Art Encounters

FOREWORD

A new collection catalog for the Cornell Fine Arts Museum at Rollins College has been long overdue. The only one to date, Treasures of the Cornell Fine Arts Museum, was published in 1993. In the decades since, the collection has not only grown by almost 27 per cent, it has also changed significantly due to the addition of the Alfond Collection of Contemporary Art, started in 2013. Just as the Old Masters collection had differentiated the Rollins Museum from the beginning as the only museum in the community to collect European art, so the Alfond Collection has given it a firm presence in the contemporary art dialogue in Central Florida. Additionally, purposeful acquisitions of works by African American, Latino and women artists have started to redress traditional misbalances in the overall composition of the collection.

The selection featured in this catalog—a small percentage of more than 5,600 objects—offers one possible reading of the collection and its teaching mission. Broadly based, it encourages trans historical conversations. We hope you enjoy those included in these pages.

I am deeply grateful to the team who helped bring this multi-year project to fruition. The writers’ expertise and eloquence make it an enjoyable read: David P.C. Carlisle; Elizabeth Coulter; Margaret Denny; Celeste Ewing (Rollins ’18); Rachel Fugate; Amy Galpin; Susan Libby; Alyssa Lucarello (Rollins ’18); Margaret Milford (Rollins ‘18); Jerryan Ramos Hernández; MacKenzie Moon Ryan; Robert Vander Poppen; Gabrielle Van Ravenswaay; and Rangsook Yoon. The designer, Jeff Maurer, packaged the whole into an elegant design. Special kudos to my team at the Cornell Fine Arts Museum: Austin Reeves, who negotiated all image rights and effectively managed the project; Elizbeth Coulter, who did double-duty as proofreader and factchecker; and last but certainly not least the Museum's former curator Amy Galpin, who took the lead in the conception, research, and writing of this catalog. Many thanks to our partners at Scala Arts Publishers, Inc., led by Jennifer Norman, for the beautiful final product.

This catalog would not have been possible without Rollins alumnus and Museum champion Dale Montgomery, Rollins class of 1960, who generously funded the entire project. Dale, we are incredibly grateful for your support over the last five years, starting with the fellowship enabling us to research so much of the collection, and culminating in the publication of this handsome handbook.

DEDICATED TO DALE MONTGOMERY, Rollins Class of 1960

ENA HELLER Bruce A. Beal Director Cornell Fine Arts Museum Foreword 7

FOREWORD

A new collection catalog for the Cornell Fine Arts Museum at Rollins College has been long overdue. The only one to date, Treasures of the Cornell Fine Arts Museum, was published in 1993. In the decades since, the collection has not only grown by almost 27 per cent, it has also changed significantly due to the addition of the Alfond Collection of Contemporary Art, started in 2013. Just as the Old Masters collection had differentiated the Rollins Museum from the beginning as the only museum in the community to collect European art, so the Alfond Collection has given it a firm presence in the contemporary art dialogue in Central Florida. Additionally, purposeful acquisitions of works by African American, Latino and women artists have started to redress traditional misbalances in the overall composition of the collection.

The selection featured in this catalog—a small percentage of more than 5,600 objects—offers one possible reading of the collection and its teaching mission. Broadly based, it encourages trans historical conversations. We hope you enjoy those included in these pages.

I am deeply grateful to the team who helped bring this multi-year project to fruition. The writers’ expertise and eloquence make it an enjoyable read: David P.C. Carlisle; Elizabeth Coulter; Margaret Denny; Celeste Ewing (Rollins ’18); Rachel Fugate; Amy Galpin; Susan Libby; Alyssa Lucarello (Rollins ’18); Margaret Milford (Rollins ‘18); Jerryan Ramos Hernández; MacKenzie Moon Ryan; Robert Vander Poppen; Gabrielle Van Ravenswaay; and Rangsook Yoon. The designer, Jeff Maurer, packaged the whole into an elegant design. Special kudos to my team at the Cornell Fine Arts Museum: Austin Reeves, who negotiated all image rights and effectively managed the project; Elizbeth Coulter, who did double-duty as proofreader and factchecker; and last but certainly not least the Museum's former curator Amy Galpin, who took the lead in the conception, research, and writing of this catalog. Many thanks to our partners at Scala Arts Publishers, Inc., led by Jennifer Norman, for the beautiful final product.

This catalog would not have been possible without Rollins alumnus and Museum champion Dale Montgomery, Rollins class of 1960, who generously funded the entire project. Dale, we are incredibly grateful for your support over the last five years, starting with the fellowship enabling us to research so much of the collection, and culminating in the publication of this handsome handbook.

DEDICATED TO DALE MONTGOMERY, Rollins Class of 1960

ENA HELLER Bruce A. Beal Director Cornell Fine Arts Museum Foreword 7

OPEN-ENDED THINKING: THE ROLE OF CAMPUS MUSEUMS IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY

WRITTEN BY Ena Heller, Bruce A. Beal Director, Cornell Fine Arts Museum

“Art does not reproduce the visible; rather, it makes visible.”

