2018 Annual Report 4 A Message from the Chair 5 A Message from the Director & President 6 Remembering Keith L. Sachs 10 Collecting 16 Exhibiting & Conserving 22 Learning & Interpreting 26 Connecting & Collaborating 30 Building 34 Supporting 38 Volunteering & Staffing 42 Report of the Chief Financial Officer Front cover: The Philadelphia Assembled exhibition joined art and civic engagement. Initiated by artist Jeanne van Heeswijk and shaped by hundreds of collaborators, it told a story of radical community building and active resistance; this spread, clockwise from top left: 6 Keith L. Sachs (photograph by Elizabeth Leitzell); Blocks, Strips, Strings, and Half Squares, 2005, by Mary Lee Bendolph (Purchased with the Phoebe W. Haas fund for Costume and Textiles, and gift of the Souls Grown Deep Foundation from the William S. Arnett Collection, 2017-229-23); Delphi Art Club students at Traction Company; Rubens Peale’s From Nature in the Garden (1856) was among the works displayed at the 2018 Philadelphia Antiques and Art Show; the North Vaulted Walkway will open in spring 2019 (architectural rendering by Gehry Partners, LLP and KXL); back cover: Schleissheim (detail), 1881, by J. Frank Currier (Purchased with funds contributed by Dr. Salvatore 10 22 M. Valenti, 2017-151-1) 30 34 A Message from the Chair A Message from the As I observe the progress of our Core Project, I am keenly aware of the enormity of the undertaking and its importance to the Museum’s future. Director & President It will be transformative. It will not only expand our exhibition space, but also enhance our opportunities for community outreach. As we write this overview of the past fiscal year, the future is taking on definitive form through the construction of the Core Project. Combining I look forward to celebrating the opening of our new restaurant this fall, infrastructural improvements with the transformation of back-of-house areas followed by the Vaulted Walkway in early 2019. We will, in turn, share into public spaces and new galleries, this initiative will leave few parts of our the excitement of enlarged gallery spaces and greater educational iconic main building untouched. Now, halfway through the construction, experiences for children before we know it. we are beginning to see more clearly the shape of things to come and all Along with these opportunities, comes added responsibility for us all. that this work, when it is completed, will enable us to accomplish. The most challenging part of the construction lies ahead and with it, At this moment of renewal and change, it is important to remind ourselves attendant challenges for visitor satisfaction and the operating budget. that Philadelphia has a long history of envisioning bold civic projects, among The Board and staff are carefully monitoring all aspects of the project them the founding of this institution in 1876. Emboldened by the success of in an effort to help navigate the curves in the road and keep us on track the Centennial Exhibition, this country’s first international fair, the city’s leaders for completion in 2020. recognized the unique opportunity they had to establish a new museum that In addition to paying close attention to the construction, we are thinking would bring the arts to the community. strategically about how we will manage and operate in this new Today, nearly 150 years later, we find ourselves in the midst of another environment. The strategic planning process will ultimately result in extraordinary moment in our history, undertaking the next phase of a “blueprint” for this next chapter of the Museum’s history. a comprehensive Facilities Master Plan designed by Frank Gehry. As We also continue our work to meet the It Starts Here Campaign goal of impressive as his remarkably thoughtful design may be, even more significant $525 million. We’re proud of what’s been raised thus far ($393.3 million). is the vision on which it is based. At its heart is a steadfast commitment to But we realize that the last stages of a campaign are always the most stewardship: to maintaining and improving our historic buildings, to the care difficult and that some “heavy lifting” lies ahead. of one of this country’s finest art collections, and, most of all, to sustaining our long and distinguished tradition of service to the Philadelphia region. I extend my thanks to all who have lent their support to this remarkable effort thus far—the Board, Museum leadership, and community. All of Equally important is our commitment to change. The Museum has always you are helping to keep the momentum moving in the right direction— been a work in progress, taking advantage of new opportunities that present full speed ahead! themselves and responding in sensitive and thoughtful ways to a changing world. Over the past decade, we have