Museum Exhibit

Thanks to blogs, anyone with a grudge and Internet access (like me, for example) now has a forum in which to vent. And the Rio Grande Valley has its share of blogs addressing local issues.

There's El Rocinante, the granddaddy of South Texas blogs, in which Dr. G.F. McHale-Scully was railing against Brownsville politicians and the Brownsville Herald before blogging became a verb. A more recent arrival is Edinburg Politics, Joe Ochoa critic Earn My Vote's attempt to hold the newly re-elected Edinburg mayor accountable.

The latest example of a one-issue blog is At The Museum, written by someone going by the screen name Viva la Revolucion. This blogger concentrates on the taxpayer-subsidized International Museum of Art and Science in McAllen. Viva's not too happy with the current leadership at IMAS.

The author cites huge employee turnover as a sign something's not right at the museum, and the comments -- mostly anonymous and some unverifiable -- cite that and more problems with the facility.

IMAS has seen its share of troubles in recent years:

• A city audit in 2004 found problems with cash flow, personal charges on museum credit cards, employees taking IMAS vehicles home, and improperly stored Persian rugs and sculptures.
• In the wake of this audit becoming public, McAllen refused to increase funding for the museum.
• Then a local artist sued the museum over its refusal to show his sculpture.
• A month later, the museum's director got busted for soliciting an undercover cop posing as a prostitute, resulting in him getting fired and all sorts of off-color jokes in local newsrooms.

Now IMAS is up for reaccreditation with the American Association of Museums, Viva tells us. Has the facility locked up its problems, or are they still on display? Since McAllen taxpayers are supporting this troubled institution, they might want to take a closer look at what's going on.