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Speed Art Museum
Presents
Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness
American Art from the Yale University Art Gallery

September 7, 2008- January 4, 2009

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”   - The Declaration of Independence of the Thirteen Colonies, July 4, 1776

Louisville, Kentucky. Go back in art, go back in history, go back in time. The Speed Art Museum is honored to announce that it will be the first to host the most impressive collection of Americana art in the world. Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness: American Art from the Yale University Art Gallery will bring to Louisville more than 200 paintings, drawings, prints, photographs, furniture, silver, and ceramics from Yale University’s renowned collection of 18th- and 19th-century American fine and decorative arts, considered to be one of the finest American collections ever created.

John Trumbull (American, 1756-1843), The Declaration of Independence, 4 July 1776, 1786-1820 Oil on canvas 53.0 x 78.7 cm. Yale University Art Gallery

Make your connection to our past through timeless images that portray the American experience from 17th century European settlements to the World’s Columbia exposition in 1893. This exhibition tells the tale of a young nation struggling to create its own identity culturally, politically, and geographically both in itself and in the rest of the world through three central exhibition themes prevalent to early American life: character, courage and sacrifice.

Highlighted treasures to be presented include John Trumbull’s eight Revolutionary War scenes, including The Declaration of Independence, which have never before left the Yale University Art Gallery as a group. Other highlights include Winslow Homer’s The Morning Bell, and Jeremiah Dummer’s magnificent silver candlesticks—the oldest surviving pair of American candlesticks in existence. Also on view will be the actual silver crafted by Paul Revere as well as paintings by artistic masters John Singleton Copley, Charles Willson Peale Thomas Eakins, Winslow Homer, to name a few.

This will be the first time that this amazing collection has traveled from its home in New Haven, Connecticut and the Speed will be first to host this extraordinary exhibition. Being the largest exhibition that the Speed has ever hosted in its long and prestigious history in presenting fine art in Louisville, Yale University’s monumental collection will encompass all of the museum’s galleries.

This exhibition will be supplemented with audio guide, online resources from Yale University and a fully illustrated exhibition catalogue.

Exhibition and publication organized by Helen Cooper, the Holcombe T. Green Curator of American Paintings and Sculpture; Patricia Kane, the Friends of American Arts Curator of American Decorative Arts; and Elisabeth Hodermarsky, Associate Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs.

Exhibition organized by the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut, and made possible by generous funding from Happy and Bob Doran, b.a. 1955; Carolyn and Gerald Grinstein, b.a. 1954; Mrs. William S. Kilroy, Sr.; Mrs. Frederick R. Mayer; Nancy and Clive Runnells, b.a. 1948; Ellen and Stephen D. Susman, b.a. 1962; the Eugénie Prendergast Fund for American Art, given by Jan and Warren Adelson; and the Friends of American Arts at Yale.

The audio guide was made possible by Ellen and Stephen D. Susman, b.a. 1962, and the Susman Family Foundation.

Outreach support comes from The Courier-Journal, Insight Communications and the History Channel, Total Traffic and Kentucky Restaurant Association.

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness: American Art from the Yale University Art Gallery was organized by the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut, and made possible by generous funding from Happy and Bob Doran, b.a. 1955; Carolyn and Gerald Grinstein, b.a. 1954; Mrs. William S. Kilroy, Sr.; Mrs. Frederick R. Mayer; Nancy and Clive Runnells, b.a. 1948; Ellen and Stephen D. Susman, b.a. 1962; the Eugénie Prendergast Fund for American Art, given by Jan and Warren Adelson; and the Friends of American Arts at Yale.

A national leader in arts education, serving over 30,000 children each year, the Speed Art Museum has repeatedly been voted Kentucky’s best museum and is considered one of the top ten sites each Kentuckian should visit. The Speed honors its mission to bring great art to our communities through its distinguished collections and as the Commonwealth’s number one venue for international art exhibitions.

The Speed Art Museum is located at 2035 South Third Street in Louisville.  Other features of the museum include a hands-on Art Learning Center for families, a café and gift shop.  Gallery hours are Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday 10:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.; Thursday 10:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.; Saturday 10:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.; and Sunday 12:00 to 5:00 p.m.  The museum is closed on Mondays.  For general information, call (502) 634-2700 or visit www.speedmuseum.org.

The Kentucky Arts Council is a state agency in the Kentucky Tourism, Arts and Heritage Cabinet and receives funding from the Kentucky Legislature, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Speed Art Museum announces New Interactive Art Sparks Activites

Louisville, Kentucky.  The Speed Art Museum is happy to announce that we are making Art Sparks Interactive Gallery even better! Art Sparks will be closed on Tuesday, June 24 and Wednesday, June 25 in order to complete the installation of new Dutch and West African art activity areas. Art Sparks will re-open with a celebration on Friday June 27 and Saturday, June 28.

Please join us on Friday, June 27 and Saturday, June 28 to celebrate the fantastic new interactive areas in Art Sparks inspired by our Dutch and West African art collections where families can explore a seventeenth century Dutch kitchen, climb aboard a ship from East India Trading Company’s merchant fleet and design a Yoruban Egungun costume. There will be hands-on art activities and refreshments. Children will be given free admission with their library card. Admission for parents and caregivers is $5 per person.

A national leader in arts education, serving over 30,000 children each year, the Speed Art Museum has repeatedly been voted Kentucky’s best museum and is considered one of the top ten sites each Kentuckian should visit. The Speed honors its mission to bring great art to our communities through its distinguished collections and as the Commonwealth’s number one venue for international art exhibitions.

Rated one of the top ten audio guides in the country by MSNBC.COM, “Passport to the Speed,” offers insight into selected works in the collection, and is available for free at the Museum’s Welcome Center. The Speed Art Museum: Highlights from the Collection, a new companion guide to the Speed’s distinguished collection will be available January 2008.

