Barnes Foundation of Philadelphia
Encyclopedia
The Barnes Foundation is an American educational art and horticultural institution in Lower Merion
, a suburb of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
. It was founded in 1922 by Albert C. Barnes
, a chemist who collected art after making a fortune by co-developing an early antimicrobial drug marketed as Argyrol
.
Today, the foundation possesses more than 2,500 objects including 800 paintings estimated to be worth about $25 billion. These are primarily works by Impressionist
and Modernist
masters, but the collection includes many by leading European and American artists, as well as ancient works from other cultures.
The foundation became embroiled in controversy due to a financial crisis in the 1990s, partially related to longstanding restrictions related to the original trust and to its location in a residential neighborhood. The relocation of the gallery from Lower Merion to a site in Philadelphia on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway
, for enhanced public access, is scheduled for 2012. A 2009 documentary makes the case that the foundation was the subject of a takeover by other non-profit institutions, in violation of Barnes' will and of his wish that the gallery remain outside the hands of the Philadelphia establishment.
veteran and horticulturist Captain Joseph Lapsley Wilson
. The building features several unusual cubist
bas-reliefs, commissioned by Barnes from sculptor Jacques Lipchitz
. The grounds, which were developed by his wife, Laura Barnes, with some of Wilson's plantings, are now the Arboretum of the Barnes Foundation.
, with whom he had gone to Central High School
and become friends. In 1912 in Paris
, Barnes visited the home of Gertrude
and Leo Stein
, where he became familiar with the work of such Modernist artists as Henri Matisse
and Pablo Picasso
.
In the 1920s, he became acquainted with the work of Amedeo Modigliani
and Giorgio de Chirico
, thanks to the merchant Paul Guillaume
. In 1922, Barnes began to transform his collection into a cultural institution. That year, he chartered the Barnes Foundation as an educational institution in the state of Pennsylvania, and began construction on the current complex of buildings in Merion. Soon afterward, a taxation dispute found its way to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court
.
The Barnes Gallery was built on the grounds of Captain Joseph Lapsley Wilson's arboretum, established around 1880. Barnes built his home next to the gallery, and it now serves as the administration building of the foundation. Laura Barnes developed the arboretum and the horticulture program, which are integral parts of the foundation.
, 69 by Paul Cézanne
, 59 by Henri Matisse
, 46 by Pablo Picasso
, 21 by Chaim Soutine
, 18 by Henri Rousseau
, 16 by Amedeo Modigliani
, 11 by Edgar Degas
, 7 by Vincent Van Gogh
, and 6 by Georges Seurat. One of Matisse's works of dancers was created for the main gallery space, where the triptych
is above Palladian windows.
In addition, the collection holds numerous other masters, including Giorgio de Chirico
, Peter Paul Rubens, Titian
, Paul Gauguin
, El Greco
, Francisco Goya
, Edouard Manet
, Jean Hugo
, Claude Monet
, Maurice Utrillo
, William Glackens
, Charles Demuth
, and Maurice Prendergast
. It also holds a variety of African artworks; ancient Egyptian, Greek, and Roman art; and American and European furniture, decorative arts and metalwork. A notable aspect of the foundation's art collection is its display in "wall ensembles", which are intentional combinations of works from different time periods, geographic areas, and styles for the purpose of comparison and study.
strongly influenced his development of the original program of the foundation, which is a school rather than a typical museum. Dewey helped Barnes draw up its mandate. Barnes also hired two of Dewey's students, Lawrence Buermeyer (1889–1970) and Thomas Munro (1897–1974), to assist him with the early educational programs. Buermeyer and Munro each served as Associate Director of Education for several years, while Dewey served in the largely honorary position of Director of Education.
To control the institution's identity, Barnes created detailed terms of operation in an indenture of trust to be honored in perpetuity after his death. These included limiting public admission to two days a week, so the school could use the art collection primarily for student study, and prohibitions against lending works in the collection, colored reproductions of its works, touring the collection, and presenting touring exhibitions of other art. Matisse is said to have hailed the school as the only sane place in America to view art.
