Annual Report 2016
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ANNUAL REPORT 2016 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Letter from the Executive Director 5 Exhibitions 6 Publications 7 Programs and Engagement 8 Gifts and Purchases of Art 18 Donors 20 Lending Partners 21 Individual and Institutional Support 22 Volunteer and Docent Support 30 Financial Statements 32 Ways to Support 34 Soundwalk Collective; Khandroma (video still), 2016; video with sound. 3 4 LETTER FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Dear friends and supporters, I am pleased to share the highlights of our As we take time to reflect on the past year, we activities in 2016, including acknowledging just remain energized and inspired by you—the how important you are to the Rubin! community of supporters that makes the Rubin Museum such a special place. You sustain us! In 2016, the Rubin set out to ignite a sense of Since the Rubin opened our doors in 2004, you curiosity and personal connection in every visitor now number more than 1.6 million visitors, seven who stepped through our doors. Contemporary thousand supporters . and growing! artists including Genesis Breyer P-Orridge and Soundwalk Collective expanded our perceptions As you may know, the Rubin is about to start a of the Himalayan region, challenging our new chapter. I will soon launch my retirement, preconceived notions of sacred sounds and and a new executive director will join us. I look sacred objects. Visitors vicariously traveled to forward to being in a different seat, right alongside Nepal and Tibet through the exhibitions Nepalese you, experiencing great art, talks, meditation, and Seasons and Monumental Lhasa, which presented more. new views on cultural traditions and history. Dynamic concerts, talks, and meditations asked Thank you for being part of the Rubin Museum family! us to consider how our emotions control us, the nature of wisdom, and the connection between our minds and bodies. Most of all, the Rubin asked, if we see art in a different way, can it help us navigate our lives with curiosity and insight? You would be the best Patrick Sears judge of whether we are succeeding in inviting the Executive Director art and ideas of the Himalayas to inform our lives today, and we hope to hear your perspective! Visitors enjoy the opening night celebration of Genesis Breyer P-Orridge: Try To Altar Everything 5 EXHIBITIONS GENESIS BREYER P-ORRIDGE: MONUMENTAL LHASA: TRY TO ALTAR EVERYTHING FORTRESS, PALACE, TEMPLE March 11–August 1, 2016 September 16, 2016–January 9, 2017 Try to Altar Everything explored the ways that Hindu mythology Architectural landmarks act as anchors for the identity of a place and the culture of Nepal’s Kathmandu Valley have influenced as well as focal points for associated stories and memories. the artist Genesis Breyer P-Orridge and h/er work. The exhibition Monumental Lhasa: Fortress, Palace, Temple explored rare presented deeply personal themes and connected identity, images of central Tibet’s most iconic monuments as they were physical presence and absence, and devotion to a spiritual seen by Tibetans and Westerners before the mid-twentieth expression of artistic practice. Try to Altar Everything also invited century. The exhibition showed how image-making relates visitors to engage and personally connect with the artist through to placemaking and how the production and transmission of two site-specific installations: Try to Altar Every Thing, an offering images contributes to the iconic character, familiarity, and power exchange that featured visitor contributions in the gallery, and of important landmarks. In Monumental Lhasa Rubin visitors Listen Here, in which the artist personally answered telephone could vicariously visit and experience the main architectural sites calls in the gallery at spontaneous times. of Tibet through historical and contemporary eyes. NEPALESE SEASONS: SACRED SPACES: HIMALAYAN RAIN AND RITUAL WIND AND THE TIBETAN BUDDHIST SHRINE ROOM May 6, 2016–March 27, 2017 November 11, 2016–June 5, 2017 Featuring almost fifty objects from the Rubin Museum’s premiere collection of Nepalese art and select loans, Nepalese Sacred Spaces, an ongoing rotating exhibition, invites visitors Seasons: Rain and Ritual illustrated the enduring manifestation to reflect on devotional activities in awe-inspiring places. For of rituals, agrarian festivals, and the natural environment in the second iteration of the exhibition, the Rubin Museum the art of Nepal’s Kathmandu Valley. The exhibition was the commissioned an installation by Soundwalk Collective and first to connect well-known deities represented in Nepalese sound artist Francisco López called Khandroma, which art to rituals and festivals surrounding the rainy season, or transported visitors to the high Himalayas through sound. The monsoon. Through this lens, the exhibition offered visitors a new artists recorded the sounds in and surrounding the world’s understanding of the region and its art, already renowned for its highest monasteries—the flapping of prayer flags, the chanting high quality and aesthetic appeal. of blessings, the echoes of wind from the valley below, and the interplay of sound and silence—and presented these as a multi- channel audio installation through state-of-the-art speakers, creating an immersive and meditative experience. Visitors could also experience the Tibetan Buddhist Shrine Room, an installation inspired by a traditional shrine, and interact directly with Khandroma at dedicated listening stations. 