The Speed Art Museum is located at 2035 South Third Street in Louisville.  Other features of the museum include a hands-on Art Learning Center for families, a café and gift shop.  Gallery hours are Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday 10:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.; Thursday 10:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.; Saturday 10:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.; and Sunday 12:00 to 5:00 p.m.  The museum is closed on Mondays.  For general information, call (502) 634-2700 or visit www.speedmuseum.org.

The Kentucky Arts Council, a state agency in the Commerce Cabinet, provides operational support funding for the Speed Art Museum with state tax dollars and federal funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, which believes that a great nation deserves great art.

The Speed Art Museum to Release Highlights From the Collection

Louisville, Kentucky. The Speed Art Museum is pleased to announce the release of its first collection guide in more than twenty years.  This new companion guide to the Speed’s distinguished collection, The Speed Art Museum: Highlights from the Collection, will be available to the public on January 15, 2008 for $16.95.

Produced by London publishing house, Merrill Publishers, the 240-page, full color book features 300 key works from the museum’s collection.  This is the first Speed Museum guide to be published since 1983. Larger and broader in scope than the museum’s previous handbook, it reflects the growing richness and diversity of the collection and incorporates new research and scholarship.

This publication contains many important works that have entered the collection in recent years, including Cézanne’s Two Apples on a Table, Jacob van Ruisdael’s Landscape with Cottages and a Blasted Tree, Jan Steen’s St. John Preaching in the Wilderness, and Yinka Shonibare’s Three Graces.  Highlights from the Collection also includes examples of Dutch and Flemish painting by Rembrandt and Rubens, French painting by Boucher, Monet, and Courbet, American work by James Peale, Benjamin West, and Mary Cassatt, and modern and contemporary pieces by Brancusi, Picasso and Sofia Taboas.  Also featured are decorative arts, contemporary glass, antiquities, African art, Native American objects and painting, sculpture and decorative arts from Kentucky. 

This illuminating guide to one of America’s finest regional museum collections and Kentucky’s largest art museum provides engaging commentaries on 300 of the museum’s most important works by Speed curators Ruth Cloudman, Scott Erbes, Julien Robson, and Kimberly Spence, as well as guest scholars.  The collection is presented in five sections: Art of Ancient Cultures, African Art, Native American Art, European and American Art to 1950, and Contemporary Art.  Within each section, works are arranged chronologically and thematically, with sculpture, works on paper, and decorative arts interspersed for added visual and contextual interest.  An accessible and stimulating format with three works on each two-page spread, will promote a deeper understanding of the links between works in the collection. In addition the book includes a brief history of the collection, a glossary, and an index. 

About the publication, Speed Chief Curator Ruth Cloudman comments, “We are delighted to offer to our visitors and to art lovers everywhere this guide to the superb and fascinating works of art that have a home in the Speed Art Museum’s collection.”

A small number of handbooks will be available for pre-sale on November 25. Speed Museum Curators and authors of The Speed Art Museum, Highlights from the Collection,will be available for book signing on November 25 from 2-4:00 p.m.; December 6 from 6-8:00 p.m.; December 9 from 1-3:00 p.m. and December 13 from 6-8:00 p.m. in the museum Foyer.

A national leader in arts education, serving over 30,000 children each year, the Speed Art Museum has repeatedly been voted Kentucky’s best museum and is considered one of the top ten sites each Kentuckian should visit. The Speed honors its mission to bring great art to our communities through its distinguished collections and as the Commonwealth’s number one venue for international art exhibitions.

Rated one of the top ten audio guides in the country by MSNBC.COM, “Passport to the Speed,” offers insight into selected works in the collection, and is available for free at the Museum’s Welcome Center.

The Speed Art Museum is located at 2035 South Third Street in Louisville.  Other features of the museum include a hands-on Art Learning Center for families, a café and gift shop.  Gallery hours are Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday 10:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.; Thursday 10:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.; Saturday 10:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.; and Sunday 12:00 to 5:00 p.m.  The mueum is closed on Mondays.  For general information, call (502) 634-2700 or visit www.speedmuseum.org.

The Kentucky Arts Council, a state agency in the Commerce Cabinet, provides operational support funding for the Speed Art Museum with state tax dollars and federal funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, which believes that a great nation deserves great art.

Charles L. Venable Appointed as New Director
and CEO of the Speed Art Museum

Dr. Charles L. Venable Photo by Howard Agriesti, CMA

Louisville, Kentucky. The Speed Art Museum’s Board of Governors announced today the appointment of Dr. Charles L. Venable as the Museum’s next director and CEO. Dr. Venable was selected after a thorough national search led by Phillips Oppenheim. He succeeds Peter Morrin who is retiring as Director after leading the Speed for over 20 years.

In appointing Venable, Board of Governors Chair Richard H.C. Clay remarked, “We are pleased to bring someone of Charles Venable’s immense talent, experience, and respect in the museum field to Louisville and the Speed Art Museum. We are excited for the future and believe Charles will be dedicated to continuing the Speed’s efforts to make the Museum relevant to its communities with innovative programming, world-class exhibitions and by increasing the breadth and depth of its collections. His leadership will allow the Speed to go to the next level in expansion planning, community engagement, and art collecting.”

“It is a great honor to be selected as the next Director of the Speed Art Museum,” said Venable in accepting the position. “The Speed is a well-respected museum that is known for both the quality of its collection and its dedication to education and public outreach. It is my belief that the museum has built a firm foundation upon which to build and is now poised to move boldly forward into the future. With the support of the citizens of Louisville, enthusiastic donors, and a dedicated staff the Speed can accomplish the ambitious goals it has set for itself.”

For over 80 years the Speed Art Museum has brought art and culture to Louisville through exhibitions, educational programs, and its growing collection. As the leading art museum in the state the Speed champions the creative achievements of Kentuckians within the context of world art spanning 6,000 years. From ancient Egyptian to contemporary art, the Speed brings art to Louisville and beyond.