It was not until 1961, and the resolution of legal challenges, that the public was allowed regular access to the collection. Public access expanded to two and a half days a week, with a limit of 500 visitors per week and through reservations at least two weeks in advance. An earlier suit by an editor of The Philadelphia Inquirer
, with the consent of, but not directly on behalf of, the Pennsylvania Attorney General
, had been unsuccessful.
; Fort Worth
, Texas
; Paris; Tokyo
; Toronto
; and at the Philadelphia Museum of Art
. People opposed to fundraising events at the collection challenged them in court, but lost.
When the foundation tried to extend its hours for public access and increase the number of visitors, it was legally opposed by Montgomery County
, Pennsylvania, and the township. Later, a number of financial irregularities were discovered in the administration of the collection. Between the renovations, the irregularities, and the associated legal expenses of court challenges, the financial situation of the Barnes declined. The revenues earned from the tour of paintings was not enough to ensure its endowment for the future. By Fall 1998, board members Niara Sudarkasa and Richard Glanton were suing each other, and an investigation was launched at Lincoln University
about its finances. The foundation's board felt a similar investigation was warranted for activities during Glanton's tenure as president of the board. In 1998, The board of directors began a forensic audit conducted by Deloitte Touche, which showed the Foundation needed greater accountablilty and internal controls during the period from 1992 to 1998.
(which oversees its operations) to allow the art collection to be relocated to a more accessible site in Philadelphia (which offered a site on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway) and to increase the number of trustees from five to fifteen members. The foundation's indenture of trust stipulates that the paintings in the collection be kept "in exactly the places they are". The foundation argued that it needed to expand the board of trustees from five (four of which were held by persons appointed by Lincoln University) to fifteen members to make fundraising viable. For the same reason, it needed to relocate the gallery from Lower Merion to a site in Center City, Philadelphia
. In its brief to the court, the foundation said that donors were reluctant to commit continuing financial resources to the Barnes unless the gallery were to become more accessible to the public.
On December 15, 2004, after a two-year legal battle that included an examination of the Foundation's financial situation, Judge Stanley Ott ruled that the foundation could relocate. Three charitable foundations The Pew Charitable Trusts
, the Lenfest Foundation
and the Annenberg Foundation
had agreed to help the Barnes raise $150 million on the condition that the move be approved.
On June 13, 2005, the foundation's president, Kimberly Camp, announced her resignation, to take effect no later than January 1, 2006. Camp had been appointed in 1998 with the goal of stabilizing and restoring foundation to its original mission. During her tenure, she initiated the Collection Assessment Project, as the first-ever, full-scale cataloguing and stabilization project for the multi-billion dollar collection; brought in exemplary professional staff, created the fundraising program, restored Ker-feal and the Barnes Arboretum and worked with the board to approve policies and procedures to make the foundation viable once again. In 2002, Dr. Bernard C. Watson initiated the proposal to move the Barnes.
Recently, the foundation appointed a new Director of Education, to preserve and expand the education program in the new gallery It will be the site of the foundation's art and aesthetics courses. The foundation has pledged to reproduce Dr. Barnes's idiosyncratic installation of artworks and other objects within the new gallery.
) was selected as its new director and president.
The foundation is proceeding with plans to relocate the collection to a new facility under construction in the 2,000 block of Philadelphia's Benjamin Franklin Parkway. Tod Williams & Billie Tsien Architects of New York have been selected as lead architects of the building project. The building team also consists of the Philadelphia-based firm, Ballinger, as associate architect, Olin Partnership as landscape architect and Fisher Marantz Stone as lighting designers. Aegis Property Group will serve as external project managers with L. F. Driscoll as construction managers. Supervising and coordinating the project for the foundation is Project Executive Bill McDowell.
Students and staff at the Youth Study Center have been temporarily relocated to East Falls, Philadelphia
. A new facility in West Philadelphia is to be completed in 2013. The Youth Study Center building was demolished to allow site work to begin for new construction.
Construction for the new building started in the Fall 2009 and is planned to be completed by Winter 2011. The new foundation building is planned to house the collection in galleries that replicate the scale, proportion and configuration of the original Merion galleries. The new site will contain increased space for the foundation's art education program and conservation department, a retail shop and cafe.
