On a recent trip to Philadelphia I had the chance to visit
the new Barnes Foundation Museum. As a
visitor to the Barnes I would be invited to see art in a new way.
Between 1912 and 1951, Albert C. Barnes assembled one of the world’s most important holdings of post-impressionist and early modern art, acquiring works by avant-garde European and American artists. Barnes continually experimented with the display of his collection, arranging and rearranging the works in ensembles, symmetrical wall compositions organized according to the formal principles of light, line, color, and space, rather than by chronology, nationality, style, or genre. The ensembles changed as Barnes made acquisitions, trades and new visual connections between the holdings, which diversified with the addition of African sculpture, antiquities, Asian art, Native American ceramics, jewelry, and textiles, manuscripts, old master paintings, and European and American decorative and industrial arts. Integrating art and craft, and objects from across cultures and time periods. (barnesfoundation.org)
When you go to the Barnes Museum, you notice many things
that are different. There are no titles for the paintings. There are no curator’s
notes. The only verbal description is the name of the artist. Barnes wanted the
student to see the art for themselves. He wanted them to experience the
excitement he had experienced. He wanted to encourage students to develop an
artistic eye-to gain the capacity to work with the key elements of a painting.
Looking for Themes
At the Barnes, a gallery wall may have two pictures with
great perspective and depth juxtaposed with two paintings that are very flat.
Barnes also moves beyond the boundaries of the canvas and uses a world of antique
metal hardware to accent designs that exist in the ensemble. Foreshadowing the “found art” movement of
last 50 years, he collects all manner of metal knobs, hoods, and latches and places
them above the painting like exclamation points. He collects antique chests and
places plates, cups and candelabras on them. He book ends these walls with
antique chairs of all shapes. He may highlight a narrow elongated figure by Modigliani
with a pair of tall clippers. In contrast, he highlights the soft ample full-bodied
bottoms of Renoir nudes with an oversized chair and a double U shaped piece of
hardware.
Barnes challenges students to look for emerging themes. Why
was the antique chest chosen for this wall? On further inspection, one may see
that the green of the chest is present in all the paintings. The three emblems
also suggest the way the figures are organized in the painting. The sketch
below illustrates Barnes’s design to create a museum wall using his “ensemble
technique”. Barnes was relatively neutral
about which painting a student might like best. He was deeply invested,
however, in the students learning to gain capacity in the managing the tools of
art (line, color, light, space etc.) that would lead to art appreciation.
Barnes came from humble beginnings in New York. He became a scientist,
moved to Germany and invented the leading antibiotic of his time. He made a
fortune and became a great art collector. To some of the established art
community, he seemed an unwelcome intruder. In 1923, a public showing of
Barnes' collection proved that it was too avant-garde
for most people's taste at the time. The critics ridiculed the show, prompting
Barnes' long-lasting and well-publicized antagonism toward those he considered
part of the art establishment. Barnes was stung by the criticism. When you innovate,
you take the risk that people will not respond. Many do not want to stir the pot,
reimagine the elements or look for new themes.
The Art of Synagogue
Strategy
When synagogue
leaders begin to think strategically they can feel as welcome as a post-impressionist
show at the Philadelphia Art Institute in 1923. Luther Snow (The Power of Asset Mapping: How Your Congregation Can
Act on Its Gifts, Alban 2004) argues that congregational
leaders can find innovative solutions by listing synagogue strengths and assets
on cards and placing them on a wall. Leaders then move these elements around
until they cluster into a theme.
They might take the social connections of their men’s group
and connect it to the synagogue’s social justice agenda by creating a bike race
to raise money for their cause. They might connect their commitment to more bar
mitzvah tutoring support with potential several potential tutors from the men’s
club. They might take note the baseball diamonds near the synagogue and
organize and parents/kids softball game and picnic. Asset mapping helps leaders
see all of the potential building blocks of synagogue success and to rearrange
them into new programmatic clusters.
USCJ's new Sulam for Strategic Planners program is
designed to help leaders think strategically. Just as Barnes helped art students
to become literate in the use of color, light and shape, so too, we hope
synagogue planners will become literate about the use of need assessments,
vision, emerging themes, strategies and goals. In the end, we are not trying to
create a specific strategic outcome. Like Barnes, we are not providing curator’s
notes that describe a specific holiday program or fundraiser. Like Barnes, we
are very intentional about the exercises we want planners to go through to
build their strategic capacity.
Parker Palmer once said of the master teacher, that they
helped their students learn to make the connection by showing them how they as
teachers made their connections.
“Good teachers possess the capacity for connectedness. They are able to weave a complex web of connections among themselves, their subjects, and their students so that the students can learn to weave a world for themselves.” (Parker Palmer, The Courage to Teach, p. 11)
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