About Charles L. Venable
As Director and CEO, Venable will oversee the day-to-day operations of the Speed, including management of its staff and financial administration. “The sound management of the institution from both creative and business perspectives is of great importance to me and I look forward to working with the board of Governors and staff to ensure continued strong management of the Speed so that it can excel at bringing great art and educational experiences to the region,” said Venable.

Dr. Venable brings over 20 years of museum experience to the Speed. For the past five years he has served as Deputy Director for Collections and Programs at the Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA), overseeing multiple departments, including Curatorial, Education, Exhibitions, Registration, Conservation, the Research Library, and Performing Art, Music, and Film. He was also integral in developing and executing the CMA’s strategic plan and expansion project. Designed by acclaimed architect Rafael Viñoly, the first phase of this $258 million project will open in spring 2008. Of particular note is the “World Tour” to Asia, Europe, and North America of masterpieces from the CMA’s renowned collection that Venable organized while Deputy Director.

Prior to his work in Cleveland, Venable was at the Dallas Museum of Art (DMA) from 1986 to 2002. Rising from the rank of Assistant Curator to that of Deputy Director, Venable built the DMA’s holdings of American decorative art and design, especially in the area of silver, into one of the finest in the country. He also organized numerous exhibitions and became known as a scholar by editing and writing several well-respected publications. For his book, American Furniture in the Bybee Collection (1989), Venable was awarded the Charles F. Montgomery Award. His 1994 publication, Silver in America, 1840-1940: A Century of Splendor, Venable received the coveted Montgomery Prize. Dr. Venable is the only scholar to have received both the distinguished Charles F. Montgomery Award and the Montgomery Prize. His last major work, China and Glass in America, 1880-1980 (2000), was highly acclaimed for its scholarly contribution to the decorative arts field and for its accessible style.

A native Texan, Venable holds a Ph.D. in American Studies from Boston University, an M.A. in Fine and Decorative Art from the University of Delaware and a B.A. in American History and Art History, cum laude, from Rice University. His partner, Martin Webb, works in marketing and product management and their daughter, Alexandra Venable, will be a freshman at Vassar College this fall.

Venable will begin his duties as Director on Monday, October 29.
A national leader in arts education, serving over 30,000 children each year, the Speed Art Museum has repeatedly been voted Kentucky’s best museum and one of the top ten sites each Kentuckian should visit. The Speed honors its mission to bring great art to our communities through its distinguished collections and as the Commonwealth’s premier venue for international art exhibitions, collecting, and education.

Rated one of the top ten audio guides in the country by MSNBC.COM, “Passport to the Speed,” offers insight into selected works in the collection, and is available for free at the Museum’s Welcome Center. The Speed Art Museum: Highlights from the Collection, a new companion guide to the Speed’s distinguished collection will be available December 2007.

The Speed Art Museum is located at 2035 South Third Street in Louisville. Other features of the museum include a hands-on Art Learning Center for families, a café and gift shop. Gallery hours are Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday 10:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.; Thursday 10:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.; Saturday 10:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.; and Sunday 12:00 to 5:00 p.m. The museum is closed on Mondays. For general information, call (502) 634-2700 or visit www.speedmuseum.org.

The Kentucky Arts Council, a state agency in the Commerce Cabinet, provides operational support funding for the Speed Art Museum with state tax dollars and federal funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, which believes that a great nation deserves great art.

Centuries-Old Mystery Solved: Woman identified in Rembrandt Painting!

Louisville, Ky. Visitors of the Speed Art Museum have been fascinated for years by the museum’s own Rembrandt: Portrait of a Woman who’s identity has remained one of histories mysteries…until now! The Speed Art Museum would like to introduce the world to Marretje Cornelisdr van Grotewal (.

Rembrandt Harmensz Van Rijn, (Dutch, 1606-1669) Portrait of a Woman, 1634 Oil on panel Purchased with funds contributed by individuals, corporations and the entire community of Louisville, as well as the Commonwealth of Kentucky 1977.16

Since the acquisition of Portrait of a Woman by the Speed, museumgoers have been fascinated by this transfixing portrait painted by one of the most famous Dutch artists of the 17th century, Rembrandt Harmensz Van Rijn. The painting, currently on view in London’s Dulwich Picture Gallery, is supplementing Uylenburgh & Son; Art and Business in the Age of Rembrandt, an exhibition commemorating the 400th year of Rembrandt’s birthday. Curator, Jaap Van der Veen, discovered the subject’s identity while researching materials for the exhibition.

The companion portrait to this painting, Portrait of a Bearded Man in a Wide-Brimmed Hat, 1633, depicts this woman’s husband, Pieter Sijen. The paintings remained together until 1960 when they were sold separately at auction in New York City. The woman's portrait was purchased by the Speed Art Museum in 1977, and the Norton Simon Art Foundation purchased the husband's portrait in the same year.

In his investigation, Van der Veen first looked into the relationship between art dealer Hendrick Uylenburch, and Peter Sijen. He found that in 1639 Sijen invested in Uylenburch’s business, and the two continued to have a business relationship for years. Both men were also members of the Mennonite community, a religious group that is known to favor plain living and plain dress, much like the woman’s dress depicted in the Rembrandt painting. Uylenburch found commissions for Rembrandt among the prosperous members of the Mennonite circle.

Rembrandt was connected to Uylenburch, both in his professional and personal life. He worked for and lived with the art dealer for four years until he eventually married Uylenburch’s niece, Saskia Uylenburch in 1634.
There were several other clues that contributed to Van der Veen’s conclusions. After researching historical documents, a 1702 inventory described a pair of portraits by Rembrandt of the ancestors of Peter Pietersz Sijen, the son of the man in the portrait. The ages of the subjects written on the paintings, also corresponded with the ages of Marretje Cornelisdr van Grotewal and Pieter Sijen, thus supporting Van der Veen’s findings.

