Arts & International Affairs: Volume 2, Issue 1 | Page 134

shared notions of validity, … and a common policy enterprise” (Haas ����:�).
These attributes suggest a cohesion across the museum community that is
unproven. They may have more in common with “transnational communities”
(Djelic and Quack ����) than epistemic communities.
Even if we can identify those driving the museum satellite phenomenon as
some sort of community, it tells us little about their objectives and effects.
The same can be said of classing museum branches as public–private
partnerships. “Partnerships can be understood as voluntary cooperative
arrangements between actors from two or more societal spheres (state,
market, civil society) with non-hierarchical decision-making procedures”
(Jönsson ����:��). The satellite museums are surely this, but this tells us little
about the drivers, nature, and consequences of the partnerships. Museum
branches are also surely part of a network. According to Jönsson (����),
networks are “informal constellations without official status….Networks
represent a more horizontal, ‘flat,’ non-hierarchical mode of organization”
(Jönsson ����:��). “Networks represent more than fleeting encounters,
but less than permanent institutions” (Jönsson ����:��). The Guggenheim
is, itself, a sort of network. Exhibitions can circulate among the various
Guggenheim locations (SRG Foundation ����:��). This tells us something
about the flows and interdependencies, but again, little about the origins and
substance of the links between the various nodes. Therefore, the museum
is, by definition a non-profit entity, but it does not map perfectly onto any
variant of the non-governmental organization.
Cultural diplomat
While not typically part of the transnational actor discussion, there is a
fruitful overlap with the cultural diplomacy literature, which increasingly
recognizes the contribution that non-state and private sector actors can
make to cultural diplomacy. Many formulations of cultural diplomacy
presume that governments are its key agents (Mark ����). However, a shift in
focus toward the preferred outcome of cultural diplomacy—greater mutual
understanding—can accommodate non-governmental actors as cultural
diplomats (Cummings ����; Goff ����, ����; Schneider ����). Some of the
modern museum satellites situate their work in this way. �
Interestingly, the Guggenheim is not the first private museum that tried
to develop international franchises. Nelson Rockefeller, a benefactor of the
Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York had for many years tried to open
�
On museums as agents of cultural diplomacy, see Cai (����), Grincheva (����), and Nisbett (����).
On museums and cultural policy, see Jenkins (����, ����).
133