WASHINGTON, DC — Ever since the National Museum of African Art’s 50th-anniversary exhibition Conversations: African and African American Artworks in Dialogue opened last November, the show has sparked exactly what its name intended: fervent debate, though not about the issues in the art but mainly about what the museum should do with the works belonging to Bill and Camille Cosby. The couple, whose collection accounts for roughly a third of the exhibition, also donated $716,000, essentially funding the entire show. With allegations against the now-infamous comedian mounting, most significantly after New York Mag’s deeply disturbing and extensively researched July article, the museum has faced increased pressure to remove the works or at least change Cosby’s prominent place in it.
What Museumgoers Think of the Smithsonian’s Cosby Exhibition
