The Middle West is really different from New York—but this hardly shows in Middle Western museums, whether in Minneapolis and Milwaukee, where I recently visited, or elsewhere. Nearly all of them could as well be located on the East Coast or in New York itself. The objects displayed, the temporary exhibitions, the definitions of goals and functions do not differ in kind or in quality from New York’s Metropolitan Museum or the Museum of Modern Art, though all are possessed of a fervent ambition to beat the latter at their own game.
In a way, this is not surprising: New York’s cultural predominance is a fact of American life. But what does seem strange is that so many Midwestern art institutions seem to neglect or pay only lip service to their Midwestern roots, cultural origins and the local art scene. Even when they exhibit local artists, they tend to choose those whose work exemplifies an in trend on Madison Avenue, shunning anything that smacks of “regionalism” as being synonymous with “provincial,” a dirty word. In short, they operate on the principle that what’s good for New York is good for them, and see their function as that of the missionary bringing New York art to the hinterland. In this, they seem, at least to this observer, to be going against the quietly independent spirit which characterizes other Midwestern institutions.
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