Reorganization of the Brooklyn Museum has the Assoication of Art Museume Curators up in arms. This from the NY Times.

A national organization that represents American museum curators yesterday criticized a reorganization plan under which the Brooklyn Museum recently did away with traditional departments like Egyptian art, African art and European painting and replaced them with two separate teams for its vast collection and for special exhibitions.

The group, the Association of Art Museum Curators, said in a statement that the new structure “undermines the traditional vocation of the curator-as-scholar whose commitment to a particular collection renders him or her uniquely qualified to make recommendations regarding its care and interpretation.” The plan, which has been criticized by some curators at other museums and within the Brooklyn Museum itself, “raises issues that are central to the health of art museums in North America, and in fact, throughout the world,” said the association, which represents about 600 curators. The group was formed in 2002, soon after the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, dismissed 18 curators and staff members in a day.

In its statement the association said that the Brooklyn Museum’s “long-term viability” will “rest on the foundation of its superb, world-famous, collections.”

“Knowledgeable curators are needed to preserve and interpret them,” it said. “To think otherwise is penny wise and pound foolish.”