ANNUAL REPORT JULY 1, 2014 – June 30, 2015 TABLE OF CONTENTS Mission/History ........................................................3 From the Director ......................................................5 From the KMA Board Chair ..................................10 By The Numbers .......................................................11 Exhibitions .................................................................12 Acquisitions ..............................................................15 Programs...................................................................22 Financials ..................................................................24 Board of Trustees ....................................................25 Guild of the KMA ...................................................26 Guild Fundraising Events ...................................... 27 Annual Donors ........................................................28 25th Anniversary Campaign Donors ................ 40 Staff ............................................................................42 MISSION / The Knoxville Museum of Art celebrates the art and artists of East Tennessee, presents new art and new ideas, educates and serves a diverse community, enhances Knoxville’s HISTORY quality of life, and operates ethically, responsibly, and transparently as a public trust. The KMA’s predecessor, the Dulin Gallery to become increasingly focused on the rich of Art, opened in 1961. By the middle 1980s culture, old and new, of the Southern Appa- the gallery had outgrown its quarters in the lachians: to “celebrate the art and artists of 1915 Dulin House, a landmark design of John East Tennessee.” Higher Ground: A Century of Russell Pope. An ambitious community effort the Visual Arts in East Tennessee, a permanent raised $11 million for a state-of-the-art facil- exhibition of works from the mid-nineteenth ity overlooking the site of the 1982 World’s to the late-twentieth century, spotlights the Fair in downtown Knoxville. In March 1990, compelling and heretofore largely unknown the Knoxville Museum of Art opened in its visual arts legacy of Knoxville and the region. current 53,200 square-foot facility designed To this has recently been added a perma- by renowned American architect Edward nent exhibition of modern and contemporary Larrabee Barnes. The exterior of the four- art: Currents: Recent Art from East Tennessee story steel and concrete building, named and Beyond supports the museum’s parallel in honor of Jim Clayton, the largest single aim to “introduce new art and new ideas.” contributor to its construction, is sheathed It features a selection of objects from the in locally quarried pink Tennessee marble. KMA’s growing collection by emerging and established artists and represents a chrono- In the decades since the museum opened, logical and geographic expansion of Higher its collection and programming have evolved Ground that allows viewers to consider the achievements of area artists within a global context. Facets of Modern and Contemporary Glass showcase the KMA’s growing holdings of 20th- and 21st-century glass. The museum supplements and complements its core permanent installations with a lively schedule of temporary exhibitions that explore aspects of regional culture and its relation to national and international artistic developments. Museum tours, workshops, artist residen- cies, outreach programs, lectures, concerts, classroom programs, and family activities form the core of the museum’s educa- tional programming. The KMA reaches over 60,000 annually through museum visits, special events, concerts and other pro- grams. In addition, thousands attend special events and community celebrations held in the museum’s beautiful public spaces. In spring 2014 the museum unveiled a per- manent, monumental glass installation by acclaimed Knoxville artist Richard Jolley, a powerful affirmation of the KMA’s commit- ment to the art and artists of the region. Cycle of Life: Within the Power of Dreams and the Wonder of Infinity, the generous gift of Ann and Steve Bailey, is the largest figural glass installation in the world. In preparation for the epochal milestone in the KMA’s history, 3 MISSION / HISTORY (CONT.) the museum underwent a comprehensive, top- to-bottom restoration and renovation at a cost of nearly $6 million. The museum’s beautiful pink Tennessee marble cladding was cleaned and re- stored. The entry plaza and third floor terrace were demolished, waterproofed, rebuilt, and elegantly repaved with pink and gray Vermont granite. Visi- tors can now enjoy beautiful new restrooms and pristine new terrazzo floors on the second and third levels; a renovated and functional catering kitchen can better support museum events and outside rentals. The new North Garden has been handsomely articulated with new retaining walls, terraces, and ramps, and planted with native trees, shrubs, and ground cover. These vital repairs and upgrades, made possible by the success of the 25th Anniversary Campaign, will ensure the preservation and enjoyment of Edward Larrabee Barnes’ modernist masterpiece as it moves into its second quarter-century. The campaign also supported endowment enhancement and the establishment of a dedicated art acquisition fund. Frank Stella, Shards II, 1982 The museum’s approximately $1.8 million an- nual operating budget comes from individual and corporate donors, museum memberships, rental income, local, state, and federal govern- ment grants, endowments, and annual fund- raising events organized by the KMA Guild. More than 300 volunteers donate in excess of 15,000 volunteer hours each year. The KMA has operated solidly in the black for more than a decade, and is committed to the high- est ethical and professional standards. The KMA was accredited by the American Alli- ance of Museums in 1996 and reaccredited in 2005 and 2015, a distinction shared by fewer than 10% of American museums. Summer Art Academy 2015 4 EXECUTIVE operations and foster future growth, and http://www.knoxart.org/ adhere to the highest and best profes- info/25th-anniversary.html DIRECTOR’S sional practices in administration and March 25, 2015 was also, appropriately governance. (The full text of Vision 2018, enough, the official wrap-up of the 25th REPORT the museum’s current strategic plan, can Anniversary Campaign, which realized be found at http://www.knoxart.org/ approximately $12 million (including The fiscal year that the ended on June downloads/strategy_2015_2018.pdf.) planned giving commitments and the 30, 2015 represents Year 1 of the “new” value of the Jolley installation) to fund KMA: the first full twelve-month pe- The 2015 fiscal year was also the mu- building renovations and improvements, riod since the opening of Richard Jol- seum’s official twenty-fifth anniversary, establish a dedicated art acquisition fund, ley’s Cycle of Life and the completion of highlighted by a festive luncheon on and add to operating and program en- comprehensive building renovations. March 25—twenty-five years to the day dowments. Ann and Steve Bailey’s trans- Edward Larrabee Barnes’ gleaming and from the original opening—and a black- formational gift of Cycle of Life was the refurbished masterpiece now houses the tie gala on May 2. These events were catalyst for the ambitious renovation and largest figural glass installation in the all the more joyous because so many of renewal of the Clayton Building, which world, along with a growing and increas- the people who moved heaven and earth was approaching its twenty-fifth birthday ingly important collection of work by to get the museum funded and built a and needed major work inside and out artists from East Tennessee and around generation ago were here to celebrate the before it could properly receive Jolley’s th the world. Outside, the redesigned and success of their seemingly superhuman epic masterwork. The success of the 25 upgraded museum campus offers a efforts. I remain in awe of the found- Anniversary Campaign speaks well of the spectacular platform for performances ing fathers and mothers who, against community’s confidence in the museum’s and events, and a place for quiet contem- all odds, raised millions of dollars and future and its strategic direction, as plation in the shade of rustling leaves and convinced a world-class architect to take well as the extent to which the KMA is the sound of splashing water. Almost on a project in a small but scrappy city valued by a broad base of stakeholders. 60,000 people visited a more beautiful nestled in the shadow of the Smokies. It is particularly gratifying that so many and more visible KMA during the past How lucky we are to be the beneficiaries gifts came from those who supported year, the highest number in more than a of their vision and daring! Happily, this the original construction campaign. decade. The bar has been set high, and landmark anniversary provided the occa- we plan to raise it even higher, as we fol- sion to capture on video the recollections In another achievement of an already low a robust strategic vision to shape the of some of the key figures in the genesis memorable year, the museum once again region’s cultural identity and nurture its of the museum, thanks to the generos- achieved accreditation by the American aspirations, meaningfully engage diverse ity and skill of University of Tennessee Alliance of Museums (AAM), the highest audiences, attract visitors and support filmmakers Michael Wiseman and Bob national recognition for a museum. This th from a wide