ANNUAL REPORT July 1, 2014 - June 30, 2015
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ANNUAL REPORT July 1, 2014 - June 30, 2015 201 East Capitol Street, SE Washington, DC 20003-1004 202-544-4600 www.folger.edu Contents From the Chair and Director From the Chair and Director .... 1 With Applause .............. 14 From the Vaults .............. 4 Roster of Donors ............ 15 To the Folger Community and Friends: On Stage ................... 6 Roster of Volunteers.......... 26 Online and In Print ............ 9 Roster of Fellows ............ 31 2015 was a year to celebrate our partnerships. Among Scholars ............. 10 Financial Statements ......... 34 From the District of Columbia Public Schools to In the Classroom ............ 12 Board of Governors and Staff .. 36 Shakespeare’s Globe in London to the University of Pennsylvania Press, partners helped the Folger scale up the impact of your generous contributions to reach millions of schoolchildren, theatergoers, scholars, and virtual visitors and give them unprecedented access to the treasures in our Louis R. Cohen collection. As you read this report, you will learn about the projects resulting from these and other collaborations. Collaborative relationships are not meant to produce Chris Hartlove just one set of results, however, and you will continue to see them produce strategic initiatives, good work, and profound community service at the Folger in the coming years. This year also saw a number of exciting changes: ■■ The Folger completed a number of upgrades Michael Witmore to our Elizabethan theater’s seating, flooring, and lighting, made possible in part by a grant from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. We added seats and improved sightlines, creating a richer experience for our audiences, and made the theater more energy efficient with the installation of LED lights and a dimmer control system. With these upgrades in place, the Folger presented a robust season of arts and literary events, and celebrated its most commercially successful Folger Theatre production to date with Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. ■■ In February of 2015, we launched a beautifully redesigned website— www.folger.edu—which increased the capabilities of the Folger’s online presence, enabling visitors and researchers of all ages and around the world to stay connected to our work. In its first year live, Folger.edu has received over 4 million page views by just over 1 million unique users. Pepe Gomez; Cover Photo: Jeff Malet Pepe Gomez; Cover Photo: Jeff The Folger’s Great Hall during Ships, Clocks, and Stars: The Quest for Longitude Cover: Adam Wesley Brown and Romell Witherspoon in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Folger Annual Report 2014/15 1 Are Dead ■■ We are particularly proud of our partnership with the National Maritime improvements over the next decades. Museum in Greenwich, England, which brought the successful exhibition We look forward to telling you more Ships, Clocks, and Stars: The Quest for Longitude to the Folger in Spring about these plans in the future. 2015. This was the Folger’s first time hosting an international exhibition, which began in Greenwich before visiting DC, Connecticut, and Sydney, Australia. Changes in the Folger Board of This exhibition was made possible, in large part, by an incredibly generous Governors membership included the sponsorship from United Technologies Corporation, the Folger’s largest resignation of Peter Rose, a longtime corporate gift ever. Board member whose support will be missed. The Board also welcomed In 2015, we continued to study our wonderful historic building and how it can four new members: Loren Rothschild, meet our ongoing needs. The building was a gift to the people by Henry and a business executive and rare book Emily Folger, custom designed to hold the single greatest collection of materials collector, Simon Russell Beale, a about Shakespeare’s works and his world, and to share those treasures with the highly respected and award winning public through performances, exhibitions, and education. We worked with the Shakespearean actor, May Liang, who respected architecture firm KieranTimberlake to produce a master plan of capital serves as general counsel and chief financial officer for software company OpenConcept Systems, Inc, and Peter Edwards, founder of Acorn Media. On the Folger staff, we bid farewell Teresa Wood Teresa James Brantley to Laura Cofield, long time Head of Acquisitions, who retired after 41 years at the Folger. Sadly, we mourn the loss of Reggie Young, who served on the Folger’s facilities staff from 2007 until his passing in June 2015. We are grateful for your steadfast support and friendship which made this past year’s successes possible. Yours sincerely, Katie Ryan Louis R. Cohen Chair, Board of