– Paul Klee

In a letter dated 1954, Rollins President Hugh McKean expressed his desire that the college's growing art collection be housed not in a permanent building, but instead function as a “Museum of Living Art.” This was less unusual at the time than it may seem today. A 1942 study notes that while about four hundred colleges and universities in the United States had “museums,” fewer than fifty had actual museum buildings.1 One wonders whether McKean borrowed the name from the Museum of Living Art created by A.E. Gallatin earlier in the century and housed at New York University. 2 However, Gallatin’s “living art” was simply art by living artists, while Rollins’ collection at the time included works spanning several centuries and his vision was a museum that would be “lived in” and encompass the entire Winter Park, Florida campus: “It is our desire that the various pieces be used throughout the campus rather than established in rows in one building for the students to go and see.” Although McKean meant it literally, his notion can also be read metaphorically, where art becomes a widespread teaching tool, contributing to learning in many different fields of study. This is precisely the definition of a college museum today, and continues to inform what we do at the Cornell Fine Arts Museum.

It was not always so: the role of campus museums developed and changed over time. An analysis of the almost 200-year history of campus art museums in the United States reveals an interesting arc of evolving relationships with both the parent institution and the wider community. 3 Initially built in the late 1800s with the express purpose of enhancing fledgling art and art history courses, campus museums expanded and multiplied in the first half of the twentieth century, and discussions about their precise role and function emerged.4 Yet their primary duty remained constant: they existed to serve the university or college. The midtwentieth-century view, as articulated by Laurence Vail Coleman, director of the American Association of Museums at the time, was that “the campus museum should be, above all, an instrument of teaching or research, or both.” 5 The needs of the campus come first; everything else is secondary.

Even when concessions are made—he advised them for elementary school classes, for instance—it should only be when “they do not interfere with academic work.” Coleman’s position reflects pretty squarely the way campus museums were viewed at the time. The one somewhat forwardlooking notion he advanced was that art could and should be used in teaching other subjects; he mentions history, social science, philosophy, literature, and language.

A couple of decades later, in the 1960s, suggestions regarding extending the reach of college museums to serve a general public began to emerge.

Sometimes this was simply an effort to enhance the image of the college in the community. For those situated in parts of the country where no public museums existed, the campus museum also assumed the role usually 1

2

3

4

5

Open-Ended Thinking: The Role of Campus Museums in the Twenty-First Century 9

OPEN-ENDED THINKING: THE ROLE OF CAMPUS MUSEUMS IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY

WRITTEN BY Ena Heller, Bruce A. Beal Director, Cornell Fine Arts Museum

“Art does not reproduce the visible; rather, it makes visible.”

– Paul Klee

In a letter dated 1954, Rollins President Hugh McKean expressed his desire that the college's growing art collection be housed not in a permanent building, but instead function as a “Museum of Living Art.” This was less unusual at the time than it may seem today. A 1942 study notes that while about four hundred colleges and universities in the United States had “museums,” fewer than fifty had actual museum buildings.1 One wonders whether McKean borrowed the name from the Museum of Living Art created by A.E. Gallatin earlier in the century and housed at New York University. 2 However, Gallatin’s “living art” was simply art by living artists, while Rollins’ collection at the time included works spanning several centuries and his vision was a museum that would be “lived in” and encompass the entire Winter Park, Florida campus: “It is our desire that the various pieces be used throughout the campus rather than established in rows in one building for the students to go and see.” Although McKean meant it literally, his notion can also be read metaphorically, where art becomes a widespread teaching tool, contributing to learning in many different fields of study. This is precisely the definition of a college museum today, and continues to inform what we do at the Cornell Fine Arts Museum.

It was not always so: the role of campus museums developed and changed over time. An analysis of the almost 200-year history of campus art museums in the United States reveals an interesting arc of evolving relationships with both the parent institution and the wider community. 3 Initially built in the late 1800s with the express purpose of enhancing fledgling art and art history courses, campus museums expanded and multiplied in the first half of the twentieth century, and discussions about their precise role and function emerged.4 Yet their primary duty remained constant: they existed to serve the university or college. The midtwentieth-century view, as articulated by Laurence Vail Coleman, director of the American Association of Museums at the time, was that “the campus museum should be, above all, an instrument of teaching or research, or both.” 5 The needs of the campus come first; everything else is secondary.

Even when concessions are made—he advised them for elementary school classes, for instance—it should only be when “they do not interfere with academic work.” Coleman’s position reflects pretty squarely the way campus museums were viewed at the time. The one somewhat forwardlooking notion he advanced was that art could and should be used in teaching other subjects; he mentions history, social science, philosophy, literature, and language.

A couple of decades later, in the 1960s, suggestions regarding extending the reach of college museums to serve a general public began to emerge.

