Thomas Hawk sez, “I received unfortunate response to my request to photograph the Neon Museum in Las Vegas. The Neon Museum is where many of the old historically significant neon signs in Las Vegas go when they die. Although I wanted to photograph the museums’ signs for non-commercial use — to promote their museum and to share the images of this non-profit museum via Flickr and my blog — they sent me back a response indicating that I would need to go through a more rigorous in writing request and that they did not want their images shared on flickr or elsewhere without copy protection on the internet. This is backwards thinking and contrary to what a non profit museum, who states as their mission to exhibit their work to an international community, should be about.”
Although many people have taken it upon themselves to post photos of the Boneyard on Flickr and other photo-sharing websites, we ask that no one do so. We are an educational facility first and foremost – and therefore do not allow stock photography. Photos that are uploaded to sites such as Flickr are not copy protected, and therefore are able to be lifted and used by unscrupulous people. As a result, we are trying to limit the number of images from our collection that are hosted on the web.
I agree with Thomas — this is the opposite of curatorship. The conceit of the author of the above paragraph is that everyone who could stand to learn from the museum knows that it exists and has the wherewithal to visit it. The role of a curator of a museum is to manage a collection on the grounds that it belongs to the ages, that it is important to human culture. For curators to block the dissemination of their collection is antithetical to curatorship. Curators should encourage, not suppress culture.
(Thanks, Thomas!)