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In the News: Report on Smithsonian Arts
March 21, 2007
Today, the External Review Committee Report on Smithsonian Arts was made public. The Art Newspaper broke the story yesterday. After the Washington Post covered it today, the Museum pulled together a few thoughts in response:
The report is silent on many key aspects of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. The museum's contemporary art initiatives, national programs, and innumerable collaborations were apparently not known to the Committee. The report does not acknowledge the museum's recent grand opening after a 6 1/2 year renovation of its historic main building, shared with the National Portrait Gallery, which garnered public and critical acclaim. The museum would like to add these accomplishments to the public record.
Contemporary Art
The Smithsonian American Art Museum has strengthened its commitment to contemporary art over the past seven years through curatorial appointments, endowments, acquisitions, and an annual award.
The museum recently hired two curators dedicated to contemporary art. John Hanhardt, an internationally renowned expert, became the museum's first Consulting Senior Curator for Film and Media Arts last September after leaving the Guggenheim in New York City. Joanna Marsh joins the museum's staff later this spring as The James Dicke Curator of Contemporary Art. She will come to the museum from the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, Conn. where she currently is the associate curator of contemporary art. Funding for the contemporary curator position...
is provided by the James F. Dicke Endowment for Contemporary Art, established in 2003.
At its grand opening in 2006, the museum debuted new acquisitions including major works by Christo, Lee Friedlander, David Hockney, Alfred Jensen, Edward and Nancy Kienholz, Nam June Paik, Martin Puryear and Sean Scully among many others.
The Lucelia Artist Award, selected annually by a distinguished panel of jurors, recognizes an exceptional American artist under the age of 50. Previous winners include Matthew Coolidge, director of the Center for Land Use Interpretation (2006); Andrea Zittel (2005); Kara Walker (2004); Rirkrit Tiravanija (2003); Liz Larner (2002); and Jorge Pardo (2001).
National Programs
The American Art Museum is a leader in providing electronic resources to schools and the public through its national education program. The museum maintains seven online research databases with more than 1 million records. Each year, more than 250,000 researchers from across the globe use these resources. In 2004, the museum began providing art curricula for students in American schools on military bases worldwide through the Department of Defense Education Activity. The museum offers virtual tours via videoconferencing to classes across the country. In 2005, museum docents led more than 120 of these virtual tours to students in 16 states.
The museum recently joined with one of the world's largest educational publishers, Pearson Longman, to provide art content for a new series of textbooks for grades 5-12.
"Ask Joan of Art," the museum's online reference service, began in 1993 and is the longest running arts-based service of its kind in the country. In the last year, 4,500 queries were answered from all 50 states.
The museum hosted a three-day symposium last fall titled "American Art in a Global Context" which drew more than 350 scholars from across the country and around the world.
Save Outdoor Sculpture!, a program co-sponsored with Heritage Preservation, documents and preserves America's public sculptures. Nationwide, 7,000 volunteers collected information about the history and condition of 32,000 outdoor sculptures in their communities, searchable online.
The museum's traveling exhibition program has circulated hundreds of exhibitions since it was established in 1951. From 2000 to 2005, the museum organized 14 exhibitions of more than 1,000 major artworks from its permanent collection that traveled to 105 venues across the United States. More than 2.5 million visitors saw these exhibitions. This year, the museum is touring a major retrospective of Joseph Cornell's work (co-organized with the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Mass.), an exhibition of work by African American modernist William H. Johnson and selections from Sean Scully's master set of prints.
Grand Opening
The museum's main building, a magnificently renovated National Historic Landmark located in the heart of a revitalized downtown cultural district, opened in 2006. The opening was the culmination of an ongoing collaboration with the National Portrait Gallery. The museum's Board of Commissioners and Director raised $60 million in private support for the capital project and its programmatic initiatives. The museum conceived and secured funding for two new public spaces that are particularly celebrated as innovative models-the Luce Foundation Center for American Art (a study center and visible storage facility), and the Lunder Conservation Center (the first art conservation facility that allows the public permanent behind-the-scenes views of the labs).
