be kept intact to promote cultural understanding and continue the healing of the harm done by the Chinese Expulsion in the late 1800s. Some are suggesting that TAM has the opportunity to choose whether it perpetuates the meaning of the “Tacoma Method,” or redefines it.

After the Young family filed a lawsuit against TAM to stop the sale, this morning the TNT reported that the parties had settled the issue out of court. TAM says it can’t back out on its contract to auction the items through Bonhams on March 12, but it will be withholding a few select items (unspecified for now) to be donated to a Northwest institution (also unspecified).

This whole saga raises a lot of questions. One is whether the Young collection fits in with TAM’s mission. Are the items made by Northwest artists? No. Can the collection be viewed as serving “the diverse communities of the Northwest” and “creating a dynamic museum that engages, inspires, and builds community through art?” In the context of Tacoma’s own history with the Chinese, quite possibly…

Uncomfortable conversations like this one expose tensions around stewardship of our community identity. How we resolve them informs that identity. So, what does this say about our community? Can we disentangle our history from our art?