Refreshing

Reader comment on: Goldberg Versus Walton

Submitted by Carol Spieckerman (United States), Dec 26, 2011 14:05

Thank you for providing this excellent counterpoint to Mr. Bloomberg's myopic-bordering-on-condescending articles on the project. Nothing would have prevented Ms. Walton from slapping her name on the front door (surely self-aggrandizement would be the first sign of a "vanity project"), yet she chose depersonalization.

Isn't it more than obvious that she could have spent that money in any number of other ways? Instead, she bestowed a gift that will enrich the lives of culture-deprived residents of Northwest Arkansas who either have never set foot in a museum or, on the opposite extreme, who make pilgrimages to art meccas around the world in order to satisfy cultural cravings (guilty as charged). Walmart's follow-on corporate gift of $20 million (would anyone call that chump change?) ensures that anyone who bothers to visit will enjoy the art and architecture for free in perpetuity - In other words, Crystal Bridges won't go the way of some art institutions that just couldn't resist the pull of charging admission, sometimes in spite of generous endowments. How very "un-Walmart" of them (if you believe the hype).

Retail is a business, one that I can tell you from experience was more brutal pre-Walmart, when powerful department stores roamed the earth demanding kick-backs and courting favor with suppliers (or carrying out retribution against them when the checks weren't written). Who paid the difference? Customers.


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Other reader comments on this item

Title By Date
A Sense of Place [225 words]TedJan 8, 2012 09:22
⇒ Refreshing [225 words]Carol SpieckermanDec 26, 2011 14:05
Embattled minorities [29 words]Paul JohnsonDec 23, 2011 11:50
Bravo
[w/response] [45 words]
Judith DobrzynskiDec 21, 2011 19:58
Thorough [52 words]John GillisDec 21, 2011 10:08

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