Rembrandt was known for his incredible skill as a portrait painter. This portrait is often admired for its excellent condition due to the fact that it was never subjected to overly harsh cleaning, which so often results in the rubbing away of paint layers.
“We are very excited about this discovery. It is truly gratifying to put a name with the face that has become such a highlight of the Museum’s distinguished collection,” said museum director, Peter Morrin.
Founded in 1927, The Speed Art Museum has over 13,000 pieces in its collection spanning 6,000 years, ranging from ancient Egyptian to contemporary art. The Museum has distinguished collections of 17th century Dutch and Flemish painting; 18th century French art; Renaissance and Baroque tapestries; and significant holdings of contemporary painting and sculpture. African and Native American works are also represented in the Museum’s collection. “Passport to the Speed,” an audio-guide of selected works in the permanent collection, is available for a rental fee of $3 at the museum’s Welcome Center.
The Speed Art Museum is located at 2035 South Third Street in Louisville. Other features of the museum include a hands-on Art Learning Center for families, a café and gift shop. Gallery hours are Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday 10:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.; Thursday 10:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.; Saturday 10:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.; and Sunday 12:00 to 5:00 p.m. The museum is closed on Mondays. For general information, call (502) 634-2700 or visit the web: http://www.speedmuseum.org
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Speed Museum Plans Transformation with 20 Year Master Plan

The Speed Art Museum today released details of a new 20-year Master Plan. The plan suggests a near doubling of gallery and education spaces over the 20-year period to accommodate the growth of the Museum’s collections, programming initiatives, and special exhibitions. Future expansion plans will include not only several building additions but also a reworking of the existing building to make way finding and visitor circulation easier and more visitor-friendly.

Highlights of the plan call for the building and surrounding spaces to be invigorated and transformed into spaces that project the excitement and openness of the activities taking place inside. The Master Plan will be a guiding document for architects and planners when the museum begins any expansion or renovation.

Speed Museum Director, Peter Morrin, stated, “This Master Plan is not just about making the treasure chest bigger, but truly expanding the museum and its services to continue to be a place where people can come together and value one another’s cultural heritage.”

Scott Newman, of Cooper Robertson and Partners in New York, who worked with the Museum to create the plan said, “The Speed Art Museum Master Plan represents a framework for the growth and transformation of the Museum over the next 20 years. Key elements of the plan are intended to guide future architectural development to produce a cohesive whole that synthesizes new and old, provides a more vibrant and welcoming identity, and meets the Speed’s goal of providing visitors with the most meaningful and engaging experiences with works of art.”

The plan enhances the Museum’s site with a series of exterior landscaped courts that relate to visitor amenities and functions, such as outdoor gathering spaces, eating areas, and a sculpture garden. It greatly raises the Speed’s presence on Third Street with expanded frontage creating a more welcoming entrance to the Museum.

The original 1927 Building is preserved and respected, while some areas would be redeveloped to provide a clearly visible main entrance, and a vibrant, transparent and welcoming identity. In order to clarify internal spaces as the Museum grows, the plan calls for creating a “main street” of circulation that would guide visitors and organize the various public functions. The interior street would link the entrance and new main lobby to the original building, the galleries, and a pedestrian bridge to a new building. The bridge creates an iconic gateway into the Museum and University of Louisville campus and unites the facility functionally.

Expanded special exhibitions galleries on a new third floor provide critically needed space to permit important large traveling exhibitions to be shown in Louisville that cannot be hosted now. Expanded permanent collection galleries allow growth, display of important works that cannot be seen, and further strengthen the display of areas of excellence such as the Kentucky Collection, Glass, European and American Art, and Contemporary Art. A new building to the North represents an exciting opportunity to highlight distinctive collections in a unique architectural setting.

Speed Museum Director Peter Morrin stated, “The Speed’s collections are one of Louisville’s great ambassadors for the city and sharing them more widely with the community will support local education and enjoyment as well as cultural tourism. Works in the Speed collection are lent to special exhibitions all over the world because of the high esteem in which the collection is held. Even though significant pieces are lent worldwide, many others are not on view right now in their home city of Louisville because the Speed does not have enough space to display them. An expansion of the Museum will, over time, nearly double the square footage of galleries. It will balance the enjoyment of Old Master pictures and other collections with the studio excitement of contemporary art. At present the Speed shows only 3% of its outstanding collection of 13,000 works of art.”

The plan provides new and improved classroom and assembly spaces to build on the Museum’s reputation for excellence in education and to take maximum advantage of shared opportunities with the University and surrounding community for a rich array of programs and initiatives. Public amenities such as the café, gift shop, and meeting facilities are improved to enhance the visitor experience.

The Master Plan is flexible in its organization so that it can be implemented over time in phases. Costs to implement the 20-year Master Plan are roughly $150 million including construction and additional operating endowment necessary to run and maintain the facility. The location of the Museum has great potential both for future growth, more synergy with the University, and a transformation of the Speed’s architectural identity. The Speed will next begin work on a feasibility study to best determine the financial plan for achieving the expansion goals. A timeline for expansion will be determined based on the feasibility study.
Director Peter Morrin said, “The Master Plan acknowledges and respects the Museum’s heritage while providing a dynamic vision for transforming the Speed to fulfill its mission as a vital cultural resource for the City of Louisville and the region.”

The mission of The Speed Art Museum is to discover, together with its communities, the joy and power of great art. Founded in 1927, The Speed Art Museum has over 13,000 pieces in its collection spanning 6,000 years, ranging from ancient Egyptian to contemporary art. The Museum has distinguished collections of 17th century Dutch and Flemish painting; 18th century French art; Renaissance and Baroque tapestries; and significant holdings of contemporary painting and sculpture. African and Native American works are also represented in the museum’s collection. An interactive learning center for families, Art Sparks, brings the collection to life for family audiences. Art Sparks is undergoing a renovation and will reopen to the public on November 12.

