from the DIRECTOR
board of ADVISORS
Recently, Hillary Brown, our head of communications department and editor of our publications, gave me a copy of the checklist of the very first exhibition at the Georgia Museum of Art that opened on Novem - ber 8, 1948, 73 years ago. Although our founder’s gift of 100 American paintings to the people of Georgia through the state’s flagship uni - versity had come a couple of years earlier, we count this exhibition as the opening of the Georgia Museum of Art to the public, and thus our anniversary as November, in two years to be a 75th celebration of all we and those who came before us — Millie Dearing, Bill Paul, Carol Winthrop, Richard Schneiderman and so many others — prepared for, although perhaps none of us knew at the time we envisioned the future of the museum what it would mean: a splendid, quite large stand-alone building; a collection approaching 18,000 objects; an almost full corps of ambitious and well-prepared curators; a remarkable support staff; devoted patrons as represented by our Friends, our Board of Advisors and our Decorative Arts Advisory Committee; a certificate-granting museum studies program; and our docents, student interns and donors. We are also at a turning point yet again in our history, experiencing once again the need for a radical look at how we relate to, cultivate and expand our audiences and how we engage them in life-long learning through the visual and liberal arts. In 1948, the museum occupied a brave new world all its own, an aca- demic addition committed then as now to the pedagogical mission of the university that, post-war, was also in a process of renewal. That is why I want to return to that first exhibition and its checklist. Paintings for this inaugural event came from sister institutions across the nation, significantly, among them, Black Mountain College. From there, Josef Albers sent works of pure abstraction and represented the fast-growing trend away from regional subjects to non-objective paint- ing. One such regionalist work was Lamar Dodd’s “View of Athens,” but the growing interest in any of the modernisms that preceded or coincided with the roller-coaster advent of abstract expressionism were evident in such other works as Preston Dickinson’s “Cubistic Interior,” even in the charmingly named painting “We Bought a Fish” by art ed- ucator and artist Mary Leath Thomas, whose husband, Howard Thomas, already experimenting with cubism and abstraction in the mid-1930s, contributed three works, perhaps reflecting his new interests in divi - sionism and a kind of constructivism that depended on planar flatten - ing. And, of course, one of the signature works of magic realism, Paul Cadmus’s “Playground,” though not in that first exhibition, joined our collection in relatively short order. We are in a similar time right now, especially with the exciting new focus on contemporary art, thanks to the gift from John and Sara Shlesinger, and on photography. But the transformation goes deeper to programming, a new strategic plan, development of new metrics to judge our performance and a commitment to the changes that ensure that we continue to be not just open to all but to be welcoming. In other words, given our history of outreach to all Georgians, our reliance on research for interpretation and our embrace of salutary change, we have never stood frozen on pedestals: we reserve them for our art.
B. Heyward Allen Jr. * Rinne Allen Amalia K. Amaki ** June M.Ball Linda N. Beard Karen L. Benson ** Richard E. Berkowitz Sally Bradley Jeanne L. Berry Devereux C. Burch * Robert E. Burton ** Debra C. Callaway ** Shannon I. Candler *
Ibby Mills David Mulkey
Carl. W. Mullis III * Betty R. Myrtle ** Gloria B. Norris *** Deborah L. O’Kain Randall S. Ott Gordhan L. Patel, immediate past chair Janet W. Patterson Christopher R. Peterson, chair–elect Kathy B. Prescott Margaret A. Rolando * Julie M. Roth Alan F. Rothschild * Jan E. Roush Bert Russo Sarah P. Sams ** D. Jack Sawyer Jr. * Henry C. Schwob ** Margaret R. Spalding Dudley R. Stevens Carolyn Tanner ** Anne Wall Thomas *** Brenda A. Thompson William E. Torres C. Noel Wadsworth * Carol V. Winthrop Gregory Ann Woodruff Ex-Officio Linda C. Chesnut William Underwood Eiland S. Jack Hu Kelly Kerner Marisa Pagnatarro Sarah Peterson
Faye S. Chambers Harvey J. Coleman Sharon Cooper James Cunningham Martha Randolph Daura *** Annie Laurie Dodd *** Sally Dorsey ** Howard F. Elkins Judith A. Ellis Todd Emily James B. Fleece Phoebe Forio *** John M. Greene ** Helen C. Griffith ** Barbara Guillaume Judith F. Hernstadt Marion E. Jarrell ** Jane Compton Johnson * George-Ann Knox * Shell H. Knox * Andrew Littlejohn D. Hamilton Magill David W. Matheny, chair Mark G. McConnell Marilyn M. McMullan Marilyn D. McNeely
* Lifetime member
** Emeritus member
*** Honorary member
Mission Statement: The Georgia Museum of Art shares the mission of the University of Georgia to support and to promote teaching, research and service. Specifically, as a repos- itory and educational instrument of the visual arts, the museum exists to collect, preserve, exhibit and interpret significant works of art. Partial support for the exhibitions and programs at the Georgia Museum of Art is provided by the Georgia Council for the Arts through the appropriations of the Georgia General Assembly. The Georgia Council for the Arts also receives support from its partner agency, the National Endowment for the Arts. Individuals, foundations and corporations provide additional museum support through their gifts to the University of Georgia Foundation. The Georgia Museum of Art is ADA compliant; the M. Smith Griffith Auditorium is equipped for deaf and hard-of-hearing visitors. The University of Georgia does not discriminate on the basis of race, sex, religion, color, national or ethnic origin, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic informa- tion or military service in its administrations of educational policies, programs or activities; its admissions policies; scholarship and loan programs; athletic or other University-admin- istered programs; or employment. Inquiries or complaints should be directed to the Equal Opportunity Office 119 Holmes-Hunter Academic Building, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602. Telephone 706-542-7912 (V/TDD). Fax 706-542-2822. https://eoo.uga.edu/
WilliamUnderwood Eiland, Director
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