TWO RECENT LETTERS require
a response:
1). "Welcome to my own private museum," July 13, M.A. Podolak,
of Pawtucket
2). "Museum's sellout to Bellevue Ave. exclusivity," July
14, Darlene Ciolfi-Donley, of Cranston.
The mission of the National Museum of American Illustration, at Vernon
Court, is to share "the most American of American art" with
the public and to preserve it in perpetuity. We are the first museum
devoted exclusively to illustration art in the nation.
The museum is open solely because of our benevolence and philanthropy,
although we will need help to develop an endowment fund. A nonprofit
approved by the IRS as a 501c(3) organization, we pay real estate taxes,
which almost no other nonprofit in Newport does.
Our American Imagist Collection, assembled over 35 years, comprises
2,000 original paintings, 80,000 works on paper, vintage pieces and
memorabilia (e.g., Norman Rockwell's first paint box). We have the largest
collection of Maxfield Parrish paintings (68). No other museum has more
than six. The Metropolitan, in New York, has 3. Next to the single-artist
Norman Rockwell Museum, we have the largest Rockwell collection (121).
We have one of the largest collections of J.C. Leyendecker, N.C. Wyeth,
Howard Pyle ("Father of American Illustration"), Charles Dana
Gibson ("The Gibson Girl"), and 75 other luminaries from the
"Golden Age" of American illustration.
We have contemporary illustrators, such as Drew Struzan -- StarWars,
Indiana Jones, ET, etc. Recent loans by us to other institutions include
to the Guggenheim, High Museum-Atlanta, Chicago Art Institute, Norman
Rockwell Museum, The National Arts Club (our founding institution),
etc. We have 135 art works on public display with over 400 paintings
hanging. Compare this to blockbuster shows at the Boston's Museum of
Fine Arts or the Metropolitan. These museums display 50 to 75 works
for a show.
As a former professor at Harvard, MIT and RISD, I endeavor to enlighten
audiences to American illustration art. My wife, Judy Cutler, museum
director, is a former educator with degrees from the University of Pennsylvania.
She helped take American illustration international by curating over
35 exhibitions worldwide. In Tokyo, 360,000 persons visited in six weeks,
the biggest blockbuster in fine art history to date. In Rome, the prime
minister opened our exhibition, while Ambassador Walter Mondale opened
our Tokyo exhibition.
The museum and several institutions of higher education are discussing
associations on a permanent basis. Educators on our board include Martin
Meyerson, president-emeritus of the Univertsity of Pennsylvania, Milo
Beach, director of the Smithsonian art museums (Sackler and Freer Galleries);
Prof. Emeritus Vincent Scully of Yale; Viscountess Bridgeman, of London's
Bridgeman Art Library; Judy Berkowitz, chairwoman of the Center for
Educational Innovation; Roger Mandle, president of RISD; Bob Power,
of the Newport schoolsystem; and others. We have 75 advisory board members.
These include artist Jamie Wyeth; author TomWolfe, filmmaker George
Lucas; foundation director Andrew Sordoni; publisher Zoe Burke; illustrator
Wendell Minor; sportsman Peter de Savary; businessman Paul Choquette
Jr. -- luminaries all. We recently authored two books on Maxfield Parrish
(Regency House Ltd./Random House). Our archives provided images for
a book by Peggy Wagner of the Library of Congress (Pomegranate Artbooks).
We just developed a CD-ROM disc with 1,400 public-domain images for
use by libraries and schools. Judy participated in the first documentary
film on J.C. Leyendecker, and we are completing a manuscript on that
illustrator for Harry Abrams Publishers. Abrams, the most noted fine-arts
publisher in the world, will soon do a book on our collection, architecture
and gardens. Our Web site www.americanillustration.org) won the Golden
Web Award for the past two years as one of the best in the world. We
are preparing "A Guide to the Grand Tour" for visitors. Our
unique library will open to scholars in the future. One can readily
see that we are very interested in sharing the resources we offer with
the public, hardly an "elitist" stance.
We received 4,000 visitors during our first year. Of those visitors,
most were discounted groups or gratis (advisory board members and guests,
National Arts Club members, other museum directors and staff). There
are reasons for our current admissions procedure. It is not meant to
exclude folks, yet some will be because of our criteria. Our present
entry procedure gives us the luxury of moderation while we learn. We
hope to provide for future visitors correctly and are taking measured
steps to do so. We are testing systems, crowd control, signage, etc.
Reservations are limited, as they are at the Barnes Foundation museum,
near Philadelphia, the Borghese Gallery, in Rome, and some other famous
museums. Other than the two letters that the Journal has published,
we have had no complaints and everyone has been thrilled that we selected
Newport over New York City, Palm Beach, Savannah, Kennebunkport, etc.,
as the home for this unique collection.
Visitors to the museum have included J. Carter Brown, director emeritus
of the National Gallery of Art, who stated: "I was bowled over
by Vernon Court and the collection. Its state of conservation should
be a role model for everyone in the preservation field." Dale Chihuly,
famed glass artist, stated, "This was the greatest museum experience
of my life." Victor Wiener, executive director of the Appraisers
Association of America, stated: "The visit was the definitive high
point of our visit to Newport. The collection, the mansion, was a true
tour de force." As for the local gentry, Social Darwinism has dissipated.
Elitism on Bellevue Avenue is a figment of old imaginations and wannabes.
Past social elitism of the Gilded Age kind was a blight on our American
ideals. Its exclusivity notions were based on similar un-American thoughts.
Some visitors to Newport cater to such archaic thoughts or assume they
exist here still. However, the bygone trappings of social defense have
been diminished by national diversity. Education, accomplishment and
personal character as true measures of worth have replaced them. Newport
has changed, and it is now as American as the reasons for its original
founding.
We had an unnecessary zoning battle because of a handful of bad apples
in a community that otherwise welcomed us with open arms. The naysayers
cost us much time and as a consequence we are behind schedule. Although
we agreed to requests from their "neighborhood association"
to certain terms in exchange for support through zoning, they violated
the quid pro quo. It was only their members who hired lawyers to fight
us.
Therefore, the mutual agreement was nullified. They could not have their
cake and eat it too. The Superior Court upheld our rights since everything
proposed was within the zoning ordinances. The malicious battle had
little to do with neighborhood concerns and more to do with commercializing
Bellevue Avenue (now being commercialized extensively with brand names
and the like), while we are not commercial.
Keith Stokes, executive director of the Newport County Chamber of Commerce,
said about the museum, "It's attracting quality people who are
staying for multiple days, visiting other museums, staying at hotels,
spending more time here, and more money than those visiting other attractions."
It should be noted that we want visitors -- not tourists. Rhode Island
can boast that it has the first museum in the nation devoted exclusively
to illustration art – a national attraction and cultural treasure.
We cordially invite you to make an appointment to visit with us for
a guided tour, group tour or VIP Tour. The self-guided tour will, we
hope, be ready this fall.
Laurence S. Cutler is chairman of the National Museum of American Illustration.
