It Starts Here Campaign for the Philadelphia Museum of Art Summer 2019 Newsletter 1 Welcome Kathleen A. Foster and Carlos Basualdo share their thoughts about the museum’s transformation. The Core Project offers the department of American Art and curatorial departments that work with modern and contemporary art a once-in-a-lifetime oppor- tunity to reimagine how these collections are presented. In fall 2020, we’ll open 23,000 square feet of new gallery space in the wings of the building that flank the Forum, the new public space we’re creating in the Core Project. Imagine the possibilities inherent in a blank canvas or a blank page. You have a vision, but you’re also filled with wonder and anticipation at the opportunity to experiment. We’ll be the first to tell you that the prospect of blank walls and empty galleries elicits the same reactions. We have the chance to do what many in our field aspire to: install collections from the ground up, thoughtfully planning how to share the works of art in our care through fresh interpre- tation that brings them to life for new audiences. It’s both an honor and a welcome challenge, and when we take into account the expectations of 21st-century museumgoers, we plan to deliver a lively, engaging experience. Cross-departmental teams have been researching the museum’s collection and visiting other institutions, galleries, and artists’ studios for inspiration. We’re building models and prototyping ideas as we prepare for these installations. On one side of the building, our early American collection will greet visitors with the story, among many, of Philadelphia’s role as the birthplace of American art, and on the other side, exciting works of inter- disciplinary contemporary art will be featured in the inaugural exhibition. These spaces will effectively double the square footage devoted to these areas of our collection. There’s so much in storage that we’d like to share on a regular basis. And, many galleries were last updated decades ago. As curators, it’s a privilege to steward the past, encourage today’s artists, and imagine how the museum will look in the future. Read on to discover more of the many ways in which the Core Project has renewed our focus on the museum’s own collection. Kathleen A. Foster Robert L. McNeil, Jr., Senior Curator of American Art, and Director, Center for American Art Carlos Basualdo Keith L. and Katherine Sachs Senior Curator of Contemporary Art 2 3 By the Numbers Dollars Raised Contributions by 52.2% Trustees 17.9% Individuals $455M $455,866,826 of It Starts Here 12.6% Government Campaign Steering Major Gifts Committee funds raised Committee Jaimie Spector Field Chair Barbara B. Aronson David Haas Marta Adelson Katherine Sachs Lawrence H. Berger Campaign Co-chairs Ira Brind 10.4% Gretchen Burke Foundations Bruce E. Toll Edward Fernberger, Jr. Campaign Vice Chair Anne F. Hamilton Osagie O. Imasogie John R. Alchin Joan M. Johnson Berton E. Korman David D. Langfitt Victoria McNeil Le Vine Leslie Anne Miller M. Claire Lomax Chair, Board of Trustees 3.2% Mary Patterson McPherson John J. Medveckis Organizations Constance H. Williams Martha Hamilton Morris Board Chair Emerita Capital Programming To Be James D. Pagliaro, Esq. Zoë S. Pappas Projects & Operations Endowment Designated Timothy Rub Ajay Raju $211,214,098 $126,446,236 $113,123,135 $5,083,357 The George D. Widener Director and Chief Executive Officer 2.6% Gail Harrity Corporations President and Chief Operating Officer Jonathan Peterson Director of Development Dollars raised as of June 30, 2019 For a full list of campaign donors, turn to page 18 or visit 1.1% philamuseum.org/ourfuture/support Estates 4 5 It Starts Now From the Archives In July 1919, workers first broke ground on the museum’s main building. While we’ll celebrate the building’s official 100th birthday in 2028, it’s fitting to recognize the centennial of this significant construction mile- stone as the Core Project continues to reshape the interior of our building. Below, an aerial view from 1921 shows one of the first views of the construction of the museum’s new home on Fairmount. Time Capsule for the Future As part of the Core Project groundbreaking celebra- tion on March 30, 2017, we created a time capsule to be opened in fifty years. In April 2019, our construction team finally found the perfect location for the capsule — underneath what is currently known as level B, section 4, but by 2020 will be an entryway onto the lower level. What does the time capsule contain? Contributions came from staff within the museum, volunteers, and the public. Some of the items inside include a proclamation from the City of Philadelphia on the occasion of the groundbreaking, a piece of stone from the excavation, our collection handbook, a minia- ture crate like those we use to transport art filled with tiny replicas of museum masterpieces made by our conservation team, museum admission buttons, and notes to the future museum and visitors from students who participate in our programs, guides who lead our On April 11, 2019, Timothy Rub and Gail Harrity, shovels in hand, tours, and our current George D. Widener Director carefully closed and buried the capsule, which will not be uncovered and CEO, Timothy Rub. until at least 2067. 