Headley-Whitney
A little reinvention never hurt anyone. Often, a reinvention may be just the spark needed to breathe new life into someone or something. That is the hope of the artful minds behind the Headley-Whitney museum in Lexington. “You have to evolve,” says museum director and curator, Amy Gundrum Greene. Museum board president Linda Roach agrees. “If you don’t evolve you die,” she says. “Before you can appreciate the evolution it’s important to understand the past.” by Michelle Rauch Photos courtesy of the Headley-Whitney Museum
THE PAST George W. Headley III, one of the museum’s namesakes, had an appreciation for the arts that was cultivated at a very young age. Headley studied art at the Art Student’s League in New York and l’Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He had a passion for jewels and their often show-stopping artistic design. During the 1930s Headley perfected his talent and apprenticed as a designer with a New York jeweler. By the 1940s, Headley opened his own jewelry boutique in California at the Hotel Bel-Air. His designs adorned the ‘Who’s Who’ of Hollywood: Douglas Fairbanks, Gary Cooper, the Marx Brothers, Judy Garland, and Joan Crawford. “George was a fabulous jeweler out in Los Angeles. He was a jeweler to the stars,” Roach says. After nearly a decade on the West coast, Headley returned to his family’s home in Lexington after his parents passed away. Known as La Belle, the scenic piece of property on Old Frankfort Pike would be Headley’s home until his death, and the site for the Headley-Whitney museum. Headley continued to design after moving to Kentucky. But instead of making creations to be worn, he focused more time on bibelots which is the French word for knickknack or curio. The small, ornate pieces are typically admired for their beauty more than their function. His wife Barbara, daughter of the sculptor Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, had many wonderful jewels which he would incorporate in his George & Barbara Headley bibelots. As his collection grew, so did interest in seeing the jeweled creations. It seemed only fitting to display them. In 1968 the Jewel Room and Library were opened on the grounds of La Belle. It was a place to showcase the bibelots as well as all of Headley’s collections of “odds and ends”. “People were always giving him quirky little things. I say quirky in the nicest sweetest way. That is how the museum was started,” Roach says. During the 1970s the museum was built and it’s doors opened for the first time. For years, the bibelots were the main attraction. Holding onto the past has come at a price. For many, the perception of the Headley-Whitney is that of an elitist museum, a myth they want to chip away at. “George is dead and gone. What he created was truly unique. There is nothing else like this in the world. You want to honor that,” Roach says. Purists may be holding onto the rich past. For them, the thought of evolving is not without growing pains. It’s something that has been difficult for the board of directors to recognize over the years, according to Roach. The posh perception of the museum’s history and founder has prompted a flurry of misconceptions, perhaps to the detriment
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SEPTEMBER 2013 | TOPSINLEX.COM