Apr

In the News

The annual Legal Issues in Museum Administration conference, co-sponsored by the Smithsonian, took place this year in Washington, D.C., from March 22-24. This longstanding conference, now in its 39th year, is also sponsored by the American Law Institute-American Bar Association with the cooperation of the American Association of Museums. Attorneys from the Smithsonian’s Office of General Counsel have played an active role in planning and organizing this program since it began in 1973, and many have served as program chairs and faculty.

Associate General Counsel Craig Blackwell (Photo via Flickr user Katja Schultz)

This year, two members of the Smithsonian’s Office of General Counsel, Craig Blackwell (program co-chair) and Jason Baletsa, were on the Steering Committee and participated as faculty. Three other OGC attorneys, Marsha Shaines, Lauryn Guttenplan and Farleigh Earhart, also participated as faculty. Secretary Clough delivered the keynote address the first morning of the conference and Lonnie Bunch closed the conference with an address on creating the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Carol Butler, chief of Collections at the Natural History Museum, participated in a panel on Special Collections.

The conference drew over 240 participants from around the country, including in-house attorneys, outside counsel to museums, registrars, curators, and museum administrators. Participants included representatives from the Smithsonian, the National Gallery of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Library of Congress, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Philadelphia Museum, the Field Museum, the New York Public Library, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the J. Paul Getty Museum, and many other institutions. Next year’s conference will be held in San Francisco.