Annual Report 2019 - 2020 Table of Contents
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ANNUAL REPORT 2019 - 2020 TABLE OF CONTENTS FROM THE DIRECTOR 2 FROM THE CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD 3 WHAT WE DO ART 4 THE MUSEUM SCHOOL 8 HOW WE DO IT COMMUNITY SUPPORT 10 DONOR CIRCLE 11 VOLUNTEERS 12 STAFF 13 FINANCIAL POSITION 14 HOW ARE WE DOING? BY THE NUMBERS 15 WHY WE DO IT MISSION 16 We dedicate this report to the memory of former MMofA Board Chairman and museum supporter Mr. G. Tim Gaston (1946-2020) FROM THE DIRECTOR The year in review (Oct. 1, 2019-Sept. 30, 2020) provides a poignant opportunity to remember where we have been, and a reminder to be grateful for whatever good we have in our experience now! As for many of you, the past year has been full of challenges, but also triumphs. We began the fiscal year full of promise, with the opening of From Fort to Port & Beyond: An Architectural History of Mobile, an Alabama Bicentennial exhibition curated by the talented architectural historian, Cart Blackwell III, and guided by a Deborah Velders team of talented experts in the field. It was an important exhibition from which we Director learned more about ourselves, our community—and the richly diverse architectural and social history of our built environment. The exhibition featured models and images from the earliest Native American dwellings and Africatown, through residential dwellings, places of worship and civic or public buildings such as the newly constructed Federal Courthouse. This rich tapestry of our history told us more about who we are as a community. That October 11, 2019 opening included another strong exhibition celebrating our region’s cultural diversity with our first contemporary Asian installation in the Charles and Mary Rodning Gallery of Asian Art. It featured the work of Korean academic and artist, Key-Sook Geum, introducing Mobile visitors to a visual treat of ephemeral beaded “costumes” floating in air. Two months later, the Museum reopened its newest iteration of FOR CHILDREN: 2020 to the delight of parents everywhere. Supported by Alabama Power Foundation and the Crampton Trust, the exhibition featured new galleries and themes, including a nod to NASA and outer space, an immersive “aquarium” space, miniature “galleries” by area artists, and a newly installed room full of Legos of all sizes and colors. In early February, MMofA opened four new exhibitions.They included BESA: A Code of Honor, featuring the photographic documentation of Muslim Albanians who rescued Jews during the Holocaust; Southern Masters II, featuring the work of regional contemporary artists Pinky MM Bass, Ruth Miller, and Miriam Omura; Dori DeCamillis: READ MY MIND with paintings by this Alabama contemporary artist; and a major exhibition entitled An Art Historian Collects: The David E. Brauer Collection, featuring over 100 works of art historical significance in the private collection of Houston lecturer and charismatic art historian, David E. Brauer. This teaching exhibition provided visitors and students alike with an opportunity to experience works by artists who influenced the course of art history, including artworks by Matisse, Manet, Dali, Man Ray, Hokusai, Rosenquist, and many notable U.K. Pop artists. Mobile Museum of Art remains committed to providing greater access to works of art, including an ongoing partnership with Mobile County in the presentation of art by area artists at Government Plaza, as well as collection exhibitions at our “Pop-Up Museum” in downtown Mobile (sponsored by grants received from private foundations and individuals). This period included ongoing, changing exhibitions at both off-site locations, expanding the audience by many thousands of visitors. And of course, ongoing and changing installations of the Museum’s collection of American, Asian, European and Native American art remained on view in selected galleries, rotating works from the Museum’s collection. This year demonstrated the Museum’s commitment to our educational mission, and to providing the best that art offers in troubled times: the solace and comfort of beauty, creativity, and meaning. FROM THE CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD As we welcomed the year 2020, who knew what it would bring? Needless to say, we all faced unique challenges that changed our daily routines. The Mobile Museum of Art was no exception to the school and business closures; however, the Museum staff kept working. Virtual tours, art classes, lectures, and art kits for children, substituted for in-person experiences. These activities provided our citizens with education and entertainment that helped deal with the long and, for some, lonely hours of the pandemic shut down. Now, the doors are open and the Mobile community can visit the Museum while taking a Sheri Weber “break” from the stresses still ahead of us. Inside the Museum, one will find a place of 2020 Chairman of beauty, calm, inspiration, and perhaps, a brief escape. The exhibitions and/or classes the Board provide an