The Speed Art Museum Louisville, Kentucky Photo by Stan Reis

The Speed Art Museum Awarded Prestigious IMLS Grant

Louisville, Kentucky. Thanks to a grant from the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), the Speed Art Museum will begin plans for a new installation of its permanent collection. The new plan will put the collection within the historical and cultural context of the city and the region while providing an important case study of the development of the arts on the first Western frontier.

Through this new installation, visitors will be able to see, for the first time, the development of Louisville’s artistic heritage and connect to the historical, cultural and economic environment in which it developed.

About the grant Speed Art Museum Director, Peter Morrin said, “We are grateful to the Institute of Museum and Library Services for the incredible opportunity they’ve given us to address the important historical and cultural role Louisville and Kentucky played and continues to play in the development of American art. This grant will allow the museum to make available to all, Kentucky’s rich artistic history through our unmatched collection of works produced by and for Kentuckians during the early 1800s and 1900s. It will also allow us to put into cultural and historical context our collections of American, African, Asian, European and Native American art giving them added interest and value to our visitors.”
“With their rich collections, museums enable visitors to physically connect with history, science, and the creative process,” said Dr. Robert S. Martin, Director of the Institute. “The Museums for America grants will help museums advance their role as trusted resources that serve communities by creating and sustaining a nation of learners.”
The Institute of Museum and Library Services is an independent federal grant-making agency dedicated to creating and sustaining a nation of learners by helping libraries and museums serve their communities.

Founded in 1927, The Speed Art Museum has over 13,000 pieces in its collection spanning 6,000 years, ranging from ancient Egyptian to contemporary art. The Museum has distinguished collections of 17th century Dutch and Flemish painting; 18th century French art; Renaissance and Baroque tapestries; and significant holdings of contemporary painting and sculpture. African and Native American works are also represented in the Museum’s collection. “Passport to the Speed,” an audio-guide of selected works in the permanent collection, is available for a rental fee of $3 at the museum’s Welcome Center.

The Speed Art Museum is located at 2035 South Third Street in Louisville. Other features of the museum include a hands-on Art Learning Center for families, a café and gift shop. Gallery hours are Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday 10:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.; Thursday 10:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.; Saturday 10:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.; and Sunday 12:00 to 5:00 p.m. The museum is closed on Mondays. For general information, call (502) 634-2700

SPEED ART MUSEUM
NAMES PAULA HALE
NEW ADMINISTRATIVE DIRECTOR

Louisville, KY. The Speed Art Museum is pleased to announce that Paula Hale has been named Administrative Director, filling the position left vacant by the retirement of Anne Ogden, earlier this year.

Paula Hale has served as the Speed’s Interim Administrative Director since March 2004. She is currently overseeing the development of the museum’s 5-year Strategic Plan and is the Project Director for the $800,000 Wallace Foundation grant. Paula joined the museum as Director of Development and Marketing in 1996 and has been responsible for all aspects of museum fundraising, marketing, media relations, public relations, special events, visitor services, and the museum shop. During this tenure, the Speed has become a national model for museum market research, membership growth, and fundraising for exhibitions, special projects, and programs.

Before joining the Speed, Paula served as Director of Development and Alumni Relations for Louisville Collegiate School, Director of Leadership Louisville, Assistant Director for the Jefferson County Community Development Agency, and as a history, government, and economic instructor at Louisville Collegiate School.

Paula has a long record of community involvement. She serves on the boards of the Center for Non-Profit Excellence and the Kentuckiana Planned Giving Council, is a member of the Association of Fundraising Professionals, and the Art Museum Development Association. She recently completed serving on the boards of the Wayne E. Oates Institute and the Family Place, is past president of Fund Raising Executives of Metro Louisville, and served on the boards of the Home of the Innocents, the Louisville Ballet, the former Humana Audubon Hospital, the Junior League of Louisville, the Boys and Girls Clubs of Louisville, and the Louisville Youth Choir.

Paula holds a B.S. in Education, History and Government from Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, an M.S. in Community Development from the University of Louisville, plus training with the Getty Museum Leadership Institute, Bingham Fellows, and Leadership Louisville.

Founded in 1927, The Speed Art Museum has over 13,000 pieces in its collection spanning 6,000 years, ranging from ancient Egyptian to contemporary art. The Museum has distinguished collections of 17th century Dutch and Flemish painting; 18th century French art; Renaissance and Baroque tapestries; and significant holdings of contemporary painting and sculpture. African and Native American works are also represented in the Museum’s collection. “Passport to the Speed,” an audio-guide of selected works in the permanent collection, is available for a rental fee of $3 at the museum’s Welcome Center.

The Speed Art Museum is located at 2035 South Third Street in Louisville. Other features of the museum include a hands-on Art Learning Center for families, a café and gift shop. Gallery hours are Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday 10:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.; Thursday 10:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.; Saturday 10:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.; and Sunday 12:00 to 5:00 p.m. The museum is closed on Mondays. For general information, call (502) 634-2700

CULTURAL ORGANIZATIONS RECEIVE OVER $13 MILLION
IN WALLACE FOUNDATION GRANTS TO DEVELOP AND SHARE INNOVATIVE AND EFFECTIVE PARTICIPATION-BUILDING PRACTICES

New York, November 17, 2003 -- The Speed Art Museum is one of twenty-one cultural organizations in 15 states that have been awarded grants totaling more than $13 million by the Wallace Foundation to help pioneer effective ideas and practices that can build public participation in the arts. (A list of the new LEAP grantees and their funded activities is attached.) Three Kentucky cultural organizations received funding of $1.8 million. Other Kentucky organizations receiving grants were Blue Apple Players, of Louisville, and Appalshop, of Whitesburg.