. Congressman Jim Gerlach
has strongly supported keeping the Barnes in Lower Merion.
On May 20, 2009, Friends of the Barnes Foundation appeared before the Commissioners of the Delaware River Port Authority
(DRPA) in Camden
, New Jersey
, to request that they reconsider their 2003 authorization of a grant for $500,000 toward the plan to relocate the foundation. They contended there was not sufficient evidence of substantial economic benefit to Philadelphia, and that DRPA had not undertaken necessary economic evaluation assessing the impact at both locations. They introduced a study by economist Matityahu Marcus that challenged claimed benefits. The DRPA said that it would consider the Friends' request. The controversy is chronicled in the 2009 documentary The Art of the Steal
.
In late February 2011, Judge Ott ordered a new hearing, setting a date of March 18, which was ultimately postponed until August 3, 2011. The court ordered the foundation and the Attorney General's office, who argued in favor of the move, to explain why the case should not be reopened. The opposition group, Friends of the Barnes Foundation, says the documentary revealed that Ott did not have all the evidence in 2006, when he approved the art collection's move. A decision on re-opening the case has not yet been issued.
Lower Merion Township, Pennsylvania
Lower Merion Township is a township in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania and part of the Pennsylvania Main Line. As of the 2010 census, the township had a total population of 57,825...
, a suburb of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
. It was founded in 1922 by Albert C. Barnes
Albert C. Barnes
Albert Coombs Barnes was an American chemist and art collector. With the fortune made from the development of the antiseptic, anti-blindness drug Argyrol, he founded the Barnes Foundation, an educational institution based on his private collection of art...
, a chemist who collected art after making a fortune by co-developing an early antimicrobial drug marketed as Argyrol
Argyrol
Argyrol is the trade name for an antiseptic consisting of a compound of protein and silver. It was developed and commercialized by American physician Dr. Albert Coombs Barnes to treat gonorrhea, and as a preventative of gonorrheal blindness in newborn infants....
.
Today, the foundation possesses more than 2,500 objects including 800 paintings estimated to be worth about $25 billion. These are primarily works by Impressionist
Impressionism
Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement that originated with a group of Paris-based artists whose independent exhibitions brought them to prominence during the 1870s and 1880s...
and Modernist
Modernism
Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...
masters, but the collection includes many by leading European and American artists, as well as ancient works from other cultures.
The foundation became embroiled in controversy due to a financial crisis in the 1990s, partially related to longstanding restrictions related to the original trust and to its location in a residential neighborhood. The relocation of the gallery from Lower Merion to a site in Philadelphia on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway
Benjamin Franklin Parkway
Benjamin Franklin Parkway is a scenic boulevard that runs through the cultural heart of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Named for favorite son Benjamin Franklin, the mile-long Parkway cuts diagonally across the grid plan pattern of Center City's Northwest quadrant...
, for enhanced public access, is scheduled for 2012. A 2009 documentary makes the case that the foundation was the subject of a takeover by other non-profit institutions, in violation of Barnes' will and of his wish that the gallery remain outside the hands of the Philadelphia establishment.
Gallery and arboretum
In 1922, the architect Paul Cret designed a complex of buildings for the school, on the land purchased by Barnes from American Civil WarAmerican Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
veteran and horticulturist Captain Joseph Lapsley Wilson
Joseph Lapsley Wilson
Joseph Lapsley Wilson was an American railroad executive, author and horticulturalist. A Civil War veteran, he wrote two histories of Philadelphia's First City Troop....
. The building features several unusual cubist
Cubist sculpture
Cubist sculpture is a style developed in parallel with cubist painting, centered in Paris, beginning around 1909 and evolving through the early 1920s.The style is most closely associated with the formal experiments of Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso...
bas-reliefs, commissioned by Barnes from sculptor Jacques Lipchitz
Jacques Lipchitz
Jacques Lipchitz was a Cubist sculptor.Jacques Lipchitz was born Chaim Jacob Lipchitz, son of a building contractor in Druskininkai, Lithuania, then within the Russian Empire...
. The grounds, which were developed by his wife, Laura Barnes, with some of Wilson's plantings, are now the Arboretum of the Barnes Foundation.