Sometimes this was simply an effort to enhance the image of the college in the community. For those situated in parts of the country where no public museums existed, the campus museum also assumed the role usually 1

2

3

4

5

Open-Ended Thinking: The Role of Campus Museums in the Twenty-First Century 9

fulfilled by regional institutions. As new professional standards were advocated for all museums through organizations such as the American Association of Museums (today the American Alliance of Museums) and the Association of Art Museum Directors, the role of college museums campuses with their surrounding communities began to be seen as part of their responsibility as educators.6 At the same time, serving a wider constituency opened the door to community-based funding at a time when many of the newly opened museums could no longer rely entirely on the support of their college or university.7 College museums therefore started focusing outward, often favoring the off-campus community. By the end of the twentieth century, this trend seemed to have gone too far in places. Many felt that the campus museum had become divorced from its academic parents. The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation helped reverse this course in the early 1990s through the College and University Art Museum Program, the goal of which was to strengthen teaching in museums by institutionalizing collaborations with academic departments. Chosen academic art museums were encouraged to apply for three-year grants (renewable once) for the new position of Academic Curator, who would act as connector between the museum and the rest of the college or university. For several of these museums, the Mellon Foundation later offered a challenge grant to establish an endowment making the position permanent. The success was undeniable and the Academic Curator position became a model for all college art museums. A better knowledge of museum collections among faculty resulted, as well as collaborative thinking around a new framework for learning across various disciplines with and through art. These museums thus became recognized as educational resources. 8

This evolution, which continues in the first decades of the twentyfirst century, is not simply a return to the stated origins of campus art museums as supplements to teaching art. Rather, by positioning art as a tool for inquiry in many disciplines, it reflects a deeper change. The college art museum is redefined as an active site for learning across the curriculum. Subjects as different as history and business; religious studies and chemistry; languages and environmental studies; nursing and engineering—indeed, most fields of study—can benefit from adding a visual perspective to their learning. As the value of studying the humanities is questioned in some quarters today, it is noteworthy that on campuses across the country there is a growing recognition that students in diverse fields benefit from visits to the museum and engagement with art. 9 Gone are the days when classes in the museum were the sole purview of art and art history professors. At the Michael C. Carlos Museum at Emory University in Atlanta Georgia, for example, 80 faculty from 43 different departments participated in programs at the museum in 2015 alone.10 For smaller liberal arts colleges, in particular, art museums today are active teaching laboratories for critical thinking, social engagement, and

broadening perspectives, besides the more expected creative output.

More than a hundred unique courses used the campus museum during the academic year 2015­–16 at colleges such as Colby in Waterville, Maine, and Mount Holyoke in South Hadley, Massachusetts; in the case of the latter, they represented 26 different disciplines. At the Allan Memorial Museum at Oberlin College in Ohio, 142 class visits from 19 departments were recorded during a year when the museum was closed for renovation.

Through involvement with the museum, new connections are made, often with unexpected results. In the aftermath of the September 11 attacks in 2001, for instance, Yale students and New Haven residents alike went to the Yale Art Gallery to meditate; later on, students at Mount Holyoke used contemporary art related to the attacks in a class dedicated to medieval apocalyptic thinking. Across the Atlantic, at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, medical students used Michelangelo’s drawing Descent from the Cross in the collection of the university's Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology to discuss family grief. And here at the Cornell Fine Arts Museum we used the collection to teach fourth-year medical students from the University of Central Florida School of Medicine observation skills and how to help increase their empathy.

The change effected is from the “teaching collections” of emerging college museums (a term often used to denote they weren’t quite up to “real” collection status, but were nonetheless useful in teaching art students) to the “teaching museum” pioneered by the Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College in New York. In the foreword to the 2015 book Everything is Connected, Skidmore President Philip A. Glotzbach remembered the questions that had surrounded the use of “teaching” in the very name of the museum when it first opened in 2000: “What, exactly, is a ‘teaching museum’? What is it supposed to be?” Fifteen years later, the answer was obvious: “By posing open-ended questions in its exhibitions, the Tang encourages viewers to think critically and creatively through active engagement with art.” 11 If I had to define the college art museum in one (qualified) word, I would choose “open-ended thinking.”

And I agree with Ian Berry, Director of the Tang, that by promoting such thinking our museums can “influence not only your experience of art, but even change your relationship to your neighbors and your community.” 12 The college museum can become the place where the world outside the campus comes to participate in the college. Its specific role in the community is mediated primarily by the location of the college and the cultural offerings in the area. The dynamic is quite different if the college museum is the only game in town, or if it is located in a metropolitan center, home to major art museums. A good example is the McMullen Museum of Art at Boston College in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Although the McMullen has a respectable collection, its leadership recognized that it cannot compete with its very distinguished neighbors, both public (the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum)

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10 Art Encounters: Selections from the Cornell Fine Arts Museum Collection