The Speed project includes the creation, implementation, and evaluation of activities for families with children and youth. The overall participation goal of the project is to measurably diversify, broaden, and deepen the museum’s family audience, increasing the annual number of family participants each year during the four-year grant period, through exhibitions, programs, events and communications.

“We are grateful to the Wallace Foundation for recognizing the Speed’s commitment of bringing great art and people together. The Speed now has the opportunity to increase its family participation through pilot programs such as the Art Explorer project, which will be implemented at three local schools and features extended involvement in the museum; a second testing model is the Community Cultural Apprentice program, a museum training program for young people that will include the development of family programs for those groups or communities that the youth represent. This is an exciting time for the Speed and we are looking forward to working with our communities to move ahead with these and other programs made possible by this generous grant,” said Speed Art Museum Director, Peter Morrin.

This latest round of grants brings to 58 the number of arts institutions across the country with strong track records in participation-building that have received a total of more than $43 million in support since 1999 under Wallace’s Leadership and Excellence in Arts Participation initiative or LEAP.

Through LEAP, many museums, performing arts organizations, and community cultural centers that are adopting customer-focused practices aligned with high-quality artistic programs are experiencing higher ticket sales; attracting new, more diverse patrons; or encouraging people to return for a greater variety of programs and activities.

“In all of our work, we seek to support and share effective practices that help organizations expand learning and enrichment opportunities for all people,” said M. Christine DeVita, the Foundation’s president. “Our LEAP partnership with leading arts organizations enables us to help develop new practices that expand participation in the arts, and then to share the lessons from their work so that other institutions around the country make the arts an essential resource for individual learning, personal enrichment, civic engagement and community health.”

Each LEAP organization sets its own goals covering a wide range of possible activities including field testing program, marketing, outreach and organizational strategies that hold promise for broadening, deepening or diversifying participation. Collectively, the goals of Wallace’s LEAP initiative are twofold: to provide LEAP organizations support to develop, experiment and refine innovative and effective participation-building practices and strategies; and to share that information in ways that permit other arts organizations to adopt those strategies.

Activities by the latest round of LEAP grantees will include:

• Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services (ACCESS) in Dearborn, MI will create the nation’s first ever Arab American National Museum and present programs in visual arts, literature, film and performing arts, including organizing national tours by Arab American performance groups. This effort builds on years of success conducting national tours by Arab American performing artists among members of the Arab American Arts Network it organized in five U.S. cities.
• The Aspen Music Festival in Colorado will be taking a page from their neighboring ski resorts and market this summer festival of classical music as package tours to concert-goers in selected cities across the country, identified through Aspen partnering with classical music organizations in those other cities.
• Blue Apple Players in Louisville, Kentucky, a 24-year-old theater for youth, will get back in touch with many of the adults state-wide who had their first experience of live theater at a Blue Apple production, to involve them and their families again as audience members volunteers, supporters, volunteers, staff, actors and potential board members.

“Organizations of widely different types and sizes in many communities are hotbeds of creative thinking about effective strategies for building arts participation,” said Michael Moore, director of arts programs at the Foundation. “We think these organizations, and many like them, need to be understood, valued and supported. You could have the world’s greatest artistry, but if your door is locked, no one is ever going to see it.”

LEAP is part of a multifaceted effort to develop knowledge about effective participation-building practices among interested arts organizations and their funding partners across the country. It builds on more than a decade of work during which the Foundation, formerly the Wallace-Reader’s Digest Funds, invested more than $300 million in theaters, museums, dance companies, literary groups, community art schools and centers. Through their programs and public efforts, these organizations have demonstrated that excellence need not mean exclusion and that the benefits of the arts can be multiplied through the shared experience of participation.

Over the past decade, the Foundation has used a range of strategies to help propel the development of cultural organizations that are effectively increasing participation in their communities; to foster partnerships with states and other public and private funders to increase arts participation; and to develop new knowledge and tools, including A New Framework for Building Arts Participation developed by RAND, that help make the arts part of people's everyday lives.

The Foundation’s three current goals are to: improve student achievement through stronger education leadership; enhance after-school learning opportunities; and expand participation in arts and culture. Further information can be found at www.wallacefoundation.org or at www.arts4allpeople.org.

Founded in 1927, The Speed Art Museum has over 13,000 pieces in its collection spanning 6,000 years, ranging from ancient Egyptian to contemporary art. The Museum has distinguished collections of 17th century Dutch and Flemish painting; 18th century French art; Renaissance and Baroque tapestries; and significant holdings of contemporary painting and sculpture. African and Native American works are also represented in the Museum’s collection. “Passport to the Speed,” an audio-guide of selected works in the permanent collection, is available for a rental fee of $3 at the museum’s Welcome Center.

The Speed Art Museum is located at 2035 South Third Street in Louisville. Other features of the museum include a hands-on Art Learning Center for families, a café and gift shop. Gallery hours are Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday 10:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.; Thursday 10:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.; Saturday 10:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.; and Sunday 12:00 to 5:00 p.m. The museum is closed on Mondays. For general information, call (502) 634-2700 or visit the web: http://www.speedmuseum.org

Wallace Foundation
LEADERSHIP AND EXCELLENCE IN ARTS PARTICIPATION
(LEAP)

List of Newly Named Grantees
November 17, 2003

Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services (ACCESS) in Dearborn, MI, will expand and diversify local, regional, and national audiences for its soon to open Arab American National Museum, its Resource Center, nationally touring performing arts events and an array of other public programs that will document, present, preserve, and celebrate the history, culture, and contributions of Arab Americans. ($900,000 over 4 years)

Appalshop in Whitesburg, KY, will broaden and deepen participation by low to moderate income regional and national audiences by increasing the number of local, regional and national presentations it offers. This community-based arts center will promote crossover participation among its many programs by creating the Appalshop Learning Center that will also offer multidisciplinary arts education programs. ($700,000 over 4 years)

