Biennial Report 2017–2018 Biennial Report 2017–2018 Report of the President The Saint Louis Art Museum finished 2018 in a strong Learning and Engagement efforts also expanded position with an annual attendance of 653,074 visitors, during the biennial period. More than 61,000 visitors the fifth highest in the Museum’s 140-year history. participated in docent-led tours, and more than That year’s popular exhibition Sunken Cities: Egypt’s 25,000 children and adults enjoyed the Museum’s free Lost Worlds recorded the tenth-highest exhibition Family Sunday programs. More than 40,000 students attendance, and its success helped swell the year-end participated in Museum programs, which included roll of Museum Members to 20,505 households—the intensive programs like the multi-visit Arts in the Basic second highest in the membership program’s 67 years Curriculum tours and small-group workshops with such of existence. During this period, staff launched a new leading contemporary artists as Mickalene Thomas assessment and evaluation initiative, and although and Kehinde Wiley. Additionally, the Museum offered the data from 2018 represent just the beginning of teacher workshops and professional development this ongoing research, I am pleased to share that the experiences to more than 800 area educators. In Museum is performing exceptionally. Net Promoter December 2018, the Museum activated its robust Score is a frequently used index measuring the likelihood new website, which will enable online visitors to that an individual will recommend a product or service better engage with the collection. by assigning a score between −100 and +100. The Museum’s score is +87, more than 30 points higher Underpinning each of these improvements is the than the industry benchmark for American museums. Museum’s financial sustainability. Independent reviews This research is an outgrowth of the 2014 strategic by credit-rating agencies continued to recognize the plan, which challenges the Museum to strengthen the Museum for its sound financial management. In 2018, collection, improve the visitor experience, deepen the Standard & Poor’s affirmed the Museum’s AA-issuer Museum’s relationship to the community, develop credit rating, and in 2017, Moody’s upgraded new audiences, and enhance digital capabilities. The the Museum’s bond rating to Aa2 from Aa3. On Commission created board task forces to work with December 31, 2018, the market value of the Museum’s staff to implement the plan, and the Museum made endowment was $197 million. significant progress in several strategic priorities in 2017 and 2018. The success of this biennial period demonstrates the extraordinary value the Saint Louis Art Museum offers Some of these initiatives have led to improvements to individuals, the city, and the region through its rich that are visible to visitors, while other projects required collection and programming. We are grateful to the extensive work far from public view. The Museum’s taxpayers of St. Louis City and St. Louis County for collection includes more than 34,000 works of art, the their generous support (through the Zoo Museum vast majority of which is in storage. The completion District), which sustains the Museum’s ongoing of an extensive collection survey in July 2018 allowed operations and programs. And we are particularly staff to study, evaluate, and document those works; grateful to our Members and donors, whose ongoing flag objects for potential conservation or deaccession; generosity allows the Museum to advance the civic and plan for a future renovation that incorporates and cultural life of St. Louis. new storage technology and best practices. As part of its commitment to make facilities and programs more accessible to people of all abilities, the Museum implemented staff training, added new braille signage, began offering collection tours with American Sign Language interpretation, and collaborated with local John R. Musgrave organizations to offer inclusive education programs President, Board of Commissioners Dish, c.1670; Dutch; tin-glazed earthenware; diameter: 18 7/8 inches; The Lopata Endowment Fund and the Margarita M. and Roland E. Jester for participants of all abilities. In recognition of these Endowment Fund for the Decorative Arts 462:2018 efforts, Paraquad honored the Museum with its 2018 Shine the Light award. 