Download How to merge CONTEMPORARY values and tradit

Betsy Kim
Head of Communications and Marketing
How to merge
CONTEMPORARY VALUES
and TRADITIONAL COLLECTIONS
The Yale Center for British Art houses
the largest collection of British Art outside
the United Kingdom. Presented to the
University by Paul Mellon (Yale College,
Class of ’29), the collections of paintings,
sculptures, drawings, prints, rare books,
and manuscripts reflects the development
of British art and culture from the
Elizabethan period to the present day.
What do visitors want from museum art?
RELEVANCE
• How was it relevant to its time?
• What did it affect?
• How is it relevant today?
• What does it affect today?
Relevance
Classic and Timeless
Story of Battle of Trafalgar (1805)
Vice Admiral Lord Nelson
HMS Victory
Decisive naval victory
18th c. naval supremacy
Body of Lord Nelson–brandy cask
Bringing hero’s body home
St. Paul’s Cathedral burial, London
Spreading Canvas, spring 2016
J. M. W. Turner, The Victory Returning from Trafalgar, in Three Positions, ca. 1806,
oil on canvas, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Relevance
Perspectives Change
PROBLEMATIC ASPECTS
• Don’t hide
• Don’t ignore
• Acknowledge and update
•
Wall Texts
•
Labels
•
Captions
•
Exhibitions
Unknown artist, Elihu Yale, the second Duke of Devonshire, Lord James
Cavendish, Mr. Tunstal, and an Enslaved Servant, ca. 1708, oil on canvas
Figures of Empire: Slavery and Portraiture in Eighteenth-Century Atlantic Britain
October 2–December 14, 2014
Rise of British Empire
Enslaved labor–economic growth
African, African-Caribbean descent
Impact on portraiture
Consider all figures in portraits
What is a portrait? (Definitions change over time.)
Curated by Esther Chadwick, Meredith Gamer, PhD candidates, Dept. of History of Art,
Yale University, Cyra Levenson, Associate Curator of Education, Yale Center for British Art
Sir Joshua Reynolds, Charles Stanhope,
Third Earl of Harrington, and a
Servant, 1782, oil on canvas
Figures of Empire
http://britishart.yale.edu/multimedia-video/27/1342
Relevance
Programming
Figures of Empire exhibition:
Screening of Belle (2014)
The Critique of Reason: Romantic Art, 1760–1860
March 6–July 26, 2015
First major collaborative exhibition between the Yale
University Art Gallery and the Yale Center for British Art.
Extensive display of iconic artists (including
William Blake, Théodore Géricault, Francisco de Goya,
and J. M. W. Turner.)
Challenged notion of the Romantic artist as a brooding,
introverted genius.
Explorers of natural and cultural worlds as exploring the
mysterious, the cataclysmic, and the spiritual.
Curated by, from the Center, A. Cassandra Albinson, Curator of Paintings and Sculpture,
Nina Amstutz, Postdoctoral Research Associate, and, at the Gallery, Elisabeth (Lisa)
Hodermarsky, Senior Associate Curator of Prints and Drawings and Paola D’Agostino,
Assistant Curator of European Art, and Izabel Gass, Graduate Research Assistant at the
Center and Gallery.
George Stubbs, A Lion Attacking a Horse, 1762, oil on canvas
Relevance
Programming
Critique of Reason exhibition:
Screening of Mr. Turner (2014)
Panel discussion with film director, Mike Leigh
Stay Contemporary with Technology
Susan Hodara’s New York Times review:
“Museumgoers can spend hours immersing themselves in the wealth of visual and explanatory
material in The Critique of Reason. They can supplement their knowledge on an interactive
website that features podcasts on selected works and an illustrated timeline providing historical
context for the images.”
Interactive Tools
Technology and Sharing
Collections of all art in public domain, free, open access
One of the first museums to comprehensively provide images
of our collections to the Google Art Project
One of 14 participants in Smithsonian American Art Museum collaborative,
sharing museums’ collections using linked open data
Relevance
Content Matters
News | Headlines | Hashtags | Memes
#Syria
#LoveWins
#AmericanPharoah
#BlackLivesMatter
Relevance
Social Media
FACEBOOK
TWITTER
Relevance
Education and Community
Visual Literacy
Yale School of Medicine, Enhancing Observational Skills
Artism
Teamwork
Curatorial Departments
Collections
External Affairs and Advancement
Research and Education
Exhibitions and Publications
(and Communications and Marketing)
#ContemporaryLook @TraditionalCollections
Some Takeaways:
1
Relevance–wall text, labels, captions and exhibitions
2
Content
3
Programming
4
Technology–interactive tools
5
Technology–It’s all about sharing!
6
Teamwork
Betsy Kim
Head of Communications and Marketing
[email protected] | 203-506-5498 | britishart.yale.edu