AS220 in Providence, RI, will diversify its multigenerational community by engaging artists and the arts-going public who are over age 40. This community-based arts center will also expand opportunities for employment for individual artists by including at least three additional annual artist residencies, and will restructure many of its events to increase participation and enhance earned revenue. ($300,000 over 4 years)
Aspen Music Festival and School in Aspen, CO, will develop and offer three- to five-day thematic mini-festivals designed to draw in casual audiences and give them a deeper experience. The project includes planning and audience research to learn how to convert casual attendees into committed concertgoers, and will include marketing tour packages to music enthusiasts in several key cities following the model of Colorado ski resorts. ($1,000,000 over 4 years)

Bay Area Video Coalition in San Francisco, will provide established and emerging artists and arts organizations with the equipment, training and support they need to use powerful media tools to create and distribute art to broad audiences. This noncommercial media technology access and training center will help arts organizations in many disciplines use media tools to achieve their own participation-building goals. ($700,000 over 4 years)

Blue Apple Players in Louisville, KY, will enrich relationships with their community by strengthening communications systems, improving production values, strengthening education programs and sharing lessons of effective practices with professional colleagues. This theater company will also recruit past participants to become actively engaged as volunteers, audience members, actors, staff, board members or potential donors. ($300,000 over 4 years)

Cal Performances in Berkeley, CA, will deepen and increase the frequency of participation by current audience members through audience research, enhanced marketing and expanding the use of new technology. This university-based presenter will also enhance its public programs by engaging university faculty to provide context and educational information at performance events. ($900,000 over 4 years)

Center of Creative Arts in St. Louis, will lay the groundwork for its growth into an expanded facility by enhancing marketing efforts, building its capacity to communicate with participants electronically and raising the level of its arts programs by engaging high profile artists. The Center will increase student enrollment, theater audiences and core supporters. ($700,000 over 4 years)

Community Music School of Springfield in Springfield, MA, will expand its Prelude program by training early childhood teachers at multiple community sites in three cities to integrate music into their daily classroom plans. The music school will also use parent advisory groups to create family events centered around musical performances and other enriching cultural activities. Another component of the program, called Presto, will identify talented, young string players and provide comprehensive string education and training. ($600,000 over 4 years)

Cornerstone Theater Company in Los Angeles, will sustain and deepen relationships with community participants it has worked with throughout Los Angeles and enhance information systems to track these relationships. Through the Cornerstone Institute, the theater will train students to become leaders in the practice of community engaged theater. ($600,000 over 4 years)

Liz Lerman Dance Exchange in Takoma Park, MD, will strengthen the collaborations with arts presenters and other partners that have been key to its past success engaging communities and promoting artist participation In a program of integrated and overlapping activities, Liz Lerman Dance
Exchange will develop and publish a partner guide, send advance teams to lay the foundation for participatory residency projects, and organize three conferences to share lessons of effective practice. In addition, the company will explore the relationship between community engagement, high production
values, and experimental approaches to audience participation. ($600,000 over 4 years)

Dell’Arte International in Blue Lake, CA, will join with three local community organizations to strengthen their ability to present art forms from Latino and Native American cultural traditions. Dell’Arte will host events organized by the community organizations as part of its annual performing arts festival and will hire Latino and Native American staff. To engage participants from these communities, Dell’Arte will conduct audience research and enhance marketing and communications efforts. ($300,000 over 4 years)

Hancher Auditorium/University of Iowa will create a network with organizations in its Iowa City home and three other Iowa communities to plan and implement two long-term artist residencies each year with performances aimed at young parents and their children. Hancher will develop an online videoconference system to enhance the on-site residencies and to serve as a vehicle for planning, documentation, evaluation and dissemination. ($800,000 over 4 years)

Intermedia Arts in Minneapolis, will launch Immigrant Status, a multidisciplinary series of exhibitions and performances exploring the cultures and conditions of Minnesota’s newest immigrant populations, African/Somalis, Latino/Mexicans and Russians. Intermedia will hire artistic and organizational staff from these international communities and adopt new curatorial, artistic and audience development practices to fully engage members from each community. ($491,000 over 4 years)

Marwen a visual arts, college planning, and career development organization in Chicago for youth in grades 6-12, will increase the number of students it serves by 25 percent through innovative outreach and marketing initiatives. The group will also enhance its Studio Program by increasing the breadth,
depth and number of courses it offers, adding sequential studio course tracks and new college and career initiatives. Marwen will document and publish its teaching method and curriculum and disseminate these materials nationally. ($500,000 over 4 years)

Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum in Chicago, will create new exhibitions, strengthen educational programs, expand performing arts programs and enhance internal planning and research in order to deepen the engagement of Mexican-American artists and broaden the museum’s outreach to Chicago’s suburbs and rural communities in Illinois and throughout the Midwest. ($700,000 over 4 years)

Mosaic Youth Theatre of Detroit will enhance the experience of youth who participate in its nine-month intensive Youth Ensemble training and performance program, expand its offerings of introductory performance classes, and produce at least one major concert and one major original theater production annually. Mosaic will contract with the University of Michigan to evaluate and document the impact of these programs on participants, families, audiences and the Detroit community. ($300,000 over 4 years)

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston will implement Gateway to Art/De Puertas al Arte, a multifaceted program designed to disseminate new knowledge about Latin American art based around the presentation of up to four exhibitions of Latin American art annually. The museum will further broaden, diversify and educate the museum’s adult audiences through its activities in Latin American and Latino art by each year offering over 25 classes, lectures, scholarly symposia, readings, artist talks, teacher workshops, programs for college students, parent workshops and other educational programs. ($1,000,000 over 4 years)

Perseverance Theatre in Douglas, AK, will expand participation by Alaska Native artists and audiences by hiring and training Alaska Natives to create new theater works for their communities and seeking their guidance about effective marketing and outreach efforts. Funds will support artistic projects, artist training, marketing efforts and staff positions for Alaska Native administrators in outreach and development. ($400,000 over 4 years)

