BY DAN VALENTI

PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY

Part Four of a Series; Editor’s Note: THE PLANET is extending this series one more installment.

(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION, SEPT. 29-OCT. 1, 2017) — THE PLANET heard again from our inside source at the Berkshire Museum (BM), Sunny. He/she relayed how our series has been received by the BM Biggies, and it has been with a mixture of embarrassment, denial, and the misplaced anger that  comes from wanting to shoot the messenger.

THE PLANET, Sunny says, was lumped with “the blankety-blank media” in purveying “fake news,” a sure sign that we have been on target with a direct hit. We have also received private hate mail that brings us to share George Orwell’s observation in “Shooting an Elephant” of being important enough to be hated. This we can laugh at and off. Over the course of a long career in journalism, much of an investigative nature, we have long since been used to this kind of reaction. Actually, we welcome it, since it indicates that we have been proven effective in our rhetorical mission. Of course, no one loves to be hated, but when the haters hate you, it comes off as love. It can’t be helped.

This tells us we have pissed off the right people in supporting a just cause on behalf of the true victims here. They would be the citizens of Pittsfield, the residents of Berkshire County, the erstwhile and would-be visitors of the BM, the art world in general, and individual artists in particular, especially those who live and work in Berkshire County. We stand with those citizens, those residents, those visitors, and those artists. We oppose those at the BM who have made such poor decisions, those who have run up an inexcusable debt, and those who have dumbed down the museum to the point where it rivals Chuck E. Cheese.

We have been taken to task for not uncovering any criminality in the finances and accused of taking the BM’s financial apologies out of context and with distortion. Again, it tells us we have blasted the target to smithereens. We didn’t uncover graft, bribes, money laundering, or any such criminality in the BM’s “Summary of Finances” on its web page because we weren’t looking for it. Moreover, that would be the last place to look.

Criminality? We make no such assertion. That allegation can only be made on hard  evidence. In that vein, what the actual books of this private not-for-profit may reveal stands as another matter THE PLANET is not equipped to address, up or down. Only the truthful numbers of a forensic audit by an independent accounting firm willing to dig can answer that question. It does occur to us that considering the much-maligned sale (and rape) of Norman Rockwell and other iconic artwork expected to bring in anywhere between $50 and $80 million — large and tempting sums, indeed — we wouldn’t rule out a thing. Given that such an audit will not happen only reinforces a trip on that train of thought.

But be clear. THE PLANET makes no such allegations, nor have we seen any evidence to think outright criminality plays any role here. Therefore, let’s give the benefit of the doubt and state our faith. Let us assume executive director Van Shields, trustees’ president “Buzz” McGraw, and the remainder of the board are saints who would never give into the temptation generated by so much money about to line the debt-ridden coffers — though with that, we are reminded of Sir Harry Wooten‘s statement to Dorian Gray in the Oscar Wilde classic that the surest way to resist a temptation is to yield to it.

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Delapidations come in many form. You have blight, which one can see, for example, at Hess Forest on Tyler Street or the old KFC on East Street (so much for campaign promises, eh Linda Tyer?). Then there’s the ugly raw-nerve cavity formed by the presence and commerce of drug dealers, gangs, and other such urban scum that have turned North Street into a ghost town (too late to ask Ernie Jordan, the hot-dog man; the crowded emptiness of the sidewalks and the ridiculous parking situation drove him out of business). Another variety of degradation, for which Pittsfield has become famous in this generation, is white-collar cholera, a form of crass stupidity that has many causes. That’s what we’re dealing with in the BM situation.

The most serious systemic problem at the BM has to be the state of a deeply divided board, held in a public counterfeit of unity only by intimidation and fear. That much seems clear from what Sunny says, and this is a person who would have cause to know. The poisonous schism should make anyone pause before giving the BM any kind of support, be it attendance, donations, or a morale-lifting “atta way to go!” Shields, McGraw, and their co-conspirators do not deserve it.

The divided state of the BM administrators and staff, and the fear that’s tenuously holding things precariously together, guarantees certain failure, no matter how much money the art sale yields.

THE PLANET makes this appeal to the BM Biggies: There’s still time to call off the sale. Stand for something good, for a change.

“DON’T DO IT.”

Have a great weekend, everybody.

Coming Monday, Pt 5 concludes this series.

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“One more hour and we’ll be there and laughing, too.” — Yes, “Roundabout.”

“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE”

LOVE TO ALL.

The Usual Disclaimer.