The Smithsonian Institution Is Rebranding Its Arthur M. Sackler Gallery in Washington

The Smithsonian’s Asian art
museums in Washington, DC, the Freer Gallery of Art and the Arthur
M. Sackler Gallery, are getting new names—sort of.

As part of a large-scale
rebranding effort, the galleries will now be collectively known as
the National Museum of Asian Art, according to the
Washington
Post. A new logo
will be brandished atop promotional materials, including a recently
redesigned website. However, legally—and on the buildings
themselves—the galleries will retain their original
names.

The Smithsonian asserts that the
change is not related to protests against the Sackler family, which
is embroiled in lawsuits over its alleged connections to the opioid
crisis.

“The shift toward a unified
brand is not a shift away from the galleries’
names,” the museums’
operations and communications head, Lori Duggan Gold, said in a
statement to Artnet.

She says the change will give
visitors a better sense that “they can expect to see
Asian art during a visit to a museum.”

“Our strategic plan aims to
build upon the strengths of these two complementary galleries to
serve as one national museum,” she added. “The museums already
share one board, staff, budget, and strategic plan. Establishing a
cohesive brand helps reach this goal.”

The Sackler Gallery opened in
1987 after Arthur M. Sackler donated $50 million worth of Asian art
and artifacts to the Smithsonian, and an additional $4 million to
fund a museum to hold it all. Arthur Sackler died several years
before his younger brothers, Raymond and Mortimer, launched Purdue
Pharma, the company behind OxyContin. He is not named in any of the
current lawsuits against the company.

The Freer Gallery, founded
by Detroit
industrialist Charles Lang Freer, opened in 1923.

In June, US Senator Jeff Merkley
of Oregon campaigned to have
the Sackler name removed from the museum.

“While the Sackler family has
provided philanthropic support to several major cultural
institutions around the world, including the Smithsonian’s Sackler
Gallery of Art, the Sackler family hooked thousands of Americans on
OxyContin through aggressive and misleading marketing tactics and
profited from one of the deadliest health crises in our country,”
Merkley wrote in the
letter addressed to
Smithsonian’s secretary, Lonnie Bunch.

“The Sackler name has no place
in taxpayer-funded public institutions, such as the Freer-Sackler
Gallery, and I ask that you remove the name from the
gallery.”

Bunch responded to
Merkley with a letter of his own, explaining that the institution was legally
mandated to keep the name. 

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