2 3 Report of the Director and European sculpture; and Southwest Weavings: of Charlotte Cram filled this critical gap. Acquiring 800 Years of Artistic Exchange (2018), which celebrated an important American history painting has similarly a 2017 gift from Paul and Elissa Cahn. Kehinde Wiley: been an institutional goal for decades, and in 2018 the Saint Louis was another important undertaking. Museum purchased Daniel Interpreting to Belshazzar For the 2018 exhibition, Wiley invited residents from the Handwriting on the Wall, a 1775 painting by neighborhoods in north St. Louis and Ferguson to pose Benjamin West. We continue to seek important historical for large-scale portraits inspired by artworks in the works by women artists to broaden the diversity of Museum’s collection. the collection, and the Museum’s 2018 purchase of Woman in Turkish Dress by Angelica Kauffmann The Museum collection was elevated during the added to the collection a painting by one of the most biennial period by generous gifts of art. In addition celebrated portraitists of the 18th century. The 2018 to the textiles presented in Southwest Weavings, the purchase of an 18th-century Italian Torah Ark Curtain 2017 gift from Paul and Elissa Cahn also included (Parokhet) significantly augments the Museum’s a large collection of Pueblo, Mexican, and South collection of signed and dated Judaica. American weavings. Also in 2017, the Museum received the transformative gift of 81 works from In addition to these acquisitions, a work long in the New Jersey–based collector Ronald Maurice Ollie collection was given new context through a prominent Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds, Cheyenne/Arapaho, born 1954; Sovereign, 2017; 16 monotypes; overall: 44 × 120 inches; The Sidney S. and Sadie Cohen Print Purchase Fund 483:2018a-p; © Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds and his wife, Monique McRipley Ollie. Named in installation in front of the Main Building. In December honor of Ronald’s parents, the Thelma and Bert Ollie 2018, the Museum installed American sculptor Memorial Collection adds significant depth and Richard Serra’s first major public artwork, To Encircle breadth to the Museum’s holdings of abstract works Base Plate Hexagram, Right Angles Inverted, in the by African American artists. In 2018, the Museum also center of Fine Arts Drive. Originally installed on a accepted gifts of important collections of vernacular street in the Bronx from 1970 to 1972, the sculpture During the past two-year period, extraordinary Paris Millinery Trade expanded scholarship on an photography from New York–based donor Peter Cohen complements Twain and Joe, major outdoor works by exhibitions exposed visitors to art as varied as important aspect of Edgar Degas’s legacy. It also and St. Louis–based collectors John and Teenuh Foster. Serra erected in publicly accessible spaces in St. Louis. monumental archaeological treasures, 18th-century provided important context to The Milliners, a A 2018 gift from a local donor of 194 prints and one The sculpture was donated to the Museum by Ronald men’s attire, and the richly complex portraiture of masterwork by Degas that the Museum acquired book transformed the Museum into a center for the and Jan Greenberg in 1984, and the 2018 installation Kehinde Wiley. Thanks to the goodwill and generosity in 2007. The 2018 exhibition Graphic Revolution: study of prints by and after Pieter Bruegel the Elder, was funded by Emily Rauh Pulitzer. of our supporters, the Museum also enriched the American Prints 1960 to Now presented the story of as well as prints related to Hieronymus Bosch. collection through the acquisition of more than 991 contemporary printmaking through more than 110 Highlights of this gift included the prints that formed The Museum played a vital role in the cultural life of works of art, enhancing strengths, filling gaps, and works. Two main exhibitions in 2017 represented the basis of the 2015 exhibition Beyond Bosch: St. Louis in 2017 and 2018, and I am confident that diversifying the Museum’s holdings. collaborations with leading national and international The Afterlife of a Renaissance Master in Print and the will continue in future years thanks to your ongoing museums. Reigning Men: Fashion in Menswear, 1995 exhibition The Printed World of Pieter Bruegel enthusiasm and support. In 2018, we hosted the North American premiere of 1715–2015 was organized by the Los Angeles County the Elder. Sunken Cities: Egypt’s Lost Worlds, a groundbreaking Museum of Art, while Thomas Struth: Nature & and visually stunning exhibition of antiquities from Politics was co-organized by the Museum Folkwang, Several purchases of art underscore the Museum’s one of the greatest finds in the history of underwater Essen; Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin; and the High commitment to building its collection through strategic archaeology. Realized in collaboration with the Museum of Art, Atlanta. acquisitions. In 2017, the Museum acquired Ethiopian- European Institute for Underwater Archaeology and American artist Julie Mehretu’s monumental Epigraph, Brent R. Benjamin the Ministry of Antiquities of the Arab Republic of The Museum also offered a range of more focused Damascus—a work on paper over 17 feet wide. The The Barbara B. Taylor Director Egypt, Sunken Cities garnered international praise exhibition projects. These include special initiatives, print was featured in the exhibition Graphic Revolution. and attracted more than 170,000 visitors. our Currents and New Media Series exhibitions, and The 2017 purchase of Mattia Preti’s Christ and the temporary installations of light-sensitive works on paper Woman Taken in Adultery fulfilled the long-standing The biennial period included two shows organized by and textiles.