Open-Ended Thinking: The Role of Campus Museums in the Twenty-First Century 11

fulfilled by regional institutions. As new professional standards were advocated for all museums through organizations such as the American Association of Museums (today the American Alliance of Museums) and the Association of Art Museum Directors, the role of college museums campuses with their surrounding communities began to be seen as part of their responsibility as educators.6 At the same time, serving a wider constituency opened the door to community-based funding at a time when many of the newly opened museums could no longer rely entirely on the support of their college or university.7 College museums therefore started focusing outward, often favoring the off-campus community. By the end of the twentieth century, this trend seemed to have gone too far in places. Many felt that the campus museum had become divorced from its academic parents. The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation helped reverse this course in the early 1990s through the College and University Art Museum Program, the goal of which was to strengthen teaching in museums by institutionalizing collaborations with academic departments. Chosen academic art museums were encouraged to apply for three-year grants (renewable once) for the new position of Academic Curator, who would act as connector between the museum and the rest of the college or university. For several of these museums, the Mellon Foundation later offered a challenge grant to establish an endowment making the position permanent. The success was undeniable and the Academic Curator position became a model for all college art museums. A better knowledge of museum collections among faculty resulted, as well as collaborative thinking around a new framework for learning across various disciplines with and through art. These museums thus became recognized as educational resources. 8

This evolution, which continues in the first decades of the twentyfirst century, is not simply a return to the stated origins of campus art museums as supplements to teaching art. Rather, by positioning art as a tool for inquiry in many disciplines, it reflects a deeper change. The college art museum is redefined as an active site for learning across the curriculum. Subjects as different as history and business; religious studies and chemistry; languages and environmental studies; nursing and engineering—indeed, most fields of study—can benefit from adding a visual perspective to their learning. As the value of studying the humanities is questioned in some quarters today, it is noteworthy that on campuses across the country there is a growing recognition that students in diverse fields benefit from visits to the museum and engagement with art. 9 Gone are the days when classes in the museum were the sole purview of art and art history professors. At the Michael C. Carlos Museum at Emory University in Atlanta Georgia, for example, 80 faculty from 43 different departments participated in programs at the museum in 2015 alone.10 For smaller liberal arts colleges, in particular, art museums today are active teaching laboratories for critical thinking, social engagement, and

broadening perspectives, besides the more expected creative output.

More than a hundred unique courses used the campus museum during the academic year 2015­–16 at colleges such as Colby in Waterville, Maine, and Mount Holyoke in South Hadley, Massachusetts; in the case of the latter, they represented 26 different disciplines. At the Allan Memorial Museum at Oberlin College in Ohio, 142 class visits from 19 departments were recorded during a year when the museum was closed for renovation.

Through involvement with the museum, new connections are made, often with unexpected results. In the aftermath of the September 11 attacks in 2001, for instance, Yale students and New Haven residents alike went to the Yale Art Gallery to meditate; later on, students at Mount Holyoke used contemporary art related to the attacks in a class dedicated to medieval apocalyptic thinking. Across the Atlantic, at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, medical students used Michelangelo’s drawing Descent from the Cross in the collection of the university's Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology to discuss family grief. And here at the Cornell Fine Arts Museum we used the collection to teach fourth-year medical students from the University of Central Florida School of Medicine observation skills and how to help increase their empathy.

The change effected is from the “teaching collections” of emerging college museums (a term often used to denote they weren’t quite up to “real” collection status, but were nonetheless useful in teaching art students) to the “teaching museum” pioneered by the Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College in New York. In the foreword to the 2015 book Everything is Connected, Skidmore President Philip A. Glotzbach remembered the questions that had surrounded the use of “teaching” in the very name of the museum when it first opened in 2000: “What, exactly, is a ‘teaching museum’? What is it supposed to be?” Fifteen years later, the answer was obvious: “By posing open-ended questions in its exhibitions, the Tang encourages viewers to think critically and creatively through active engagement with art.” 11 If I had to define the college art museum in one (qualified) word, I would choose “open-ended thinking.”

And I agree with Ian Berry, Director of the Tang, that by promoting such thinking our museums can “influence not only your experience of art, but even change your relationship to your neighbors and your community.” 12 The college museum can become the place where the world outside the campus comes to participate in the college. Its specific role in the community is mediated primarily by the location of the college and the cultural offerings in the area. The dynamic is quite different if the college museum is the only game in town, or if it is located in a metropolitan center, home to major art museums. A good example is the McMullen Museum of Art at Boston College in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Although the McMullen has a respectable collection, its leadership recognized that it cannot compete with its very distinguished neighbors, both public (the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum)

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10 Art Encounters: Selections from the Cornell Fine Arts Museum Collection

