Quodlibetica

‘Interests’: Conflicts Amidst Diversity

Written By: Chris Atkins Constellation 06 2.1.10

by Chris Atkins

You don’t have to look far for high-profile stories of conflicts of interest in the art world. Recently, the New Museum in New York was viciously criticized in the New York Times, The Village Voice, and many other art publications for supporting an upcoming exhibition of work from the private collection of Dakis Joannou curated by artist Jeff Koons. The conflict? In addition to owning many of Koons’s work, Joannou is also a New Museum trustee. Among the reasons for crying foul are, at the very least, widely recognized policies about exhibitions drawing too heavily from museum board members’ collections; after all, artwork travelling in a high-profile exhibition will likely increase in value.

The Joannou-Koons controversy came up again at an event in which newly minted Los Angeles MoCA director Jeffrey Deitch dismissed the criticism by burying it under superlatives: “The museum is doing a fascinating project […] It is having one of the most interesting, radical artists of our time do an artistic curation of the best contemporary art collection of ouProxy-Connection: keep-alive
Cache-Control: max-age=0

time.” Deitch, however, is a longtime curator to the Dakis Joannou Collection Foundation – the same collection from which work will be shown in the New Museum exhibit.

More locally, questions of conflict have been leveled at Minnesota’s new Legacy Amendment Fund panel. With an estimated tax windfall of $48 million to be generated in 2010, there are many opinions on how to draft the guidelines by which the Fund money will be distributed. That the panelists included members who work for organizations that stand to benefit directly from this massive and highly competitive funding opportunity brought the issue of conflict of interest to the forefront.

In a recent Star Tribune article, one panelist acknowledged the potential for vested interests and commended his fellow panelists for their discretion: “There was certainly some concern that people were going to be territorial, that there might be an attempt to sort of push people out of the funding stream… I think it was a pretty magical group.” However, the same advisory panel came under fire in a follow-up editorial that stated, “confusion about its mission – exacerbated by the presence of a high-powered lobbyist sitting on it – has understandably led to conflict-of-interest concerns and speculation that panel members set up the rules to steer money to their organizations.”

While determining whether there is anything behind accusations of conflicts of interest is a burden for ethics committees and review boards, these examples show that there only needs to be a hint of a potential conflict for flags to be raised, whistles to be blown and scathing editorials to be published. And often the court of public opinion will proceed by the old adage, “where there’s smoke there’s fire.”

Some players maintain that conflict of interest in the art world is just the nature of the beast. In an interview following his dismissal as a freelance critic for The Village Voice, Christian Viveros-Faune said, “I firmly believe that there is no interest in the art world without a conflict of interest.” To him, and many others, art world professionals are bound to have diversified and overlapping skills sets, often resulting in hyphenated job descriptions—something like curator-writer-critic-artist-teacher.

But while people in the arts who find themselves wearing many hats may argue that trust in a person’s objectivity should trump those hyphenated roles, there is also something to be said for trusting one to acknowledge what could be perceived as a conflict of interest and taking steps to avoid it. After all, there are plenty of ways to exit a situation that could damage the credibility of an organization: recusing oneself from consideration, providing full disclosure on one’s relationship to an artist or entity, abstaining from voting, or resigning entirely.

Still, it brings up an interesting question: How does the dictionary definition of Conflict of Interest compare to how it actually plays out in practice?

In the simplest of terms, a conflict of interest is a situation in which a person’s professional affiliation could be undermined by personal motivations. Many professions have developed industry-specific guidelines and penalties that range from disbarment or losing a practice license to professional punishment or probation. 

Regardless of industry nuances, the overarching outcome is often the same: When a conflict is discovered, the implication is that an assurance (whether contractual or understood) of impartiality has been broken and an individual’s credibility—and, possibly, that of an entire organization—is lost. What I find most interesting is the criteria for a conflict of interest is not necessarily that a sinister or shady dealing has occurred, but that a professional affiliation could be undermined by personal motivations. In other words, “conflict of interest” refers to what hasn’t happened but might happen—and to prevent a hypothetical situation from becoming real.

So, when faced with the stench of unfair advantage and its close relation to nepotism, how do we continue to be extra vigilant against conflicts?

For many years, “interdisciplinary art practice” and “cross-departmental degree programs” have been buzzwords in the art and academic worlds. At the heart of these projects is a new way of thinking in which students are encouraged to look beyond their disciplinary territories, an openness to practicing alternative methodologies, gaining access to new research archives and creating the opportunity for new knowledge. While I’ve always subscribed to and taught this kind of research, to others, this kind of academic research dilutes research and doesn’t respect disciplinary boundaries. When it comes to artists working in collaboration with their mentors or students while volunteering for other organizations, there certainly isn’t any hesitation. While these could be considered conflicts of interest, in my experience, many artists are more eager to leverage as many interests as possible and less concerned about garnering a reputation for being ruthless.

But what is at stake in this discussion is impartiality, objectivity, and ensuring a person can be unbiased when making professional decisions. Whether the articles about the New Museum, the Legacy Amendment Fund panel and an editor’s decision to sack an art critic are founded or not, they remind us of the importance of maintaining trust while acknowledging the diversity of interests within the arts community. And considering that “concerns” and perceptions are all it takes to initiate claims of conflicts of interest, it behooves us as art professionals to be transparent with our procedures. 

Images:

1) and 2) Dakis Joannou’s yacht, decorated by Jeff Koons