Bill has been credited with more than $100,000 in gifts, both in-kind (works of art) and monetary, but his generosity goes beyond that. His connoisseurship and broad-ranging art historical knowledge have immeasurably broadened our holdings. If we ever needed a place to hold an event, he was always quick to offer up his own home, where he hosted many, many parties and dinners over the years. Despite an extraordi- narily busy schedule, he has mentored stu- dent interns, some of whom have gone on to be museum directors, and he has a history of making time to talk with people from smaller museums who seek his advice and to answer questions from fledgling journalists at the student paper. His history of service in the field is far too long to do more than mention here, and his involvement with professional organizations from state to regional, national and international often helped put the Geor- gia Museum of Art on the map. It is no coincidence that the museum grew so much with Bill as its director for 30 years. His grand vision for what it could be and his ability to charm others into funding those ideas and transforming them into reality are perhaps his greatest legacy here. When he arrived, we had a collection of around 5,000 works of art and a lovely building on North Campus with 9 galleries. As he leaves, we now house a collection of nearly 18,000 works. Our building has 22 galleries and 79,000 square feet. Three of our curatorial positions are endowed, providing us with stable funding for the future. We have pub- lished well over 100 books in his 30 years and won hundreds of awards for our exhibitions, educational programs, publications, dedicat- ed staff, volunteers and more. This museum truly would not have achieved what it has over the past three quarters of a century without the efforts of Bill Eiland.
This recurring feature usually focuses on donors from outside the museum, but it seems only right to dedicate this one to appreciating the gifts our director William Underwood “Bill” Eiland has made to the museum over the 30 years of his tenure.
Way back in 1998, he wrote that our founder and first director, Alfred Heber Holbrook, was fond of quoting a line from James Russell Lowell’s poem “The Vision of Sir Launfal”: “Not that which we give, but what we share / For the gift without the giver is bare.” We truly appreciate both the gifts and the giver, and you’ll soon see a selection of objects that Bill has given to the collection or selected for the collection or that have been given in his honor on view in our permanent collection.
given talks illustrated by paintings from the collection in all parts of the state, “Tallulah Falls to Brunswick and from Statesboro to Blakely.” The General Extension Division of the university furnished a car and a helper to drive and handle the paintings, and, as Hol- brook wrote, “The museum does not wait for the public to come in. It goes to the people.” Bill is likewise famous for his enthusiasm for and knowledge of our collection, his ability to deliver a talk at a moment’s notice and his genuine commitment to the mu- seum’s statewide mission. His project with freelance curator Didi Dunphy, “Highlight- ing Contemporary Art in Georgia,” has now created three traveling exhibitions focusing on Georgia artists that have, like Holbrook, crisscrossed the state, providing low-cost art experiences to people from Albany to Atlanta, Athens to Savannah. Holbrook presented more than 900 works of art to the museum, but Bill hasn’t done so poorly there either. If you search “Eiland” in our public collections database, it brings up nearly 400 works, whether given by Bill, given by others in his honor or purchased with the William Underwood Eiland En- dowment for Acquisitions (made possible by M. Smith “Smitty” Griffith). Griffith’s gift in Bill’s honor has allowed the museum to acquire many works of art that it otherwise would not have been able to, including, most recently, a William Christenberry photograph of a church in Sprott, Alabama, that Bill says is only a couple of miles from where he was born and grew up.
As we look back on our 75-year history with a year of events that kick off February 4, with Elegant Salute XVII, and wrap up November 5 with a birthday party and open house, we see a lot of similarities between Holbrook and Bill, our two longest-serv- ing directors. A note from a 1952 museum newsletter talks about Holbrook having
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