embraced new forms of artistic It’s a privilege to be part of this ambitious initiative and inspiring to expression, explored new types of curatorial practice, broadened our contemplate what lies ahead for the Museum and all of Philadelphia. programming and placed a greater emphasis on access, and asked how we can interpret our collection in new ways. And we have done this work together. Our Trustees, our many dedicated volunteers, and, above all, our staff have played a significant role in shaping the future of this institution and the strategic priorities on which it should Leslie Anne Miller focus. Their voices are clearly reflected in the choices we have made and even more so in the implementation of initiatives like Art Splash and Pay Chair, Board of Trustees What You Wish Wednesday Nights that have helped us build new audiences. And it is their accomplishments that are detailed in this Annual Report. We are grateful for their work and proud of the progress that has been made during the past year. But past, as the saying goes, is simply prelude, and in our case it is the harbinger of even greater things to come. Timothy Rub Gail Harrity The George D. Widener Director President and Chief and Chief Executive Officer Operating Officer 4 5 In Memoriam Remembering Keith L. Sachs 1945 – 2018 We mourn the loss and celebrate the legacy of visionary Trustee, collector, and longtime donor Keith L. Sachs, who passed away on March 5. A Trustee of the Philadelphia Museum of Art since 1988, Keith long played a leadership role in the governance of this institution. His support of and tireless advocacy for the Museum was, in a word, exceptional. So, too, was his love of contemporary art, a passion he shared with his wife, Kathy. Keith was a model philanthropist, whose devotion to the art of our time was matched only by his love of this city. His long-standing involvement with the Museum, which brought these two passions together, included the chairmanship of both the Architecture and Facilities Committee and the Contemporary Art Committee. He also served on the Committee on Collections, the Executive Committee, the Major Gifts Committee for It Starts Here: Campaign for the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and our Strategic Plan Oversight Committee. Keith and Kathy also responded very early to The Lenfest Challenge, endowing the position of Carlos Basualdo as The Keith L. and Katherine Sachs Curator of Contemporary Art in 2008. In 2014, Keith and Kathy pledged to the Museum ninety-seven works from the extraordinary collection that they developed with great intelligence and care over the course of several decades. This promised gift includes many outstanding works by such leading contemporary artists as Louise Bourgeois, Jasper Johns, Ellsworth Kelly, Brice Marden, and Charles Ray. As the focus of the 2016 exhibition Embracing the Contemporary: The Keith L. and Katherine Sachs Collection, it has been lauded as one of the most significant gifts of modern and contemporary art to have come to the Museum, along with the collections of Walter and Louise Arensberg and Albert E. Gallatin. In appreciation of this gift and to express our thanks to the Sachses for a leadership gift to our It Starts Here campaign, we renamed the Museum’s galleries of modern and contemporary art The Keith L. and Katherine Sachs Galleries in a dedication ceremony in 2014. 6 7 “We should never stop thinking about what we have done and what more we could do. And I’m not sure that With Jasper Johns’s 5 Postcards (2011), a promised gift to the Museum Schwan (2) (Swan [2]), 1989, by Gerhard Richter (125th Anniversary Acquisition. Gift of Keith L.and Katherine Sachs, 2000-31-1) © Gerhard Richter we have really Keith and Kathy’s remarkable act of generosity had the and Kathy met as students in 1967. In addition to immediate effect, as the Philadelphia Inquirer put it in Kathy, who is an Honorary Trustee and co-chair of our 2014, of “vaulting the Museum into the front ranks of It Starts Here campaign, he leaves a son David, two encyclopedic institutions with holdings of contemporary daughters, Deborah Sachs Rothman and Judy Sachs, continued to works.” The Inquirer also wrote a glowing editorial, and five grandchildren. praising the couple for their decision to share these works with the public here in Philadelphia, where they Keith cared deeply not only about the immediate have lived their lives. impact of his philanthropy, but also how it could help look forward to to shape a brighter future both for the institutions with Keith was the CEO of Saxco International, Inc., a which he was involved and for the city he loved. His life principal distributor of packaging material to producers was shaped by a high-minded and wholly optimistic of alcoholic beverages in North America.