History
From 1912, Barnes, who derived his fortune from his development of the antiseptic drug Argyrol, began to dedicate himself to the pursuit of the arts. He was assisted at first by the painter William GlackensWilliam Glackens
William James Glackens was an American realist painter.Glackens studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and later moved to New York City, where he co-founded what came to be called the Ashcan School art movement...
, with whom he had gone to Central High School
Central High School
-In the United States:Alabama* Central High School , in Phenix City, Alabama* Central High School Arizona* Central High School Arkansas...
and become friends. In 1912 in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, Barnes visited the home of Gertrude
Gertrude Stein
Gertrude Stein was an American writer, poet and art collector who spent most of her life in France.-Early life:...
and Leo Stein
Leo Stein
Leo Stein was an American art collector and critic. He was born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, the older brother of Gertrude Stein. He became an influential promoter of 20th-century paintings. Beginning in 1892, he studied at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, for two years. The...
, where he became familiar with the work of such Modernist artists as Henri Matisse
Henri Matisse
Henri Matisse was a French artist, known for his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known primarily as a painter...
and Pablo Picasso
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso known as Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer, one of the greatest and most influential artists of the...
.
In the 1920s, he became acquainted with the work of Amedeo Modigliani
Amedeo Modigliani
Amedeo Clemente Modigliani was an Italian painter and sculptor who worked mainly in France. Primarily a figurative artist, he became known for paintings and sculptures in a modern style characterized by mask-like faces and elongation of form...
and Giorgio de Chirico
Giorgio de Chirico
Giorgio de Chirico was a pre-Surrealist and then Surrealist Italian painter born in Volos, Greece, to a Genovese mother and a Sicilian father. He founded the scuola metafisica art movement...
, thanks to the merchant Paul Guillaume
Paul Guillaume
Paul Guillaume was a French art dealer. Dealer of Chaim Soutine and Amedeo Modigliani, he was one of the first to organize African art exhibitions...
. In 1922, Barnes began to transform his collection into a cultural institution. That year, he chartered the Barnes Foundation as an educational institution in the state of Pennsylvania, and began construction on the current complex of buildings in Merion. Soon afterward, a taxation dispute found its way to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania is the court of last resort for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It meets in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.-History:...
.
The Barnes Gallery was built on the grounds of Captain Joseph Lapsley Wilson's arboretum, established around 1880. Barnes built his home next to the gallery, and it now serves as the administration building of the foundation. Laura Barnes developed the arboretum and the horticulture program, which are integral parts of the foundation.
Collection
Among the collection are numerous Impressionist and Modernist works, including 181 by Pierre-Auguste RenoirPierre-Auguste Renoir
Pierre-Auguste Renoir was a French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionist style. As a celebrator of beauty, and especially feminine sensuality, it has been said that "Renoir is the final representative of a tradition which runs directly from Rubens to...
, 69 by Paul Cézanne
Paul Cézanne
Paul Cézanne was a French artist and Post-Impressionist painter whose work laid the foundations of the transition from the 19th century conception of artistic endeavour to a new and radically different world of art in the 20th century. Cézanne can be said to form the bridge between late 19th...
, 59 by Henri Matisse
Henri Matisse
Henri Matisse was a French artist, known for his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known primarily as a painter...
, 46 by Pablo Picasso
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso known as Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer, one of the greatest and most influential artists of the...
, 21 by Chaim Soutine
Chaim Soutine
Chaïm Soutine was a Jewish painter from Belarus. Soutine made a major contribution to the expressionist movement while living in Paris....
, 18 by Henri Rousseau
Henri Rousseau
Henri Julien Félix Rousseau was a French Post-Impressionist painter in the Naïve or Primitive manner. He was also known as Le Douanier , a humorous description of his occupation as a toll collector...
, 16 by Amedeo Modigliani
Amedeo Modigliani
Amedeo Clemente Modigliani was an Italian painter and sculptor who worked mainly in France. Primarily a figurative artist, he became known for paintings and sculptures in a modern style characterized by mask-like faces and elongation of form...
