Museum Loans at BrocktonAuthor(s): Marilyn Friedman Hoffman and Kee Morgan DravecSource: Art Journal, Vol. 32, No. 4 (Summer, 1973), p. 453Published by: College Art AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/775707 .

Accessed: 15/06/2014 12:28

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

.

College Art Association is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Art Journal.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 91.229.248.111 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 12:28:27 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Museum Loans at Brockton Faced with growing permanent collec-

tions and limited exhibition space, many major museums are questioning how best to use their acquisitions. One solution is to sell works that cannot be exhibited or which are of comparatively less impor- tance. The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the neighboring Brockton Art Cen- ter-Fuller Memorial have found another solution. They have developed a program of rotating loan exhibitions, sending works from Boston to Brockton for one- year periods. The exhibition for the 1972- 1973 season is "The Ancient Mediterra- nean World," containing seventy-three objects from the Egyptian and Classical departments of the Museum of Fine Arts. Future plans include a show of nine- teenth-century American paintings and decorative arts in 1973-74 and exhibi- tions from other periods in the years to come.

Brockton is an industrial city with a population of about a hundred thousand, located in the rapidly growing area be- tween Boston and Cape Cod. It is a city that lacked a visual arts tradition; hence, the major thrust of the Art Center is edu- cational. The loan exhibitions, conceived by Harry H. Schnabel, Jr., Director of the Brockton Art Center, and made a reality through the active support of William Lillys, Dean of the Department of Public Education at the Boston Museum, were designed to serve as the basis for a public education program in Brockton, includ- ing slide-illustrated orientation talks in the classroom and group visits to the exhi- bitions accompanied by a Volunteer Art Center Instructor. The subject matter of the loans was selected to enhance curricu- lum offerings in the local schools. The in- augural exhibition of ancient art has been sponsored by matching grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Massachusetts Council on the Arts and Humanities.

The benefits for the smaller museum are numerous. The Brockton Art Center, which opened four years ago, has just be- gun to form a collection. With prices for art skyrocketing, the purchase of major objects is impossible. The loan exhibi- tions permit the Art Center to show works of part periods, and they allow the public a longer period of time to view this art than is possible with regular trav- eling exhibitions. In addition, they serve to complement the Art Center's changing exhibitions of contemporary art and to at- tract a wider audience.

The loan program also offers certain benefits to the larger museum. It provides additional exhibition space, allowing the

Loan Exhibition of Ancient Art, Brockton Art Center. Photo by Pamela Bleuins.

Museum to show objects which would otherwise be in storage. The Brockton ex- hibit also relieves some of the pressure for appointments at the Museum by provid- ing an alternative location for regional school groups wishing to see ancient art. Furthermore, the exhibitions at Brockton will stimulate additional interest in the Museum of Fine Arts among local people. Yet the scholar visiting Boston will not be frustrated by finding a work out on loan; Brockton is only a half-hour drive from the Museum.

This type of program puts relatively lit- tle strain on the larger museum in terms of staff time or costs. It is almost entirely administered and paid for by the borrow- ing institution. Brockton provides the in- stallation facilities and carries out the ac- companying educational program with the help of the grant funds. As curator I administer the program. Our assistant cu- rator, Lee Morgan Oravec, who has hired partly for her background in classical art, researched the objects and did much of the teaching of a special ancient art semi- nar for docents. The grants provide a part-time salary for a School Services Coordinator, Renee Eidlin. There are now seventeen active Volunteer Art Cen- ter Instructors and new volunteers are in training for next year. The Museum of Fine Arts provided scholarly and profes- sional advice from its curators and we also had assistance from the Department of Public Education in the training of the Volunteer Art Center Instructors. The Museum insured, packed, and transported the objects at the Art Center's expense.

The pilot program has been over- whelmingly successful to date. Attendance at the Art Center has increased, with ap- proximately 1,000 school children and 400 adults in groups visiting the exhibition during the first four months alone. Costs of the program were low, totalling only about $10,000 including salaries, insur- ance, transportation, and installation- scarcely enough to purchase one museum- quality work of art for a permanent col- lection. If the pilot program is equally successful in future years, it is hoped that the project will serve as a model for other large museums across the country and will encourage them to share their collections with smaller institutions, thereby benefit- ing both types of museums as well as en- riching the cultural lives of increasing numbers of the American public.

MARILYN FRIEDMAN HOFFMAN AND KEE MORGAN DRAVEC

Brockton Art Center

Xochipala, Mexico, Teacher and Student, Princeton Uni- versity Art Museum.

453

This content downloaded from 91.229.248.111 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 12:28:27 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions