A short report on last night's Museum's Council meeting at Audubon
Terrace in Manhattan.
Our host institutions were the three cultural tenants of Audubon
Terrace, The Hispanic Society, The Numismatic Society, and the
American Academy of Arts and Letters. There were something over 30
people participating in the meeting (not enough!)
The Hispanic Society is a truly stunning institution. It has a
huge collection of fine arts and printed material relating to Spanish
culture in Europe and the Americas according the the Director Mitchell
Codding. It is the principal and largest such resource in America.
But the breathtaking part of the evening, for me at least, was the
visual impact of their permanent exhibitions from their collections,
and a temporary exhibition in the "North Gallery" formerly a library
reading room. These ranged "Old Master" paintings by the like of
El Greco, Zurbaran, Velazquez, Goya, and 15th century painters I'd not
heard of (but who can definitely *do* an altarpiece) to early 20th
century paintings which reflect the impressionist tenor of the times
while still being distinctly Spanish. Really a treat for the eyes.
The Numismatic Society was fascinating for those who are interested in
the history of money, the technology and social context surrounding
metal and other coins. It seems principally to be a research
institution, though they had two interesting exhibits on the history
of money. I must confess to being a bit out of my depth in the
presentation made by the curator of medieval coins and metal. But it
was hard to tear several of the MC people away to go to dinner, so
obviously it was very egaging for the cognoscenti.
The American Academy hosted a lovely dinner in one of their meeting
rooms, and Virginia Ajani gave us a precis of the work they do. It's
quite an interesting organization, with a membership (which is
lifelong) of 250 of the top tier writers, musicians, artists, and
architects, ranging from Saul Bellow to Kevin Roche to Chuck Close to
Benny Carter (my personal favorite). They principally exist for this
group and the awards that surround them. But they also have an
endowed program to purchase art for museums which has an amazing
history. Childe Hassam left the contents of his studio to the
Academy, with the provision that they sell them off bit by bit and use
the money to buy art by young living artists and disseminate that art
to museums around America! Talk about enlightened philanthropy. The
implementation of that award is quite complicated, and they will be
having a show of the works that are chosen for dissemination in early
November.
The site itself is a stunning bit of gilded age/beaux arts/city
beautiful architecture, with several buildings around a brick plaza.
It is in the midst of a heavily Hispanic neighborhood well of the
beaten track for mosts museum visitors in Manhattan. (155th street
and B'way). All of the directors and curators spoke of their
frustration about the difficulty of getting people to visit, so go on
by if you're in the City.
To those of you who came, thank you. To those of you who didn't you
really missed something, and I hope to see you next time. The next
meeting will be announced forthwith.
Eric Siegel
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