Annual Report Fy2013
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INTERSECTIONS ANNUAL REPORT FY2013 FROM THE CHAIR OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES This year has been a time of robust innovation at The Phillips Collection; we are truly living the “experiment station” that founder Duncan Phillips spoke about so eloquently. The Phillips’s many advances in technology, for example, include a new website that provides users with easy access to our art, videos, and events. This effort has been complemented by a robust presence on multimedia and social media platforms, an insightful blog, and the Education team’s innovative virtual gallery talks on Twitter. The Laib Wax Room, dedicated to our own Caroline Macomber (whose delightful presence on our Board we deeply miss), opened in March as a space for meditation, much like the Rothko Room. The Phil- lips’s commitment to engaging with living artists of our day mirrors the collecting vision of Gifford Phillips, a dear friend of the museum who passed away in April. Partial funds for the beeswax room were raised through the crowdsourcing platform Indiegogo, allowing dozens of supporters to be part of Phillips history. Innovations at the Phillips are not just expressed through new technology. From April 12 to May 2, Phillips educator Rachel Goldberg led workshops in Pakistan for more than 375 Pakistani emerging artists, students, museum professionals, and children about the power of art to create social change. This extremely successful partnership with the US Department of State affirms the universal connective power of art; discus- sions are underway to expand the program. Extending the Phillips’s mission abroad to create an internation- al dialogue through art is a new partnership with Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. Many other notable events at the Phillips have tried out “the new” as well. The Annual Gala included a new online auction to bolster funds raised for our education initiatives. Music programs ranged from classic Jean Meisel Beethoven piano concertos performed in collaboration with the National Gallery of Art to Irvine Arditti’s rendi- Untitled, 1970s–2013 tion of John Cage’s Freeman Études, to the telematic opera Auksalaq, part of a continuing collaboration with the Watercolors University of Virginia to explore the innovations that emerge through mixing scientists and artists. The Phillips The imagery of the small paintings demon- artists that greatly contributed to the devel- has also developed experimental, collaborative programs with a surprising range of regional cultural organiza- PEERING AT strates her love for color, form, and light. opment of the local art scene in the 1970s tions—CityDance, Theater J; the food industry—Shake Shack, FreshFarm Markets; embassies throughout DC; THE HORIZON “I’ve been painting horizon lines for as long and ’80s. They met at each other’s houses, and many more. With more than 80 cents of every dollar from our supporters going directly to programming, as I’ve been painting,” Meisel says. She did shared clippings from art magazines, and none of these things would be possible without the continued investments of our members and donors. Once informally known as the Klee Room for not see the ocean until she was 22, and most supported each other’s creative endeavors. The Phillips has also maintained its financial and operational discipline even as it has innovated the Paul Klee paintings that hung there in of her landscapes and seascapes are from Meisel’s other Washington art connections and experimented. Through rigorous task forces and strategic planning meetings, the staff has refined years past, a second-floor alcove in the Phil- her imagination, yet they transport viewers include studying with Gene Davis and Anne efficiency and improved transparency internally. We are all, as always, eager to engage diverse communities lips house is now home to Washington artist to memories of recognizable places. Truitt. However, what she learned from them to partake in the value and vitality of the Phillips, as we adapt to new challenges and opportunities. Jean Meisel’s Intersections project, titled was “not a matter of learning how to paint, Meisel, who grew up in a small town near With all best regards, 50–65 Horizon Line. Meisel, who well recalls but how to see.” Buffalo, New York, was born in Pitts- the space’s Klee period, has been visiting burgh—as it happens, her father worked for The Phillips Collection since the 1950s. The 50–65 Horizon Line is on view through several years at Jones and Laughlin Steel, jewel-like alcove offers the perfect setting May 4, 2014. the Pittsburgh company owned by museum for more than 50 of the painter’s intimate, George Vradenburg founder Duncan Phillips’s grandfather. Her Intersections is supported in part by the small-scale works, ranging from 1 1/2 inches focus did not turn to art, however, until she Phillips International Forum. to 6 inches. The