FEAT UR E
Director Emeritus E. John Bullard and donor Randy Richmond discuss art collecting while producer Kevin McCaffrey captures their conversation for posterity.
footage and in the final cut, are amusing, engaging,
Although the interviews were entirely
and above all, moving. One collector and his wife
unscripted, common themes emerged—one of which
inadvertently started down a path toward collecting
was the use of the word “passion” by donors to
while shopping for an ashtray. Another hopped in his
describe their interest in collecting. By giving the
Toyota truck and drove around the southern states,
collectors the chance to tell their own stories, the
meeting self-taught artists and acquiring their work.
project ensured the details would be recorded
Still others described an almost magnetic attraction
correctly for posterity. It also led to revelations,
to specific objects—a silver pitcher, a ceramic bowl—
including details not even the curators, many of
that, once acquired, drove their future interests as
whom have worked with the donors for years, were
collectors.
aware of. “In every instance, the donors mentioned
N O M A through the Years 1910 – Sugar
1931 – The museum
magnate Isaac Delgado gives $150,000 for the erection of an art museum in City Park.
almost closes due to city budget cuts. After an uproar, the city reinstates funds.
1911 – Isaac Delgado Museum of Art opens to the public on December 16 with a ceremony attended by 3,000 people.
1953 – An exhibition from the Louvre, French Painting through Five Centuries, is organized to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Louisiana Purchase. Attendance for the year is a record 104,000.
1966 – The museum hosts the inaugural Odyssey Ball organized by the new Women’s Volunteer Committee.
1971 – Name changes to the New Orleans Museum of Art and new wings open increasing museum space by a factor of eight.
1977 – Treasures of Tutankhamun opens and is seen by 900,000 persons in four months.