Related Posts:
SAAM Strikes Back, Bloggers at Loggerheads Again--But Nicely, Another Smithsonian Bad-News Day: Betsy Broun Gets a Bum Rap, War and Peace: More Smithsonian Conflicts Erupt (via CultureGrrl)
The Smithsonian arts museums report (via Modern Art Notes)
- Smithsonian, External Review Committee Report on Smithsonian Arts, The Art Newspaper, Washington Post, Smithsonian American Art Museum
Posted by Jeff on March 21, 2007 in American Art Here
Comments
The 30 Commissioners of the Smithsonian American Art Museum applaud Director Betsy Broun’s inspired leadership and the terrific work of the museum’s talented and dedicated staff over the past seven years. Under trying circumstances of a multi-year “dark house,” frequent budget cuts, and several staff moves, this team shepherded a $278 million dazzling renovation project. They conceived and created two wholly innovative public conservation and collections study centers that are models for museums everywhere. The collections are handsomely installed in elegant galleries, “telling the story of America” with nuance and insight, in a way that has delighted visitors from around the world. Terrific collaboration with the National Portrait Gallery makes the two museums complementary in wonderful new ways.
During the same period, the contemporary program was enhanced with two new curators, an artist’s prize, endowments, and many exciting acquisitions. The same great SAAM leadership and staff undertook the largest touring exhibition program ever by an art museum – more than 1,000 artworks in 14 shows to 105 museums. The museum’s fabulous staff created award-winning programs in distance learning, K-12 education, new media technologies, and publications. The research resources for American art at SAAM include the biggest American art pre-doctoral fellowship program anywhere, the leading academic journal in the field, and more than 1 million research records in searchable online databases. SAAM’s branch museum, the Renwick Gallery, continues to present a full exciting program of exhibitions and collections.
It was SAAM staff that conducted the nationwide research defining how the museums might benefit from covering the open-air courtyard. A SAAM Commissioner provided the funds for the international architectural competition that selected Lord Norman Foster for the project. Director Betsy Broun was on the 5-member selection panel and subsequent Oversight Committee.
It’s quite a lot to manage and a stellar record of success that would distinguish a museum three times its size. SAAM and Betsy are outstanding within the Smithsonian complex and indeed in any context. Our entire Board of Commissioners is proud to be part of this great accomplishment and to have so generously supported it. Our regret is that the External Reviewers conducted their study while the museum was a construction site and apparently lacked information about any of these accomplishments. We wish they had invited comments from those who know the museum well.
James F. Dicke II, SAAM Commissioner
Posted by: Jim Dicke | Mar 22, 2007
Good to see a Commissioner express his opinion, especially someone like Dicke, who is not only a hands-on Commissioner, but also puts his money where his mouth is, is an accomplished artist on his own right, and a super collector.
I will also publish this comment in Mid Atlantic Art News.
Posted by: Lenny | Mar 23, 2007
It seems to me that Ned Rifkin got the report he paid for.
The negative criticism of SAAM's contextual installation is just an opinion. The museum's approach is appropriate and probably necessary when exhibiting a diverse collection of uneven quality. That is especially true in an historic building shared by the Portrait Gallery. I wonder how Joshua Taylor's minimalist
approach to labels and historical context would play in this day and age.
As for the re-installation, it gets better floor by floor. The thematic tack taken at the entrance is suddenly abandoned after two bays as if nobody had confidence in that
approach. That particular display does veer toward the use of art to illustrate themes. Hopper particularly is not well served. His work, if anything, illustrates his take on the human condition which is best left to individual interpretation without intercession or comment.
The area reserved for open storage is the re-installation's triumph. It shows a deft touch and is often more interesting than the regular galleries.
Posted by: Val Lewton | Mar 27, 2007
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