The Gibbes Museum of Art has received a grant award in the amount of $100,000 from the prestigious Henry Luce Foundation for the reinstallation and reinterpretation of the permanent collection as part of the Gibbes renovation. The renovation will begin in early fall of 2014, and is designed to showcase the museum’s distinguished collection and afford a complete picture of American visual culture in the South from the early colonial era to the present. The Luce Foundation is committed to supporting the continued vitality of American art scholarship and programs, and this grant strengthens the Gibbes’ commitment to generating scholarship and exhibitions that promote a broad understanding of the dynamic role that the art of the South plays in the larger context of American and world art history.
“We are thrilled to receive this grant from the Henry Luce Foundation for the reinstallation of our collection. The highly regarded Henry Luce American Art program has supported significant projects including the reinstallation of the permanent collection at a number of museums, including the Andy Warhol Museum in 2014 and the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in 2013. We are honored to be included in this selection of esteemed institutions,” says Gibbes Museum of Art Executive Director, Angela Mack.
The newly expanded and renovated galleries will provide a 30% increase in gallery space to showcase more than 600 works of art from the permanent collection (a 125% increase in works on view). The Grand Gallery, with its original Beaux Arts skylight, will showcase early American art of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. In the newly expanded South Galleries, innovative display cases and open storage cabinetry will allow for up-close interaction with over three hundred portrait miniatures by some of America’s most significant miniature painters as well as a number of French émigré and British artists painting American sitters. The newly expanded North Galleries will feature several works that demonstrate the national shift in American art from academic painting to impressionism. While steeped in history, the Gibbes collection also reflects the artists and artistic styles representative of contemporary Southern art. The Garden Gallery will feature works by late twentieth-century and early twenty-first century artists native to the south or working in this region. The central rotunda gallery will serve as a sculpture hall.
“Gaining funding from a prestigious organization like the Luce Foundation is truly an honor. A chief goal of Luce is to support exemplary American art collections so their support and recognition is a real compliment to the significance of our permanent collection,” Says Sara Arnold Gibbes Museum of Art Curator of Collections.
Henry Luce Foundation – New York, New York
The Henry Luce Foundation was established in 1936 by Henry R. Luce, the co-founder and editor-in-chief of Time Inc., to honor his parents who were missionary educators in China. The Foundation builds upon the vision and values of four generations of the Luce family: broadening knowledge and encouraging the highest standards of service and leadership.
The Henry Luce Foundation seeks to bring important ideas to the center of American life, strengthen international understanding, and foster innovation and leadership in academic, policy, religious and art communities.
—Amy Mercecr, Marketing and Communications Manager
Published July 11, 2014