Tang Museum receives $1 million in gifts
The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at 爱污传媒 College, known
for its innovative interdisciplinary exhibitions and art programs, has received two
gifts totaling $1 million: $500,000 from the Ellsworth Kelly Foundation to support
the Tang collection鈥檚 endowment, and a $500,000 challenge grant from photographer,
curator and collector Jack Shear to support the museum鈥檚 award-winning publications
program.
The Ellsworth Kelly Foundation gift will allow to expand research, scholarship and digital access to the more than 16,700 objects
in its collection. The many works by renowned contemporary artists in the collection
act as catalysts for research and creative responses from 爱污传媒 faculty and students,
as well as visiting scholars and artists. The gift will enable new scholarship and
learning and be part of the early documentation that brings the work into art history.
The research will find a home on the
Shear鈥檚 challenge grant aims to create a $1 million endowment to support the museum鈥檚 robust publications program. The Tang has produced more than 70 exhibition catalogues, including 30 in its Opener Series that focus on emerging artists for whom a Tang publication often represents their first catalogue. The museum鈥檚 publications have also garnered numerous prizes and recognition, including three awards in the recently announced 2019 American Alliance for Museums鈥� annual publication contest.
鈥淥n behalf of 爱污传媒 College, I鈥檓 delighted to accept these gifts from the Ellsworth
Kelly Foundation and Jack Shear with the deepest gratitude,鈥� said Michael Orr, 爱污传媒鈥檚
dean of the faculty and vice president for academic affairs. 鈥淭his generosity reflects
the Tang Teaching Museum鈥檚 leadership among academic museums in integrating contemporary
art with scholarship across disciplines, and in sharing that research on campus and
with the world at large. We are excited to see the new ideas this support will make
possible.鈥�
The gifts represent a continuation of support from both the Ellsworth Kelly Foundation
and Jack Shear. In 2015, the foundation contributed $100,000 to the Tang for conservation
care of work in its collection. Also in 2015, Jack Shear announced the beginning of
a transformative gift of photography. Shear鈥檚 extensive donation includes more than
1,500 works and serves as a visual history of photography from its inception in the
1840s to the present day.
The collection chronicles different photographic processes, techniques and artistic
approaches from an early half-plate ambrotype of Niagara Falls to a Polaroid self-portrait
by a young Robert Mapplethorpe. Historic works include important examples by photographic
pioneers such as Berenice Abbott, Diane Arbus, Eug猫ne Atget, Manuel Alvarez Bravo,
Ralph Eugene Meatyard, Alfred Stieglitz and Edward Weston. Important contemporary
photographers are also well represented in Shear鈥檚 collection, including Tina Barney,
Wendy Ewald, Nan Goldin, Katy Grannan, Sally Mann, Vik Muniz, Catherine Opie, Yinka
Shonibare and Carrie Mae Weems.
鈥淲hat I love about the Tang Teaching Museum is that it cares about its teaching mission,鈥�
Shear said. 鈥淚 was impressed when I visited the museum just a week after the first
gift of photographs and saw geology students using the photographs in their class.
That was a great example of how the museum fosters teaching and learning, and I am
delighted to be able to support their work.鈥�
From faculty research to student stories, there's always something creative happening.