Brandeis University trustees voted unanimously yesterday to close the Rose Art Museum by late summer and sell its international collection to survive the troubled economy.
College spokesman Dennis Nealon said trustees made "a hard decision" to ensure Brandeis could continue to fulfill its educational mission.
"The board and (University President Jehuda Reinharz) are confident the college will be in a better position to deal with the economy. It's serious but not catastrophic," said Nealon, executive director of media and public relations at Brandeis. "The bottom line is that the students, the faculty and core academic mission come first. (Trustees) had to look at the college's assets and came to a decision to maintain that fundamental commitment to teaching."
Nealon stressed many of the nation's colleges are facing similar economic challenges.
He said Brandeis leaders have "been looking at everything over the last several months" to address the recession's impact on the university's finances. "Cuts have been substantial. It's not the first step. It's an important part of the process," said Nealon.
The trustees' vote came at a time Brandeis is facing "a lot of belt tightening" caused, in part, by dramatic cutbacks in philanthropic gifts.
While Brandeis was not directly hurt by the Madoff investment scandal, Nealon said some "major donors were hurt profoundly."
"That certainly had a residual effect," he said.
Nealon said "most" of the college's 15 trustees were present for the afternoon vote.
Describing plans to close the Rose as "fairly recent," he said, "we know the collection is valuable but we're not putting a price on it in this market."
Directed by Michael Rush, the Rose Art Museum owns a wide variety of modern and contemporary art including pieces by Picasso, Andy Warhol, Willem de Kooning, Jasper Johns and Roy Lichtenstein. Nealon said the Rose Museum, which opened in 1961, will no longer exist and the building housing the museum will be used for a fine arts teaching center.
"The facility itself will remain. Our emphasis on art is not wavering," he said.
"There's been a lot of legal work. The administration has been in touch with many donors (of art in the collection). Many understand the problems we're facing," he said.
Founded in 1948 and named for the first Jewish Justice of the Supreme Court, Brandeis University is a highly-ranked liberal arts institution with 3,500 undergraduates and about 1,000 postgraduate students.
Nealon said closing the museum will not damage Brandeis' reputation as "one of the nation's consistently highest ranked educational institutions."
"It's a university first. It's a university that has a museum, not a museum that has a university," he said. "It's not an end to anything. It's a beginning."
