2011 Annual Report - Nasher Museum of Art - Duke University

FROM THE FACULTY ADVISORY COMMITTEEWhile the Faculty Advisory Committee was formedjust this year, Duke faculty have been actively involvedwith the Nasher Museum since it opened in 2005.Professors have organized exhibitions, deliveredgallery talks and lectures, organized symposia andtaught classes on Nasher Museum exhibitionssince the museum’s beginning. The purpose ofthe committee is to build upon that excellent trackrecord. The committee keeps Museum DirectorKimerly Rorschach and the curators informed offaculty teaching and research interests, and acts asa sounding board for future programs, exhibitionsand installations from the permanent collection. Thecommittee helps the Nasher Museum stay in touchwith the teaching mission of the institution, which isso crucial for any university museum.In four meetings last year, the Faculty AdvisoryCommittee helped shape the Nasher Museum’sStrategic Plan, which includes the goal of increasingfaculty involvement across disciplines.This year, Duke professors brought 917 students tovisit the galleries on class tours. Nearly 500 studentsvisited the museum’s collection in study storage.In separate visits, 24 faculty members came to themuseum for coffee or lunch programs to learn aboutupcoming exhibitions, with the goal of connecting theexhibitions with their upcoming classes.One of the year’s most exciting exhibitions, TheVorticists, Rebel Artists in London and New York,1914-1918, was co-organized by professor MarkAntliff, in the Department of Art, Art History & VisualStudies. The exhibition featured rare works from ashort-lived but pivotal modernist art movement duringWorld War I. Antliff taught a class on the exhibition,gave a gallery talk and co-organized the scholarlysymposium, “Vorticism: New Perpectives,” at themuseum.See full listing of the Faculty Advisory Committee on page 44.Last fall, Carla Antonaccio, professor of archeology inDuke’s Department of Classical Studies, supervisedher Duke undergraduate and graduate students toorganize the new exhibition Containing Antiquity.During her spring 2010 seminar, students conductedindependent research on objects that became part ofthe exhibition. The students collaborated in selectingthe objects, creating groupings for the installation,contributing to the overarching theme of theexhibition and drafting the text panels for each object.Containing Antiquity highlights the decoration andfunction of a great variety of vessels and storage jars,perfume bottles, serving bowls and drinking cups usedin ancient Greece and throughout the Mediterraneanregion.Marianne Wardle, the museum’s newly appointedAndrew W. Mellon Coordinator of Academic Programs,is working closely with Antonaccio and Sheila Dillon,associate professor of Art, Art History & VisualStudies at Duke, to publish a catalogue on themuseum’s collection of classical antiquities, entitledThe Past is Present: The Kempner Collection ofClassical Antiquities at the Nasher Museum of Art.Caroline Bruzelius, Anne M. Cogan Professor of Art,Art History & Visual Studies, and Mark Olson, assistantprofessor of visual and media studies, will contributeto upcoming exhibition of the museum’s Brummercollection of Medieval and Renaissance art. RichardH. Powell, Duke’s John Spencer Bassett Professor,Art, Art History & Visual Studies, is organizing the firstfull-scale survey of the paintings of Archibald JohnMotley, Jr. (1891-1981), a master colorist and radicalinterpreter of urban culture.Kristine StilesFrance Family Professor of Art, Art History& Visual Studies, ChairTOP (OPPOSITE PAGE): Courtney Reid-Eaton, exhibitions directorat Duke’s Center for Documentary Studies, and co-curator ofThe Jazz Loft Project, gives a First Thursday gallery talk to morethan 75 visitors. Photo by Dr. J Caldwell.BOTTOM: Nasher Museum Director Kimerly Rorschach (left) visitsthe gallery with artist Carolee Schneemann and Kristine Stiles,Duke’s France Family Professor of Art, Art History & Visual Studies.Photo by Dr. J Caldwell.From the Faculty Advisory Committeep. 13