, 11 by Edgar Degas
Edgar Degas
Edgar Degas[p] , born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas, was a French artist famous for his work in painting, sculpture, printmaking and drawing. He is regarded as one of the founders of Impressionism although he rejected the term, and preferred to be called a realist...
, 7 by Vincent Van Gogh
Vincent van Gogh
Vincent Willem van Gogh , and used Brabant dialect in his writing; it is therefore likely that he himself pronounced his name with a Brabant accent: , with a voiced V and palatalized G and gh. In France, where much of his work was produced, it is...
, and 6 by Georges Seurat. One of Matisse's works of dancers was created for the main gallery space, where the triptych
Triptych
A triptych , from tri-= "three" + ptysso= "to fold") is a work of art which is divided into three sections, or three carved panels which are hinged together and can be folded shut or displayed open. It is therefore a type of polyptych, the term for all multi-panel works...
is above Palladian windows.
In addition, the collection holds numerous other masters, including Giorgio de Chirico
Giorgio de Chirico
Giorgio de Chirico was a pre-Surrealist and then Surrealist Italian painter born in Volos, Greece, to a Genovese mother and a Sicilian father. He founded the scuola metafisica art movement...
, Peter Paul Rubens, Titian
Titian
Tiziano Vecelli or Tiziano Vecellio Tiziano Vecelli or Tiziano Vecellio Tiziano Vecelli or Tiziano Vecellio (c. 1488/1490 – 27 August 1576 better known as Titian was an Italian painter, the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school. He was born in Pieve di Cadore, near...
, Paul Gauguin
Paul Gauguin
Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin was a leading French Post-Impressionist artist. He was an important figure in the Symbolist movement as a painter, sculptor, print-maker, ceramist, and writer...
, El Greco
El Greco
El Greco was a painter, sculptor and architect of the Spanish Renaissance. "El Greco" was a nickname, a reference to his ethnic Greek origin, and the artist normally signed his paintings with his full birth name in Greek letters, Δομήνικος Θεοτοκόπουλος .El Greco was born on Crete, which was at...
, Francisco Goya
Francisco Goya
Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes was a Spanish romantic painter and printmaker regarded both as the last of the Old Masters and the first of the moderns. Goya was a court painter to the Spanish Crown, and through his works was both a commentator on and chronicler of his era...
, Edouard Manet
Édouard Manet
Édouard Manet was a French painter. One of the first 19th-century artists to approach modern-life subjects, he was a pivotal figure in the transition from Realism to Impressionism....
, Jean Hugo
Jean Hugo
Victor Jean Hugo is a South African professional golfer.Hugo matriculated at Paul Roos Gymnasium in Stellenbosch, South Africa in 1994 and graduated three years later with a BA Degree from the University of Stellenbosch prior to becoming a professional golfer...
, Claude Monet
Claude Monet
Claude Monet was a founder of French impressionist painting, and the most consistent and prolific practitioner of the movement's philosophy of expressing one's perceptions before nature, especially as applied to plein-air landscape painting. . Retrieved 6 January 2007...
, Maurice Utrillo
Maurice Utrillo
Maurice Utrillo, , born Maurice Valadon, was a French painter who specialized in cityscapes. Born in the Montmartre quarter of Paris, France, Utrillo is one of the few famous painters of Montmartre who were born there....
, William Glackens
William Glackens
William James Glackens was an American realist painter.Glackens studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and later moved to New York City, where he co-founded what came to be called the Ashcan School art movement...
, Charles Demuth
Charles Demuth
Charles Demuth was an American watercolorist who turned to oils late in his career, developing a style of painting known as Precisionism....
, and Maurice Prendergast
Maurice Prendergast
Maurice Brazil Prendergast was an American Post-Impressionist artist who worked in oil, watercolor, and monotype...
. It also holds a variety of African artworks; ancient Egyptian, Greek, and Roman art; and American and European furniture, decorative arts and metalwork. A notable aspect of the foundation's art collection is its display in "wall ensembles", which are intentional combinations of works from different time periods, geographic areas, and styles for the purpose of comparison and study.