Governors Michael Witmore Joseph Marcell Director 2 Folger Annual Report 2014/15 Folger Annual Report 2014/15 3 2014/15 DOCENT BOARD From the Vaults JC McElveen, chair Skip Collins Highlights members and researchers, who James Brantley John Finedore have participated in a series of Tom Kelly The Folger added hundreds of transcribathons with the manuscripts. Carrol Kindel items to the collection this year, Elaine Miller including two of special note. The The Folger’s three-day symposium on Diane Shages first, an oil-on-canvas painting by rare book conserva tion, Don’t Rock Kate Tallis Richard Westall depicting Imogen the Cradle, drew 120 conservators 72 docents donated 9,600 hours Entering the Cave of Belarius and curators from around the world. to the Folger in 2014/15 from Shakespeare’s Cymbeline, The event focused on exhibition commissioned circa 1795 by John design and the bespoke book mounts Boydell for his Shakespeare Gallery. of the Folger. The second, a copy of the 1684 Fourth Folio of Shakespeare’s plays, In March 2015, the Folger hosted EXHIBITIONS heavily annotated by Reverend Phillip Ships, Clocks, and Stars, an ■■ Symbols of Honor: Heraldry and James Brantley Francis who was intimately familiar incredibly successful exhibition from Family History in Shakespeare’s th England, July 1 through with stage practice in the 18 century. the National Maritime Museum of October 16, 2014 Greenwich, England. That exhibition ■■ Decoding the Renaissance: Early Modern Manuscripts Online marks the first time that a loan of 500 Years of Codes and Ciphers, (EMMO), a project to provide digital this magnitude has traveled to the November 11, 2014 through March 1, 2015 access to the Folger’s vast collection Folger. The Folger collaborated ■■ Ships, Clocks, and Stars: The Quest of 16th and 17th-century handwritten with important exhibition lenders for Longitude, March 19 through material, hosted an advanced throughout the year, including the August 23, 2015 workshop to teach paleography of College of Arms for the Symbols of English secretary hand to sixteen Honor exhibition, and the Beinecke scholars from across the country. Library which loaned its rare, EMMO also provided a Practical enigmatic Voynich Manuscript for the Paleography course for Folger staff exhibition Decoding the Renaissance. James Brantley James Brantley James Brantley 4 Folger Annual Report 2014/15 Folger Annual Report 2014/15 5 On Stage Jeff Malet Jeff Accompanied by a new series of Highlights Mignonette Dooley pre-show talks for young patrons, The Folger’s public programs set Folger Theatre’s three inventive and new records for artistic and literary successful season productions— excellence in the 2014/15 season. Julius Caesar, Schiller’s Mary Stuart, One high point was the Folger and Stoppard’s extraordinary Consort’s The Merchant of Venice: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Music and Poetry of Shakespeare’s Dead—drew more than 36,000 Play, featuring Derek Jacobi leading audience members. Folger Theatre a cast of actors and musicians, partnered with Shakespeare’s presented first at the Music Center at Globe, bringing Folger audiences Strathmore and then at Shakespeare’s acclaimed performances of Hamlet Globe in London. and King Lear. RSC Live screenings ■■ Anthony Hecht Poetry Prize: Geoffrey Brock and Heather McHugh, November 17, 2014 brought Royal Shakespeare Company ■■ Emily Dickinson Birthday Tribute with Rafael Campo, December 8, 2014 In May, the O.B. Hardison Poetry productions into Folger Theatre for ■■ Simon Armitage and Peter Oswald, February 3, 2015 the second year. series concluded its season with an ■■ Rae Armantrout, February 19, 2015 incredible reading by former U.S. ■■ Adam Zagajewski, Clare Cavanagh, and Edward Hirsch, March 16, 2015 Poet Laureate and Pulitzer Prize The Folger also partnered with the ■■ Rita Dove, May 19, 2015 winner Rita Dove. She spoke about Capitol Riverfront BID to screen the effect Shakespeare’s sonnets three of Hollywood’s best takes on 2014/15 O.B. Hardison Poetry Board had on her early teen years and Shakespeare’s plays in celebration of throughout her career. his 451st birthday for a free weekend Gigi Bradford, chair Richard Lyon Marianna Schuelein of outdoor films at Yards Park. Edwin P. Conquest, Jr. Greg McBride Joan Shorey Christina Daub Mary McElveen Norman Sinel Harriet Patsy Davis Barbara Meade Amy Tercek FOLGER THEATRE’S 2014/15 SEASON Barbara Goldberg Chloe Yelena Miller Nigel Twose ■■ Shakespeare’s Globe, Hamlet, July 25 and 26, 2014 Patricia Gray Mary Muromcew David Weisman ■■ Shakespeare’s Globe, King Lear, September 5 through 21, 2014 Marifrancis Hardison Jean Nordhaus Mary-Sherman Willis ■■ Julius Caesar, October 28 through December 7, 2014 Joseph Hassett Catherine Payling Douglas Wolfire ■■ Mary Stuart, January 27 through March 8, 2015 Anita Herrick