2010 Annual Report - The Wadsworth Atheneum

Susan L. Talbott,
Director and CEO
6
R EPO R T
from the Director
The Wadsworth Atheneum has made incredible progress this past year. With
our renovation project well underway, our landscape has been enlivened by
gigantic cranes and colorful fence scrims announcing that we are renovating,
innovating, and open to the public.
Although forty percent of our gallery space was closed for a good part
of the year, critical acclaim for our artistic program was exceptional, attendance
at our special events reached a new high, and overall attendance experienced a
slight increase.
In October, the museum launched Rembrandt’s People, the first exhibition
in our much anticipated Masterpiece Series. The exhibition was comprised
of nine of the artist’s most expressive portraits, marking the first time
any authentic Rembrandt painting had been displayed in Hartford in over
seventy years! Reunited Masterpieces: From Adam & Eve to George & Martha
continued the Masterpiece Series, and opened appropriately on Valentines Day.
The show paired many of our best-known paintings from the permanent collection
with their long-separated mates, some of which had not been seen
together in centuries.
The museum’s artistic program also saw the return of our famed MA-
TRIX series, which enables us, once again, to exhibit art of the moment. The
program presented an exciting roster of emerging artists from around the world,
including Kitty Kraus and Justin Lowe, who both created their first solo museum
exhibition in our dedicated MATRIX gallery.
The Wadsworth also made tremendous strides in the area of community
engagement with the support of a half million dollar grant from the Hartford
Foundation for Public Giving. This enabled us to launch a number of new
programs to begin building valuable partnerships with our neighboring organizations
and schools. Museum on the Move reached more than 300 Hartford
public school students, and brought our education staff and docents into
the community to encourage visitation, and the use of the museum as a learning
laboratory. The museum’s Connections Gallery, a new dedicated space for