Open-Ended Thinking: The Role of Campus Museums in the Twenty-First Century 11

Fig 1 Installation view of Conversations: Selections from the Permanent Collection , Cornell Fine Arts Museum at Rollings College, Winter Park, Florida, (2014–17)

and academic (the Harvard Museums). So instead of displaying the permanent collection in the very small space allocated initially to the museum, they focused on faculty-driven, innovative and multidisciplinary exhibitions that became the museum’s signature program and received national and international recognition.13 By contrast, at Rollins we have the only European art collection in our area; we are also the only museum that consistently organizes original exhibitions accompanied by scholarly catalogs. Our relationship with the extended community is necessarily different. We are at once a college and a regional museum; a museum that embodies the outlook of a liberal arts campus and aims to communicate it to a wider audience. Rollins College has always been a major cultural catalyst for Winter Park, city and college having been founded only a couple of years apart in the 1880s. In the twenty-first century, the Cornell Fine Arts Museum is evolving both by expanding its teaching mandate to help create a community of life-long learners, and by introducing programming that connects different worlds of art as well as different worlds of experience. Our permanent collection gallery, arranged thematically, creates conversations across styles, periods, and cultures aimed at offering different perspectives on familiar works of art (fig. 1). The installation of diverse works of contemporary art off-campus also fuels community engagement and dialogue. Our recent temporary exhibitions have linked performance art and social activism, sustainability and stiltwalking, poetry and traditional art-historical discourse. In short, the Cornell Fine Arts Museum creates an experience of “living art” throughout the campus and into the community at large, in ways beyond what President McKean imagined more than half a century ago but in keeping with the spirit of his vision.

Fig 2 Lobby view of The Alfond Inn, Winter Park, Florida

As the shift from “teaching collections” to a “teaching museum” leads to new ways of connecting disparate disciplines and to positioning art as a conduit for understanding, it also facilitates new opportunities for engagement, whether bringing in different constituents or making use of different environments. Physically sharing the collection in campus buildings other than the museum—McKean’s “museum of living art”—was also tried elsewhere, notably at New York University starting in the 1950s.14 Coleman’s 1942 study mentions campuses where art exhibitions were displayed in the gym, the library, and “other places where students go in free time.” 15 Unique to this day remains the Art Rental Program of the Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College, which started in 1940 and allows works from the collection to be borrowed for students’ dorm rooms. At Rollins College we are experimenting with a different type of sharing the collection: museum art in a very public, non-museum space. For the last five years we have exhibited a significant part of our contemporary art collection two blocks away at The Alfond Inn (fig. 2). The works, displayed throughout the public spaces on the ground floor of the hotel and in some locations on the upper floors (such as elevator lobbies), come with educational options for those who want to engage beyond the passing glance: extended labels and an audio tour are available and museum staff also give regular tours of the collection. Initial feedback indicates that viewing and learning about art in this environment is quite different from that in the museum, and may well open the experience of art to some who are either unaccustomed to the world of museums or may feel unwelcome to it. The difficulties of uncharted territory notwithstanding (how do you assure the same standard of care in a place whose primary purpose is not to collect, preserve, and exhibit art?), we deem the experiment a success. By taking the museum beyond its current building, and beyond the campus, the display and interpretation of the collection at The Alfond Inn has brought our teaching mission, effectively, into the community.

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12 Art Encounters: Selections from the Cornell Fine Arts Museum Collection

Open-Ended Thinking: The Role of Campus Museums in the Twenty-First Century 13

And while becoming relevant to more diverse constituencies is a current priority for all museums, it is academic art museums that can and should lead the way.

Academic art museums have always been different. Even during the time when community outreach became a priority, and even where the absence of regional museums made college museums assume that function, the core mission of the academic museum remained distinct from that of its public counterparts. That mission is built around teaching, learning to think, and academic rigor.16 Being part of a college or university protects us at least partially from the merciless metrics of attendance and earned revenue and, even more importantly, allows us to be more daring in our exhibition and program choices, more experimental and innovative. New York Times critic Holland Cotter defined university museums as “equal parts classroom, laboratory, entertainment center and spiritual gym where good ideas are worked out and bad ideas are worked off.” 17 Just as importantly, a college museum is a safe place for difficult conversations, and an increasingly rare space for civil dialogue about contested issues, be they around social engagement, politics, faith, or sexuality. In this sense, the campus museum becomes a lens through which we can, and must, reinterpret accepted narratives and understand history more fully—a tool by which we may alter the canon, and create opportunities to learn creatively and to think freely. In the last decade there has been increasing recognition that academic art museums have a special role and place in our communities quite distinct from those of public museums.

Published conversation and articles by museum leaders have articulated these differences, and occasionally even the press have taken notice.18 The question is, where do we go from here? Recent studies musing upon the future of academic art museums suggest that the next frontier is to “take the museum outside its own walls and indeed outside the campus gates.” 19 This makes sense in the context of new models of learning, the constant barrage of information (a disproportionate percentage of which is visual), and increased globalization on our campuses. If learning to think is the cornerstone of a liberal arts education, and twenty-first-century learning is primarily visual and immersive, then college museums can be the producers of new knowledge in a distinctly twenty-first-century way.

With that in mind, what we have accomplished at Rollins by installing the contemporary collection at The Alfond Inn—a collection specifically woven around foundational liberal arts values—is a purposeful blending of school, museum, and public space. Recognizing the unique power of art to communicate these values, Abigail Ross Goodman has aptly called the collection a “visual syllabus.” 20 The metaphor does more than reveal the genesis of the collection; it also emphasizes the intentional nature of using it for education, even if it is displayed in a very public place. Indeed, the rotating installations at The Alfond Inn may usher in a future paradigm 16

that college museums are best suited to embody. After having fostered active engagement across the curriculum on campus, and welcomed the local community into the museum, innovative leaders of college art museums could now turn their attention to inviting actual and potential visitors to non-conventional spaces.

