ONLINE PROGRAM

Everything Old is New Again: Artwashing at the Corcoran Gallery of Art and the Walters Art Gallery

Lisa Strong, professor of American art and director of the Art and Museum Studies MA Program at Georgetown University 

Accounts of philanthropists such as the Sackler Family or Leon Black, who use museum donations to deflect criticism for crimes or unethical behavior have erupted across the news over the past decade. While such controversies may seem a product of our partisan times, artwashing, as we call it today, has a long history in American culture. This talk will focus on the efforts of two prominent Civil-war era businessmen who supported the Confederacy to resuscitate their post-war images using art collections and quasi-public museum philanthropy.

$15 fee for guests and subscribers (no fee for members)