Philosophy
Barnes's collaboration with the philosopher John DeweyJohn Dewey
John Dewey was an American philosopher, psychologist and educational reformer whose ideas have been influential in education and social reform. Dewey was an important early developer of the philosophy of pragmatism and one of the founders of functional psychology...
strongly influenced his development of the original program of the foundation, which is a school rather than a typical museum. Dewey helped Barnes draw up its mandate. Barnes also hired two of Dewey's students, Lawrence Buermeyer (1889–1970) and Thomas Munro (1897–1974), to assist him with the early educational programs. Buermeyer and Munro each served as Associate Director of Education for several years, while Dewey served in the largely honorary position of Director of Education.
To control the institution's identity, Barnes created detailed terms of operation in an indenture of trust to be honored in perpetuity after his death. These included limiting public admission to two days a week, so the school could use the art collection primarily for student study, and prohibitions against lending works in the collection, colored reproductions of its works, touring the collection, and presenting touring exhibitions of other art. Matisse is said to have hailed the school as the only sane place in America to view art.
It was not until 1961, and the resolution of legal challenges, that the public was allowed regular access to the collection. Public access expanded to two and a half days a week, with a limit of 500 visitors per week and through reservations at least two weeks in advance. An earlier suit by an editor of The Philadelphia Inquirer
The Philadelphia Inquirer
The Philadelphia Inquirer is a morning daily newspaper that serves the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, metropolitan area of the United States. The newspaper was founded by John R. Walker and John Norvell in June 1829 as The Pennsylvania Inquirer and is the third-oldest surviving daily newspaper in the...
, with the consent of, but not directly on behalf of, the Pennsylvania Attorney General
Pennsylvania Attorney General
The Pennsylvania Attorney General is the chief law enforcement officer of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It became an elected office in 1980. Currently, the office is held by Linda Kelly.- Authority and Responsibilities :...
, had been unsuccessful.
World tour and building renovations
In 1992, Richard H. Glanton, president of the foundation, said that extensive repairs were needed on the aging structure to upgrade its mechanical systems, preserve the fabric of the buildings, provide for maintenance and preservation of artworks, and provide security, required breaking some terms of the indenture in order to gain more revenue for the needed work. From 1993 to 1995, he sent a selection of 83 highlights of the collection's Impressionist and post-Impressionist paintings to be exhibited on a world tour, the proceeds of which were to pay for needed renovations to the Foundation. The seldom-seen works attracted large crowds in numerous cities, including Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
; Fort Worth
Fort Worth, Texas
Fort Worth is the 16th-largest city in the United States of America and the fifth-largest city in the state of Texas. Located in North Central Texas, just southeast of the Texas Panhandle, the city is a cultural gateway into the American West and covers nearly in Tarrant, Parker, Denton, and...
, Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
; Paris; Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
; Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
; and at the Philadelphia Museum of Art
Philadelphia Museum of Art
The Philadelphia Museum of Art is among the largest art museums in the United States. It is located at the west end of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia's Fairmount Park. The Museum was established in 1876 in conjunction with the Centennial Exposition of the same year...
. People opposed to fundraising events at the collection challenged them in court, but lost.
When the foundation tried to extend its hours for public access and increase the number of visitors, it was legally opposed by Montgomery County
Montgomery County, Pennsylvania
Montgomery County is a county located in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, in the United States. As of 2010, the population was 799,874, making it the third most populous county in Pennsylvania . The county seat is Norristown.The county was created on September 10, 1784, out of land originally part...
, Pennsylvania, and the township. Later, a number of financial irregularities were discovered in the administration of the collection. Between the renovations, the irregularities, and the associated legal expenses of court challenges, the financial situation of the Barnes declined. The revenues earned from the tour of paintings was not enough to ensure its endowment for the future. By Fall 1998, board members Niara Sudarkasa and Richard Glanton were suing each other, and an investigation was launched at Lincoln University
Lincoln University (Pennsylvania)
Lincoln University is the United States' first degree-granting historically black university. It is located near the town of Oxford in southern Chester County, Pennsylvania. The university also hosts a Center for Graduate Studies in the City of Philadelphia. Lincoln University provides...
about its finances. The foundation's board felt a similar investigation was warranted for activities during Glanton's tenure as president of the board. In 1998, The board of directors began a forensic audit conducted by Deloitte Touche, which showed the Foundation needed greater accountablilty and internal controls during the period from 1992 to 1998.