6 7 Bringing Art to Life for New Audiences For the first time in a generation, walls in our galleries of late nineteenth- century European painting, sculpture, and decorative arts are bare, and old platforms and caseworks have been removed. These spaces are undergoing a thorough refresh in preparation for the reinstallation of the collection. This ambitious reinstallation project has been divided into in three phases to ensure that a rotating selection of visitor favorites are always on view, including those in The Impressionist’s Eye, as well as to provide uninterrupted access to the Sachs Galleries of Modern and Contemporary Art beyond. Each phase focuses on a few galleries at a time and includes several steps: • Art is deinstalled and casework is removed • Parquet floors are sanded and refinished • Walls are replastered, creating a new and smoother surface, then repainted with an engaging palette of colors • New LED lighting and window treatments are installed • Curators install a fresh presentation of the collection based on a new interpretive plan The Moorish Chief, 1878, by Eduard Charlemont Sunflowers, 1889, by Vincent van Gogh Once all galleries have had their facelift, Jenny Thompson, the Café Café Gloria and Jack Drosdick Curator of European Painting and Sculpture, and her team will fill the suite of clean, bright spaces with thematic presentations that incorporate decorative arts and new interpretive materials alongside some of the most celebrated paintings in our collection, like those at right. Museum 162 163 Store 124 155 158 Special Exhibitions 150 153 156 157 160 161 164 151 152 159 220 221 222 223 165a 165 224 200 167a 166 Great Stair Hall 219 201 Sachs Galleries of Modern 167 175 and Contemporary Art 172 East Entrance 168 203 202 218 Phase 1 through Phase 2 through Phase 3 through March 2019 July 2019 269 273 December276 2019 204 205 Support for the reinstallation of the galleries of nineteenth-century European painting has been generously provided by 217 an anonymous donor in honor of Williamina and Rodolphe Meyer de Schauensee, Barbara B. and Theodore R. Aronson, John and Gloria Drosdick, Mr. and Mrs. Stewart A. Resnick, Harriet and Ron Lassin, Maxine de S. Lewis, Katherine Sachs, and Martha McGeary Snider. Support for both The Impressionist’s Eye exhibition and the reinstallation of the galleries of The Great Bathers, 1884–87, by Pierre-Auguste Renoir nineteenth-century European painting has been generously provided 270by Joan F. Thalheimer and Lois G. and Julian A. Brodsky. 274 216 206 8 271 277 9 208 207 209 278279 210 213 281 280 284 212 282 288 285 215 211 214 283 287 286 Celebrating Our Creative Heritage It was a sense of the living reality of art — art pulsing with life, ideas, awareness — that struck me as I examined works by Brice Marden, Jasper Johns, and Ellsworth Kelly… In art, there really is no timeline, no yesterday, today or tomorrow. That is the powerful feeling that ‘embraced’ me as I engaged with the art on display in Embracing the Contemporary. — Ed Voves, Art Eyewitness, July 25, 2016 Embracing the Contemporary: The Keith L. and Katherine Sachs Collection June 28 – September 5, 2016 Keith and Katherine Sachs’s promised gift of 100 contemporary works is transformative, both complementing and filling in gaps in our permanent collection. Exhibiting Our Permanent Collection This spring, we opened two exciting special exhibitions: The Impressionist’s Eye and Yoshitoshi: Spirit and Spectacle. These shows are popular, compelling, and surprising — and drawn entirely from the museum’s permanent collection. During Core Project construction over the past two-and-a-half years, we’ve organized exhibitions from our own holdings, rather than presenting international loan shows. In doing so, we celebrate our shared creative heritage from around the world through the extraordinary scope and richness of the museum’s collection. “Loan shows give you less flexibility,” explains Suzanne Wells, Director of Exhibition Planning. “Things have to happen on precise dates, planned far in advance. We knew almost right away that to continue presenting loan shows wouldn’t make sense from a logistical standpoint while construction was underway.” Presenting exhibitions from the permanent collection has brought Old Masters Now: Celebrating the Johnson Collection challenges — and many benefits, too. “We can focus our conservation, November 3, 2017 – February 19, 2018 research, and interpretation expertise on works that will stay here in Phil- adelphia.