Barnes Art Museum Looks To Build On Successful Move

Barnes Art Museum Looks To Build On Successful Move

  

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — More than a million people have visited The Barnes Foundation since the art museum moved to Philadelphia from a suburb in May 2012. That’s almost three times the number of visitors who saw its extensive collection in its former home in the five years before the relocation.
The foundation’s leaders say that growth not only validates the contested and controversial move of the museum and its renowned collection of impressionist, post-impressionist and early modern art, but also indicates a need for further change to build on that success.

“We’re operating on a strong foundation with high visibility, great attendance, great support from staff and other quarters. This is the best time to think about how to evolve,” said Thom Collins, the executive director and president. “The move was a means to an end, and not an end in itself. The end is expanded services.”

In a five-year strategic plan to be made public soon, the foundation intends to reach new audiences and deepen engagement, to expand art interpretation offerings and tours, to increase its endowment, and to bolster the foundation as a research hub. It aims to complete these goals before marking its centenary in 2022.

Sylvie Patry, who will take the job as chief curator in January, noted that while the foundation is well-established in some ways, the relocation three years ago “reshuffled the cards and has opened a new chapter, with specific and new changes,” she wrote in an email interview. “In this sense, the foundation has a long and rich history but is a young institution that needs to develop.”

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