Relocation
On September 24, 2002, the foundation announced that it would petition the Montgomery County Orphans' CourtMontgomery County, Pennsylvania
Montgomery County is a county located in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, in the United States. As of 2010, the population was 799,874, making it the third most populous county in Pennsylvania . The county seat is Norristown.The county was created on September 10, 1784, out of land originally part...
(which oversees its operations) to allow the art collection to be relocated to a more accessible site in Philadelphia (which offered a site on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway) and to increase the number of trustees from five to fifteen members. The foundation's indenture of trust stipulates that the paintings in the collection be kept "in exactly the places they are". The foundation argued that it needed to expand the board of trustees from five (four of which were held by persons appointed by Lincoln University) to fifteen members to make fundraising viable. For the same reason, it needed to relocate the gallery from Lower Merion to a site in Center City, Philadelphia
Center City, Philadelphia
Center City, or Downtown Philadelphia includes the central business district and central neighborhoods of the City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. As of 2005, its population of over 88,000 made it the third most populous downtown in the United States, after New York City's and Chicago's...
. In its brief to the court, the foundation said that donors were reluctant to commit continuing financial resources to the Barnes unless the gallery were to become more accessible to the public.
On December 15, 2004, after a two-year legal battle that included an examination of the Foundation's financial situation, Judge Stanley Ott ruled that the foundation could relocate. Three charitable foundations The Pew Charitable Trusts
The Pew Charitable Trusts
The Pew Charitable Trusts is an independent non-profit, non-governmental organization , founded in 1948. With over US$5 billion in assets, its current mission is to serve the public interest by "improving public policy, informing the public, and stimulating civic life."-History:The Trusts, a single...
, the Lenfest Foundation
H. F. Lenfest
-Early Life and Career:He was born in Jacksonville, Florida, then later grew up in Scarsdale, New York and Hunterdon County, New Jersey. After attending Flemington High School, and graduating from Mercersburg Academy, Lenfest went on to receive his BA from Washington and Lee University in 1953 and...
and the Annenberg Foundation
Annenberg Foundation
The Annenberg Foundation is a private foundation that provides funding and support to non-profit organizations in the United States and around the world...
had agreed to help the Barnes raise $150 million on the condition that the move be approved.
On June 13, 2005, the foundation's president, Kimberly Camp, announced her resignation, to take effect no later than January 1, 2006. Camp had been appointed in 1998 with the goal of stabilizing and restoring foundation to its original mission. During her tenure, she initiated the Collection Assessment Project, as the first-ever, full-scale cataloguing and stabilization project for the multi-billion dollar collection; brought in exemplary professional staff, created the fundraising program, restored Ker-feal and the Barnes Arboretum and worked with the board to approve policies and procedures to make the foundation viable once again. In 2002, Dr. Bernard C. Watson initiated the proposal to move the Barnes.
Recently, the foundation appointed a new Director of Education, to preserve and expand the education program in the new gallery It will be the site of the foundation's art and aesthetics courses. The foundation has pledged to reproduce Dr. Barnes's idiosyncratic installation of artworks and other objects within the new gallery.
Current plans
In May 2006, the foundation announced that it had successfully reached its $150 million fund-raising goal, and that it would expand the campaign to raise another $50 million for endowment purposes. In August 2006, the foundation announced that it was beginning a planning analysis for the new gallery. Derek Gillman (formerly of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine ArtsPennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts is a museum and art school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1805 and is the oldest art museum and school in the United States. The academy's museum is internationally known for its collections of 19th and 20th century American paintings,...
) was selected as its new director and president.
The foundation is proceeding with plans to relocate the collection to a new facility under construction in the 2,000 block of Philadelphia's Benjamin Franklin Parkway. Tod Williams & Billie Tsien Architects of New York have been selected as lead architects of the building project. The building team also consists of the Philadelphia-based firm, Ballinger, as associate architect, Olin Partnership as landscape architect and Fisher Marantz Stone as lighting designers. Aegis Property Group will serve as external project managers with L. F. Driscoll as construction managers. Supervising and coordinating the project for the foundation is Project Executive Bill McDowell.