Judging by our experience at The Alfond Inn in the last few years, there is enormous potential in encouraging casual looking as the first step to real engagement with art. Once the initial surprise of such art encounters in a hotel subsided (fig. 3), and we clarified the relationship with the museum collection and its mission, the numbers of hotel customers and casual walk-ins joining the guided tours, downloading the audio guides, and later coming to the museum increased exponentially. A museum tour in a hotel seems, to many, less intimidating than the same tour at the museum. The casual, public setting provides an introduction, an open door towards engaging with art. Engagement, in turn, often helps develop a real appetite. This takes us back to the mission of the Cornell Fine Arts Museum: stimulating transformative encounters with works of art and integrating learning into daily life. If the museum is a school, and the hotel is a museum, our community is well served to appreciate art as a catalyst for learning. As our knowledge increases about the multifold benefits of life-long learning, taking the art history out of the classroom and the exhibition out of the museum could be important steps on the road to life-long engagement with art. The admittedly biased perspective of this college art museum director is that such engagement—learning through, with, and about art—leads to life-long enchantment.

Fig 3 Rollins College Art History class tour of The Alfond Inn

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14 Art Encounters: Selections from the Cornell Fine Arts Museum Collection

Open-Ended Thinking: The Role of Campus Museums in the Twenty-First Century 15

And while becoming relevant to more diverse constituencies is a current priority for all museums, it is academic art museums that can and should lead the way.

Academic art museums have always been different. Even during the time when community outreach became a priority, and even where the absence of regional museums made college museums assume that function, the core mission of the academic museum remained distinct from that of its public counterparts. That mission is built around teaching, learning to think, and academic rigor.16 Being part of a college or university protects us at least partially from the merciless metrics of attendance and earned revenue and, even more importantly, allows us to be more daring in our exhibition and program choices, more experimental and innovative. New York Times critic Holland Cotter defined university museums as “equal parts classroom, laboratory, entertainment center and spiritual gym where good ideas are worked out and bad ideas are worked off.” 17 Just as importantly, a college museum is a safe place for difficult conversations, and an increasingly rare space for civil dialogue about contested issues, be they around social engagement, politics, faith, or sexuality. In this sense, the campus museum becomes a lens through which we can, and must, reinterpret accepted narratives and understand history more fully—a tool by which we may alter the canon, and create opportunities to learn creatively and to think freely. In the last decade there has been increasing recognition that academic art museums have a special role and place in our communities quite distinct from those of public museums.

Published conversation and articles by museum leaders have articulated these differences, and occasionally even the press have taken notice.18 The question is, where do we go from here? Recent studies musing upon the future of academic art museums suggest that the next frontier is to “take the museum outside its own walls and indeed outside the campus gates.” 19 This makes sense in the context of new models of learning, the constant barrage of information (a disproportionate percentage of which is visual), and increased globalization on our campuses. If learning to think is the cornerstone of a liberal arts education, and twenty-first-century learning is primarily visual and immersive, then college museums can be the producers of new knowledge in a distinctly twenty-first-century way.

With that in mind, what we have accomplished at Rollins by installing the contemporary collection at The Alfond Inn—a collection specifically woven around foundational liberal arts values—is a purposeful blending of school, museum, and public space. Recognizing the unique power of art to communicate these values, Abigail Ross Goodman has aptly called the collection a “visual syllabus.” 20 The metaphor does more than reveal the genesis of the collection; it also emphasizes the intentional nature of using it for education, even if it is displayed in a very public place. Indeed, the rotating installations at The Alfond Inn may usher in a future paradigm 16

that college museums are best suited to embody. After having fostered active engagement across the curriculum on campus, and welcomed the local community into the museum, innovative leaders of college art museums could now turn their attention to inviting actual and potential visitors to non-conventional spaces.

Judging by our experience at The Alfond Inn in the last few years, there is enormous potential in encouraging casual looking as the first step to real engagement with art. Once the initial surprise of such art encounters in a hotel subsided (fig. 3), and we clarified the relationship with the museum collection and its mission, the numbers of hotel customers and casual walk-ins joining the guided tours, downloading the audio guides, and later coming to the museum increased exponentially. A museum tour in a hotel seems, to many, less intimidating than the same tour at the museum. The casual, public setting provides an introduction, an open door towards engaging with art. Engagement, in turn, often helps develop a real appetite. This takes us back to the mission of the Cornell Fine Arts Museum: stimulating transformative encounters with works of art and integrating learning into daily life. If the museum is a school, and the hotel is a museum, our community is well served to appreciate art as a catalyst for learning. As our knowledge increases about the multifold benefits of life-long learning, taking the art history out of the classroom and the exhibition out of the museum could be important steps on the road to life-long engagement with art. The admittedly biased perspective of this college art museum director is that such engagement—learning through, with, and about art—leads to life-long enchantment.