opportunity to “re-set” or “re-fresh” our bodies and minds. There is something for everyone. Never has a resource, such as this Museum, been more needed and appreciated. I am so proud of Executive Director, Deborah Velders and her staff. Under Deborah’s leadership, these professionals “stepped-up” by creatively reaching out to our Mobile community with a wide variety of programming. It is not an easy task adapting proper protocols so that Mobilians will safely enjoy the Museum. These efforts continue to insure that the Mobile Museum of Art carry out its mission to: EDUCATE, ENGAGE, ENRICH THROUGH THE ARTS. I would be remiss if I did not recognize that Museum’s Board of Directors. It has been my privilege and honor to serve with a such a supportive group. djusting to virtual meetings is met with patience, cooperation, and understanding. The Museum’s best interest has been, and is, the highest priority. The silver lining is our Mobile Museum of Art managed to overcome the obstacles while continuing to serve the Mobile community. May we all look forward to 2021 as a year of good health, peace, and joy. WHAT WE DO ART COLLECTION European Art: 17th-19th Centuries June 23, 2020 - Ongoing Rich color, paint translated into lace, light, and water, bucolic pastures and delicate china—this selection of Western European 18th and 19th century work from our permanent collection is made of these. The artists who created these pieces were intent on astonishing their affluent patrons with tour de force technique, brilliant composition, and romantic subject matter. Beauty was pursued in earnest. Photography, Realism, Expressionism, Abstractionism—all were yet to come. This elegant, gentrified world was not to be disturbed. Passion for Collecting: Schoenknecht-Paul Collection August 12, 2020 - Ongoing Charles (Chuck) Schoenknecht and Ward Paul met in college fifty years ago and have been amassing works on paper, postcards, photographs, costume jewelry, coins, books, silver tableware, paintings, glass, and ceramics ever since. One of Paul’s personal goals – which he accomplished – was to collect a representative ceramic from every commercial producer in America from the late 19th century to the 1950s. This exhibition features some of those pieces, as well as European works in styles of the times. SPECIAL EXHIBITIONS URBAN WILD: Folk & Street Art of the South May 10, 2019 - January 12, 2020 This exhibition of three site-specific murals are presented as a satellite installation of URBAN WILD: Folk and Street Art in the South, an exhibition at Alabama Contemporary Art Center, curated by Elizabet Elliott. URBAN WILD examines the range of creativity that is practiced throughout the streets, highways, and dirt roads of the South. LEE M. HOFFMAN: A Legacy July 12, 2019 – January 5, 2020 Lee Hoffman exhibited nationally and was a beloved painter and art personality of the Mobile area along with his wife and fellow artist, Kaye Wall Hoffman. This exhibition shows the diverse and ever changing talents of Hoffman’s career from 1960 until his passing in 2010. FREDERICK A. MARCHMAN: Southern Pop July 12, 2019 – November 17, 2019 Fred Marchman (1941-2016) was a Mobile and Southern original. Everyone who knew him said he was born an artist – obsessed, determined, prolific and creative. He called himself a Southern Pop artist and said he was influenced by ancient art, modern painting and sculpture, folk art, esoteric writings, visionary and spiritual themes. He was a painter, printmaker, sculptor, and illustrator who reveled in using paint, wood, canvas, ink, metal, charcoal, crayons, and even concrete, to make his art. As for subject matter, he found inspiration in televisions, machines, the Confederacy, belles, flowers, kudzu, 50’s automobiles, duck decoys, and the female nude. He admired the work of artists H.C. Westermann, Paul Klee, Arshile Gorky and David Smith. SOUTHERN MASTERS: Casey Downing Jr., Bruce Larsen, & Nall July 12, 2019 – January 5, 2020 We invited three unique and larger-than-life artists from Alabama to step outside the box and create major installations that represent the history of their work, as well as their creative processes. This exhibition is a rare glimpse into their worlds, their distinct perspectives and unique styles. All three of these artists have worked tirelessly over the years and with great passion. Each is a true master. FROM FORT TO PORT & BEYOND: An Architectural History of Mobile October 11, 2019 – March 29, 2020 This exhibition, organized by the Mobile Museum of Art with guest curator and architectural historian, Cart Blackwell, explores the architectural history of this extraordinary community—one of the twenty oldest continuously inhabited cities in the United States. Presented through a selective timeline of photographs, models, architectural plans, maps, elevations, building materials, videotaped interviews and tours, and publications—the exhibition documents the changing social and cultural story of its places and people over a period of centuries, spanning Mobile’s unique and long history.