6 PUBLICATIONS A REVOLUTIONARY ARTIST OF TIBET: KHYENTSE CHENMO OF GONGKAR A Revolutionary Artist Khyentse Chenmo of Tibet of Gongkar By David P. Jackson, with contributions by Mathias Fermer David P. Jackson Rubin Museum of Art, October 2016 With generous support from the Henry Luce Foundation and the Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation A Revolutionary Artist of Tibet is the culmination of more than a decade of scholarship by the preeminent art historian David Jackson and is the final installment in the six-part series Masterworks of Tibetan Paintings. This book focuses on the a Revolutionary Artist of Tibet fifteenth-century artistic genius Khyentse Chenmo, described by Jackson as a “missing link” in Tibetan art. Thorough, persuasive, and engaging scholarship that is firmly grounded in Tibetan historical sources is a hallmark of the Jackson series, which opens up new ground in this young, underdeveloped field. GENESIS BREYER P-ORRIDGE: TRY TO ALTAR EVERYTHING By Beth Citron, with contributions by Rubin Museum of Art Genesis Breyer P-Orridge Rubin Museum of Art, April 2016 Genesis Breyer P-Orridge: Try to Altar Everything explores the connections between Himalayan culture and the life and work of artist Genesis Breyer P-Orridge. The exhibition catalog features descriptions of the works of art included in the exhibition, as well as original essays by Breyer P-Orridge and curator Beth Citron, which provide context for the artist’s work and elaborate on the ideas explored. 7 8 PROGRAMS AND ENGAGEMENT BRAINWAVE: EMOTION In the ninth season of Brainwave, the conversation turned to emotion. While six emotions have been identified as universal and shared by all human cultures—anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise—advances in brain science are helping us decipher these and other states of mind, offering opportunities for self-discovery and understanding the human condition. Feb 3 Happiness Mar 6 The Brain on Spirituality Apr 25 Food and Innovation Parker Posey + Emma Seppälä Zachary Quinto + Heather Berlin Questlove + Stuart Firestein + Daniel Humm Feb 8 The Spectrum Mar 9 The Lyric Mind Sigourney Weaver Stephen Sondheim Apr 27 What Emotion + David Amaral + Steven Pinker Smells Like David Edwards Feb 12 Emotional Politics Mar 18 Depression + Richard L. Doty Anthony Weiner + Moran Cerf Jacqueline Novak + Douglas Mennin Apr 30 Melancholy Feb 17 Fickle Love László Földényi + Sophie Calle Helen Fisher + Simon Critchley Apr 1 Parasomnia + Wayne Koestenbaum Elizabeth Hand + Carl W. Bazil Feb 24 Invention and May 9 Emotional Rescue Inspiration Apr 16 Waiting Rooms Ponlop Rinpoche Pagan Kennedy + Shawn Nathalie Pozzi + Samantha Boardman Frayne + Ryan Frayne + Eric Zimmerman Jul 18 Procrastination Mar 5 Laughter Apr 23 Memory Palace Courtney Act + Tim Pychyl Bob Mankoff + Scott Weems Frank Felberbaum Mar 5 Consciousness after Apr 23 Waiting Rooms Death Nathalie Pozzi Sharon Guskin + Jim Tucker + Eric Zimmerman 9 PROGRAMS AND ENGAGEMENT, CONTINUED Dec 9 Chasing Dec 12 Becoming Wise THE WISDOM MATRIX Consciousness Krista Tippett + Elizabeth Lesser Susan Schneider Experts from a variety of fields tackled the difficult concept Dec 17 The Secret to a of wisdom and why it still matters in our era of information Dec 9 Acoustic Cash Good Life overload. The Wisdom Matrix series invited visitors to personally Rosanne Cash + Mary Chapin Karl Pillemer reflect on their own definitions of wisdom. Carpenter + Jon Leventhal + Tao Porchon Lynch Sep 10 Wisdom Oct 19 Einstein’s Greatest Gyetrul Jigme Rinpoche Mistake + Tony Cointreau David Bodanis + David Auburn KARMA Sep 12 Talmud Meets Zen Oct 21 Chasing In Buddhism, karma is interpreted as a way of overcoming Norman Fischer Consciousness suffering in which we play a part; that our actions affect our + Rabbi Marcelo Bronstein Hod Lipson conditions. These conversations examined the repercussions of our actions. Sep 12 Mirror Meditation Oct 28 Intuition Tara Well Ilana Glazer + David Ludden Apr 12 Karma Oct 12 Incarnations Katharine Hayhoe Sunil Khilnani Sep 16 Chasing Nov 9 Animal Wisdom + Gloria Steinem Consciousness Isabel Behncke-Izquierdo