Fig 3 Rollins College Art History class tour of The Alfond Inn

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14 Art Encounters: Selections from the Cornell Fine Arts Museum Collection

Open-Ended Thinking: The Role of Campus Museums in the Twenty-First Century 15

Born in Leiden and active in Amsterdam, Rembrandt van Rijn was an inventive and prolific printmaker, as well as a master painter and draftsman.

As an influential teacher of many younger Dutch artists, his emphasis was on the study of the nude, considered paradigmatic of the art of painting since the Renaissance. 276 A large number of drawings and etchings by both

REMBRANDT VAN RIJN Dutch, 1606–1669

modest headdress and is seated on a cushioned chair. Her rotund body

Seated Naked Woman (Bathing Her Feet at a Brook)

is strongly lit from the right and set against the forcefully etched, dark

1658

background. Her profile is also heavily etched in shadow, almost merging

Etching and drypoint on laid paper

into her surroundings. Difficult to detect at first, the dark, somewhat

6 1/2 x 3 1/4 in. (16.5 x 8.3 cm)

Rembrandt and his pupils amply document life models posing for such studies in his studio. 277 In the late 1650s and early 1660s, in particular, he made numerous pen drawings of nudes and six etchings based on them, including Seated Naked Woman.

The image presents a woman sitting sideways, looking downward, and holding some kind of drapery in her hands. She wears nothing but a

ambiguous backdrop reveals a tree trunk and bushes, indicating her location as outdoors; however, this study was clearly carried out in the studio, as suggested by the cushion and the back rest of the chair behind

68

Museum purchase from the Michel Roux Acquisition Fund 2007.12

her. 278 The dramatic rendering of light and shadow is characteristic of Rembrandt’s work in general. Likewise, the naturalistic and unidealized depiction of the female body is representative of his aesthetics; he did not alter the appearance of his life model according to classical ideal human proportions, which was a conventional practice of his time.

Rembrandt experimented with various printing techniques to achieve optimum tonality, and often enhanced etchings with drypoint, as is the case here. He frequently reworked his plates, modifying the value of darkness and lighting effects; many of his prints have multiple states. 279 Seated Naked Woman, however, has only one state. Its old but still commonly used title, Woman Bathing Her Feet at a Brook, describes its subject inaccurately, as it is questionable that she is bathing.

RY 276

277

278

279

154 Art Encounters: Selections from the Cornell Fine Arts Museum Collection

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CONTRIBUTORS DAVID P.C. CARLISLE (DC)

Lecturer, University of Arizona

ELIZABETH COULTER (EC)

Dale Montgomery Fellow, Cornell Fine Arts Museum

MARGARET DENNY (MD) Independent curator

CELESTE EWING (CE) Rollins College ’18

RACHEL FUGATE (RF) Independent scholar

AMY GALPIN (AG)

Chief Curator, Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum

SUSAN LIBBY (SL)

Professor of Art History, Rollins College

ALYSSA LUCARELLO (AL) Rollins College ’18

MARGARET MILFORD (MM)

Fred Hicks Fellow, Rollins College ’18

JERRYAN RAMOS HERNÁNDEZ (JRH) University of Central Florida ’18

MACKENZIE MOON RYAN (MMR)

Assistant Professor, Art History, Rollins College

ROBERT VANDER POPPEN (RVP)

Associate Professor, Art History, Rollins College

GABRIELLE VAN RAVENSWAAY (GVR) University of Central Florida ’17

RANGSOOK YOON (RY)

Director of Experiences, Art and History Museums – Maitland

THE COLLECTION

Born in Leiden and active in Amsterdam, Rembrandt van Rijn was an inventive and prolific printmaker, as well as a master painter and draftsman.

As an influential teacher of many younger Dutch artists, his emphasis was on the study of the nude, considered paradigmatic of the art of painting since the Renaissance. 276 A large number of drawings and etchings by both

REMBRANDT VAN RIJN Dutch, 1606–1669

modest headdress and is seated on a cushioned chair. Her rotund body

Seated Naked Woman (Bathing Her Feet at a Brook)

is strongly lit from the right and set against the forcefully etched, dark

1658

background. Her profile is also heavily etched in shadow, almost merging

Etching and drypoint on laid paper

into her surroundings. Difficult to detect at first, the dark, somewhat

6 1/2 x 3 1/4 in. (16.5 x 8.3 cm)

Rembrandt and his pupils amply document life models posing for such studies in his studio. 277 In the late 1650s and early 1660s, in particular, he made numerous pen drawings of nudes and six etchings based on them, including Seated Naked Woman.

The image presents a woman sitting sideways, looking downward, and holding some kind of drapery in her hands. She wears nothing but a

ambiguous backdrop reveals a tree trunk and bushes, indicating her location as outdoors; however, this study was clearly carried out in the studio, as suggested by the cushion and the back rest of the chair behind

68

Museum purchase from the Michel Roux Acquisition Fund 2007.12

her. 278 The dramatic rendering of light and shadow is characteristic of Rembrandt’s work in general. Likewise, the naturalistic and unidealized depiction of the female body is representative of his aesthetics; he did not alter the appearance of his life model according to classical ideal human proportions, which was a conventional practice of his time.