Students and staff at the Youth Study Center have been temporarily relocated to East Falls, Philadelphia
East Falls, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
East Falls is a neighborhood in the Northwest section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. East Falls is located adjacent to Roxborough, Manayunk, and Germantown, and Fairmount Park. The neighborhood runs along a stretch of Ridge Avenue that is only a few miles long, along the banks of the...
. A new facility in West Philadelphia is to be completed in 2013. The Youth Study Center building was demolished to allow site work to begin for new construction.
Construction for the new building started in the Fall 2009 and is planned to be completed by Winter 2011. The new foundation building is planned to house the collection in galleries that replicate the scale, proportion and configuration of the original Merion galleries. The new site will contain increased space for the foundation's art education program and conservation department, a retail shop and cafe.
Legal challenges to the move
After Judge Ott's decision in 2004, The Friends of the Barnes Foundation and Montgomery County filed briefs in Montgomery County Orphan's Court to open the hearings that allowed the move. They hoped to persuade Judge Ott to reopen the case because of the changed circumstances in the County. On May 15, 2008, Judge Ott published an opinion dismissing the request of both the Friends of the Barnes Foundation and the Montgomery County Commissioners to reopen the case due to lack of standingStanding (law)
In law, standing or locus standi is the term for the ability of a party to demonstrate to the court sufficient connection to and harm from the law or action challenged to support that party's participation in the case...
. Congressman Jim Gerlach
Jim Gerlach
James "Jim" Gerlach is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 2003. He is a member of the Republican Party.- Early life, education and career :...
has strongly supported keeping the Barnes in Lower Merion.
On May 20, 2009, Friends of the Barnes Foundation appeared before the Commissioners of the Delaware River Port Authority
Delaware River Port Authority
The Delaware River Port Authority is a bi-state instrumentality created by a Congressionally approved interstate compact between the governments of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the State of New Jersey...
(DRPA) in Camden
Camden, New Jersey
The city of Camden is the county seat of Camden County, New Jersey. It is located across the Delaware River from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city had a total population of 77,344...
, New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
, to request that they reconsider their 2003 authorization of a grant for $500,000 toward the plan to relocate the foundation. They contended there was not sufficient evidence of substantial economic benefit to Philadelphia, and that DRPA had not undertaken necessary economic evaluation assessing the impact at both locations. They introduced a study by economist Matityahu Marcus that challenged claimed benefits. The DRPA said that it would consider the Friends' request. The controversy is chronicled in the 2009 documentary The Art of the Steal
The Art of the Steal (film)
The Art of the Steal is a 2009 documentary film about the decades-long efforts to resolve financial problems of the Barnes Foundation, an esoteric collection of mostly Modernist and post-Impressionist artworks, resulting in the officers' decision to break Albert C. Barnes's will and relocate the...
.
In late February 2011, Judge Ott ordered a new hearing, setting a date of March 18, which was ultimately postponed until August 3, 2011. The court ordered the foundation and the Attorney General's office, who argued in favor of the move, to explain why the case should not be reopened. The opposition group, Friends of the Barnes Foundation, says the documentary revealed that Ott did not have all the evidence in 2006, when he approved the art collection's move. A decision on re-opening the case has not yet been issued.
Films
- Don Argott: The Art of the StealThe Art of the Steal (film)The Art of the Steal is a 2009 documentary film about the decades-long efforts to resolve financial problems of the Barnes Foundation, an esoteric collection of mostly Modernist and post-Impressionist artworks, resulting in the officers' decision to break Albert C. Barnes's will and relocate the...
(2009) - Alain Jaubert: Citizen Barnes: An American Dream (1993)
See also
- List of sites of interest in Philadelphia
- List of museums in the United States
External links
- barnesfoundation.org, the foundation's official website
- Friends of the Barnes Foundation
- Matityahu Marcus, "An Economist's Consideration of Delaware River Port Authority Funding for a Philadelphia Barnes Foundation Facility", Friends of the Barnes Foundation