PAVING THE ROAD TO HELL?: CULTURAL INSTITUTIONS AND THE “NEW” PHILANTHROPY

Abstract

On February 6, 2002, The Washington Post reported: Throughout the nine months that her idea for an exhibition on American achievement at the Smithsonian Institution had been debated, Catherine B. Reynolds was frustrated with the process. She was angry that her idea of honoring prominent individuals had become a lightening rod for criticism. She was annoyed that some historians thought the Catherine B. Reynolds Foundation’s promised $38 million gift to the National Museum of American History didn’t mean she could help decide how the exhibit would be presented. She was befuddled by the slow and consensus-oriented process of putting together . . .