landscape paintings are and her husband moved to Washington, DC, hung side by side so that their shared hori- Myth and Archaeology in the n The Laib Wax Room opened n The Phillips offered tours n Progress on the Prism of Arts and started a family. As her interest in paint- HigHLigHTS OF zon line wraps around the room. The artist Work of Giorgio de Chirico; on March 2 to 11,074 children and adults Integration Teaching Frame- FisCAL YEAR 2013 ing grew, she found a lack of resources for Georges Braque and the Cub- and organized 106 public work included embarking on has produced hundreds of these serene n Digital initiatives included young aspiring artists in the area. She even- ist Still Life, 1928–1945; Ells- programs. Phillips after 5 a five-year initiative to further watercolors since the 1970s. n Exhibitions: Per Kirkeby: the redesign of the website, tually formed a community of like-minded worth Kelly: Panel Paintings drew 8,488 visitors. research, test, and dissemi- Paintings and Sculpture; participation in Google Art 2004–2009 nate the framework; convening Political Wits, 100 Years Project, iTunes U, and Art n The Annual Gala honored stakeholder videoconferences; Apart: Daumier and Oliphant n Intersections projects: Babble, and the launch of Lydia Bastianich, Roberto and beginning development of at the Phillips; Picturing the Xavier Veilhan: (IN)balance; #breakforart on Twitter Coin, and Barry Dixon. The the Prism.K12 website Sublime: Photographs from Jeanne Silverthorne: Vanitas!; After Party celebrated the n Held a Veterans Day lun- the Joseph and Charlotte Lich- Bernhard Hildebrandt: A Con- 2013 Year of Italian Culture. n The library and archives cheon and launched partner- tenberg Collection; Next Stop jugation of Verb increased access by adding ships with Fisher House and n New partners in cultural Italy: A Journey into Italian public visiting hours, installing n Presented three Young Art- USO of Metropolitan Wash- diplomacy include George- Contemporary Photography; a new server and upgraded ists Exhibitions and the first ington town University’s School of Angels, Demons, and Savages: online interface for the library Creative Aging exhibition in Foreign Service and the US Pollock, Ossorio, Dubuffet; n The Phillips’s American art catalogue, and joining the partnership with Iona Senior Department of State, featuring treasures traveled to Fort OCLC worldwide consortium. Services workshops in Pakistan led by Worth and Tampa educator Rachel Goldberg 18 THE PHILLIPS COLLECTION MAGAZINE | SPRING/SUMMER 2014 THE PHILLIPS COLLECTION MAGAZINE | SPRING/SUMMER 2014 19 MAKING A DIFFERENCE Every effort has been made to create a complete and accurate list of DONORS TO THE PHILLIPS COLLECTION contributors. Please call the development office at 202-387-2151 x250 with questions or corrections. The following donors generously supported The Phillips PEPCO Cherie and Patrick Nichols Ms. Louise R. de la Fuente and Collection in its mission during fiscal year 2013 (August 1, 2012– Mrs. Gifford Phillips Al Getz and Sara Nieves-Grafals Mr. Mace Rosenstein July 31, 2013). These gifts included contributions made for Prince Charitable Trusts Ms. Julia J. Norrell Mrs. Michael K. Deaver Robert C. Rea Melanie and Larry Nussdorf Mr. and Mrs. James T. Demetrion acquisitions, conservation, capital repairs and improvements, Mr. Eric Richter Ruth R. Perlin and Mr. and Mrs. John DePodesta education, endowments, exhibitions, the gala, memberships, Toni A. Ritzenberg Dr. Seymour Perlin Mr. and Mrs. Douglas D. Drysdale music programming, unrestricted funds, and the Center for The Honorable John D. Rockefeller Mr. and Mrs. Phillips S. Peter Mr. Maxim Duckworth the Study of Modern Art. and Mrs. Rockefeller Judy Lynn Prince Mr. John Duffy Sagalyn Family Fund Stephen and Blair Raber Mr. Joseph C. Dunn Victoria and Roger Sant Jack Rachlin Mr. and Mrs. Dan Dwyer $1,000,000 and above Bloomberg Dr. Mildred Beatty Smith Drs. Carol Bird and Earl C. Ravenal Michael and Dalia Engler Advise C. Richard Belger and Evelyn Mr. and Mrs. David G. Bradley * Sotheby’s * EY Ms. Carlyn Ring and Consult Fund, Amarillo Area L Craft Belger * Mrs. Edgar H. Brenner Mr. Louis Stern * Thomas A. and Georgina T. Russo Foundation RANT B The Sherman Fairchild Brian Dailey and Paula Ballo Dailey S Mrs. Alice Phillips Swistel E Ms. Susan Lee and Ms. Alice Fitzgerald Robert and Mercedes Eichholz M Foundation * A U.S. Trust Company J Mr. Stephen A. Saltzburg Sandra and James Fitzpatrick Joseph and Lynne Horning *† Foundation Mr. Ted Westervelt and Mr. and Mrs. Nicholas J. Serenyi Mr. and Mrs. Robert Gelbard The Lichtenberg Family Bonnie and Harold Himmelman Ms. Aimee Storm PHOTO: Mr. and Mrs. Peter L. Sheldon Mr. Marvin Gillian Jr. Foundation *† Margaret Stuart Hunter OppOSITE: German artist Wolfgang Laib used Mr. and Mrs. Charles C. Mr. and Mrs. John Goelet Lockheed Martin Corporation * Robert and Arlene Kogod $5,000–$9,999 440 pounds of beeswax for his permanent Shelleman, Jr.