2011 Annual Report - National Gallery of Art

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EDUCATING
The education division reached one million
Gallery visitors this year through on-site tours,
lectures, symposia, workshops, internships, and
self-guided materials. An initiative making
free audio tours of the permanent collection
available in a wide array of languages led to an
unprecedented increase in use by families,
adults, and visitors from abroad. Another sixtyfive
million people were reached worldwide
through the website, through distance learning
resources including online interactives, curriculum
lessons, and loan DVDs, through printed
materials distributed within school systems, and
through television broadcasts.
More than 65,000 on-site adult visitors enjoyed
a spectrum of programs. Eighty-four auditorium
events presented live engagements with scholars,
artists, collectors, and critics. In conjunction with
the exhibition of Samuel F. B. Morse’s Gallery
of the Louvre, historian and author David
McCullough spoke about the allure of Paris
for mid-nineteenth century Americans. Art
historian Michael Fried delivered the Sydney
J. Freedberg Lecture in Italian art, Thoughts on the
Caravaggisti. Artists Ann Hamilton and Jenny
Holzer discussed their work in the Diamonstein-
Spielvogel Lecture series. Panel discussions
included The Role of Art in Cultural Diplomacy
with art historian Robert Storr and artists Odili
Donald Odita, Joel Shapiro, and Carrie Mae
Weems, and Nam June Paik, a conversation with
experts about the artist’s combination of technology
and performance. International Study Days
brought museum and academic scholars together
to discuss issues raised in the exhibitions The Pre-
Raphaelite Lens: British Photography and Painting,
1848–1875; American Modernism: The Shein
Collection; and Venice: Canaletto and His Rivals. An
international group of education professionals
met at the Gallery for the conference “Educating
for Today and Tomorrow.”
Gallery talks by staff lecturers and volunteer
docents served more than 40,000 visitors and
included a new program entitled “Twelve at
Twelve,” a series of twelve-minute talks offered at
noon and focused primarily on recent acquisitions.
Art information volunteers began a pilot program,
moving into the galleries from five information
desks with maps and guides to answer questions.
Monthly tours offered in American Sign Language
with voice interpretation joined Picture This, a tour
for sight-impaired visitors, to make the collection
accessible to a broader audience.