The Rose Museum controversy proves two things

If you haven't been following this particular strand of the apocalypse, the Rose Museum at Brandeis University has been ordered closed by the Brandeis Board of Trustees, and the art collection, valued at half a billion dollars, is to be sold off to finance Brandeis's operations.

Like most universities, companies, nonprofits, and people, Brandeis is having a hard time right now financially. Selling off the art collection is extreme, even shocking, coming from an intellectual powerhouse of a college. But it's evidence that 1), the arts just aren't very important to a lot of people, and 2), that the historic link of an important art collection to a university as a key teaching tool is dead, a relic not so different from the amusing turn-of-the-century biology specimen collections that used to adorn every life sciences department at every college.

Regardless of whether the Rose survives, and it still might, what needs fundamental work from the artistic standpoint is to rebuild that critical link of art and university, and most significantly to raise the value and nature of the arts in the public's consciousness. These are long-term struggles, but necessary ones. Meanwhile, one can find save-the-Rose groups on Facebook and other networthy sites.