Rose family objects to closing Rose museum

Below is the entire statement issued by the Rose family this evening objecting to Brandeis’s plans to shutter the school’s Rose Art Museum and pawn off the collection:

STATEMENT OF THE ROSE FAMILY

We speak on behalf of over 50 living members of the Rose Family. The current Brandeis University administration intends to close the Edward and Bertha C. Rose Art Museum, and to sell the art works in its renowned collection.

We Object.

We urge the current university president and the trustees to restore the use, budget, staffing, and activities of the Rose Art Museum until a final decision is issued by a court.

The university is effectively closing the museum before the Attorney General or any court has ruled that closing is allowed. This is being accomplished not only by a premature announcement of closure, but also by withholding the Rose’s own money – and cutting its staff, resources, and activities. “Re-purposing” the museum is closing by another name. It would not be the Rose. Any other understanding of the university’s current plan is disinformation. The administration wants to control money given to the Rose for museum purposes, to sell precious works of art, and to close the museum.

We Object.

We, the Rose Family, protest the plundering of the Rose Art Museum and its collection. Ed and Bertha Rose not only funded the planning and construction of the museum, but also set up three funds, separate from the Brandeis endowment, to perpetuate the Museum: the Rose Maintenance Fund, the Rose Museum Endowment Fund, and the Rose Endowed Purchase Fund. The existence and mission of the Rose benefit art, culture and education — locally and worldwide. The Rose offers students and the public a prized modern and contemporary art collection.

The art has been put on the auction block. The museum has been put on the chopping block.

We Object.

We seek:
1. Immediate renewal of contracts with the Museum Director and all his staff. Those salaries are paid from dedicated funds donated to or raised by the Museum – not from the general budget of Brandeis.

2. Authorization for the Director to prepare and install the next exhibit, to open when the Hans Hofmann exhibit comes down in May. Otherwise, the walls will be bare and there will be no exhibitions. Brandeis will have effectively closed the Rose Art Museum.

3. A promise that Brandeis will not sell any art belonging to the Rose.

4. A commitment that Brandeis will honor the donors’ intentions that there be a public art museum at Brandeis, and the Rose is that museum.

The museum is not for closing; the art is not for sale.

We object.

Joyce Perkit
Ariel and Jamie Keefer
Kurt and Paula Shapiro
Sharyn and Leon Lane
Craig and Jagoda Lane
Kimberly and Richard Kopelman
Marge and Murray Rubin
Stephen Rubin
Susan and Don Shanbar
Jodi and Joe Emerson
Cori and Eric Goldstein
Samuel and Phyllis Petnov
Elihu Petnov
Helen Rosen
Bernard Saklad
Ronna Cooper
Margo Cooper
Michael and Helena Cooper
Flora Cooper
Daniel Cooper
David and Judy Thomson
Judy Weiner
Harvey and Marilyn Spencer
Karen Spencer Dees
Amy Rocheleau
Stephanie Belghiti
Ellen Spencer
Howard J. Rosenthal
Peter D. Rosenthal
Andrew B. and Meryl Rose
Robert M. and Elinor B. Rose
Sydney G. Rose
William J. and Lisa Rose
Margery Rose Goodman
James and Jane Quinn
Carol G. Comras
Daniel H. Comras
Doris Rose Hopengarten
Profs. Jane and Richard Moss
David Moss
Fred Hopengarten, Esq.
Betty Herr, MD
Annie Hopengarten
Steven Hopengarten
Leslie Rose Ainsley
Debra Rose
Meryl Rose
Michael Baskin
Carol Baskin Stroyman