Rembrandt experimented with various printing techniques to achieve optimum tonality, and often enhanced etchings with drypoint, as is the case here. He frequently reworked his plates, modifying the value of darkness and lighting effects; many of his prints have multiple states. 279 Seated Naked Woman, however, has only one state. Its old but still commonly used title, Woman Bathing Her Feet at a Brook, describes its subject inaccurately, as it is questionable that she is bathing.

RY 276

277

278

279

154 Art Encounters: Selections from the Cornell Fine Arts Museum Collection

The Collection 155

William Trost Richards, a follower of Luminism, is known for his delicately composed landscapes. Luminism is a subcategory of the Hudson River School, in which emphasis on light and compositional clarity was prioritized.

Unlike other landscape art movements of the time, Luminism was subdued, highlighting elements of observable reality instead of creating grandiose, nearly mythical paintings of American vistas.

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, most of his stylistic influences were other American landscape artists, most prominently John Frederick 280

Richards was also influenced by John Ruskin

(1819–1900) and considered himself a member of the American Pre-Raphaelites. 281 This movement, unlike its English counterpart, focused not on figurative art that would harken back to the Early Renaissance, but

rather

on

intensely

realistic

depictions

69

American, 1833–1905

Although Richards traveled to Europe after completing his studies at the

Kensett. (1816–1872)

WILLIAM TROST RICHARDS

of

nature.

Ruskin,

a

contemporary English critic, had placed emphasis on creating art that portrayed nature as close to reality as was possible. 282 Richards followed

A New Jersey Beach ca. 1880–90 Oil on canvas mounted on board 9 1/4 x 16 1/2 in. (23.5 x 41.9 cm) Gift of Samuel B. and Marion W. Lawrence in honor of Joan Wavell, former Director of the Cornell Fine Arts Museum, 1978–88 1988.2

this directive, creating work that was praised for its attention to detail, as well as for its connections to real, physical spaces.

By the time A New Jersey Beach was completed, Richards decided to focus on creating paintings of the ocean, particularly of the shorelines of the East Coast of the United States. This specific painting contains many of the characteristics both Richards and the Luminists were known for: precise details which harkened back to reality—such as the gull swooping down on the shore and the dimly outlined boat on the horizon—as well as careful composition and a methodical treatment of light that was unique to this movement.

JRH 280

281

282

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The Collection 157

PHOTOGRAPHY CREDITS UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED, ALL PHOTOGRAPHS BY PIXEL ACUITY Pages 12, 13, 14: Photo by: Scott Cook Page 23: Image courtesy of the artist's estate Page 27: Image courtesy of the artist Page 31: © Estate of Vanessa Bell, courtesy of Henrietta Garnett Page 33: Image courtesy of the artist and Rena Bransten Gallery Page 37: Art © Estate of Ilya Bolotowsky/ Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY Pages 40–41: Art © Estate of Margaret Bourke-White/Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY

Page 99: © 2018 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Pages 100–01: Art © Estate of George Grosz/Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY Pages 110–11: © Felrath Hines.

Image courtesy of the artist's estate Pages 112–13: © 2017 Jenny Holzer / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Page 119: Image courtesy of the artist and Marian Goodman Gallery, New York Page 121: © 2018 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris Pages 124–25: © 2017 Jacob Lawrence/ Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Page 49: © Luis Camnitzer/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Pages 130–31: © Doris Leeper, Atlantic Center for the Arts

Page 51: Art © Catlett Mora Family Trust/ Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY

Page 137: © Maya Lin. Image courtesy Pace Gallery

Page 53: © 2018 The Jean Charlot Estate LLC / Member, Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY. With permission.

Pages 68–69: © 2015 Emory Douglas / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Photos courtesy of Emory Douglas / Art Resource, NY

Page 139: © Whitfield Lovell. Image courtesy of DC Moore Gallery, New York Page 140–41: Image courtesy of the artist and Charlie James Gallery Page 147: © Shirin Neshat Page 149: Image courtesy of the artist and Galería OMR

Page 71: © 2017 Rosalyn Drexler / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Pages 165, 232: Image courtesy of the artist and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York

Page 75: Image courtesy of the artist and Haines Gallery

Page 169: “Counting” © 1991, Lorna Simpson, Courtesy The Lorna Simpson Studio

Page 81: © Audrey Flack

Page 171: © 2017 Delaware Art Museum / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Pages 84–85: © Roger Fry Pages 90–91: © Sam Gilliam Pages 92–93: © Ramiro Gomez Page 94: © Museo Nacional del Prado Page 97: © 2018 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Page 173: Image courtesy of the Slobodkina Foundation, Northport, New York Pages 216–17: © Kara Walker.

Pages 220–21: © Carrie Mae Weems.

Image courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York