Speed Art Museum in Louisville, KY, will increase participation by target groups of families with children and youth in the Louisville metropolitan area. It will conduct audience research to inform the reinstallation of its permanent collection and programs in its Art Learning Center. Enhanced weekend programs for families and a new youth apprentice program will deepen the engagement of current participants and broaden participation to include new audiences. ($800,000 over 4 years)

Western Folklife Center in Elko, NV, will expand participation among its far-flung rural constituency by developing Deep West, a program combining live touring events with online forums and radio programming built on stories from the rural west, told through poetry, prose, visual arts or photography. Using its annual National Cowboy Poetry Gathering as a focus, the Western Folklife Center will develop strategies to increase its supporting members and maintain contact with all its audiences through regular email newsletters and other communications. ($500,000 over 4 years)

Director Peter Morrin Appointed 2003-2004 President of Association of Art Museum Directors

Peter Morrin Director Speed Art Museum

Louisville, Kentucky. Speed Art Museum Director Peter Morrin’s considerable expertise in museum leadership will shift to a national level this June when he begins his term as president of the Association of Art Museum Directors.

Founded in 1916 by the directors of 12 American museums, the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD) seeks to create an intimate forum where directors can share news and ideas. Today’s Membership includes 171 museum directors in the United States, Canada, and Mexico and 23 honorary members. Membership in the AAMD is based on the qualifications of both the individual director and the specific art museum.

Headquartered in New York, the purpose of the Association of Art Museum Directors is to aid its members in establishing and maintaining high standards for themselves and the museums they represent, thereby increasing the contribution of art museums to society. It serves as a forum for the exchange of information and the exploration of ideas, and as a voice with which museum directors express their joint concerns and those of their institutions.

Peter Morrin was named director of the Speed in 1986 after serving as curator of Twentieth Century Art at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Georgia. Under Morrin's leadership at the Speed, the museum initiated a $14 million renovation of the building and facilities in February 1996 to meet both the demands of its expanding local, regional, and national role as well as the need to better protect its growing collection. A $55 million bequest, received from the granddaughter of the museum's namesake in March 1996, was one of the largest cash gifts ever given to an American museum, and enabled the Speed to invest in its future. Long-term institutional initiatives include augmentation of the museum's educational outreach, acquisitions, and major exhibitions.

In addition to the recent Millet to Matisse exhibition, other notable exhibitions presented at the Speed under Morrin's direction included SouthernFolk Art (1986); Russian Constructivist Theater Design (1989); Kentucky Masterworks, A Bicentennial Exhibition (1992); Audrey Flack, A Retrospective (1993); Sam Gilliam, Construction (1996); Wyeth: Three Generations (1998); Ansel Adams: A Legacy, Masterpieces from the Friends of Photography Collection (1998); and Rembrandt to Gainsborough: Masterpieces from Dulwich Picture Gallery (1999).

Morrin currently serves as adjunct faculty at the University of Louisville, Kentucky. He has been an arts panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the General Services Administration, and the Georgia and Ohio Arts Councils. He has lectured widely on modern and contemporary art and folk art.

Morrin graduated Cum Laude with a B.A. in Fine Arts from Harvard College in 1968 and received an M.F.A. in art history from Princeton University in 1972. He is a 1988 graduate of the Museum Management Institute of the J. Paul Getty Trust. He was chair of the Standiford Art Foundation from 1995 to 2002, and is immediate past chair of the Greater Louisville Arts and Cultural Attractions Council, a Business Network of Greater Louisville, Inc.

Founded in 1927, The Speed Art Museum has over 13,000 pieces in its collection spanning 6,000 years, ranging from ancient Egyptian to contemporary art. The Museum has distinguished collections of 17th century Dutch and Flemish painting; 18th century French art; Renaissance and Baroque tapestries; and significant holdings of contemporary painting and sculpture. African and Native American works are also represented in the Museum’s collection. “Passport to the Speed,” an audio-guide of selected works in the permanent collection, is available for a rental fee of $3 at the museum’s Welcome Center.

The Speed Art Museum is located at 2035 South Third Street in Louisville. Other features of the museum include a hands-on Art Learning Center for families, a café and gift shop. Gallery hours are Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday 10:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.; Thursday 10:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.; Saturday 10:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.; and Sunday 12:00 to 5:00 p.m. The museum is closed on Mondays. For general information, call (502) 634-2700 or visit the web: http://www.speedmuseum.org

Speed Art Museum Celebrates 75th Anniversary

Louisville, Kentucky. January 15, 2002 marks the diamond anniversary of the Speed Art Museum. The year will be a constant celebration punctuated by four diverse yet remarkable exhibitions, A Brush with History: Paintings from the National Portrait Gallery, A Bountiful Plenty from the Shelburne Museum: Folk Art Traditions in America, Masterworks from the Albertina and closing the year with the blockbuster exhibition, Millet to Matisee: Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century French Painting from Kelvingove Art Gallery, Glasgow, Scotland.

James Breckinridge Speed and his granddaughter Alice Speed Stoll

The Speed Art Museum, originally known as the J. B. Speed Memorial Museum, and later as The J.B. Speed Art Museum, is Kentucky’s oldest and largest art museum. It was founded in 1925 by Hattie Bishop Speed as a memorial to her husband, James Breckinridge Speed, a prominent Louisville businessman and philanthropist.

Designed by Louisville architect Arthur Loomis, the museum opened its doors on January 15, 1927, with an exhibition sponsored by the Louisville Art Association. Over a hundred American and European painters were represented and nearly two thousand visitors attended the opening.

Mrs. Speed served as the first president and director of the museum. In 1933, the museum was incorporated as a privately endowed institution, and its board of governors was established. In 1934, the museum received its first major donation, a valuable collection of North American Indian artifacts given by Dr. Frederick Weygold. In 1941, Dr. Preston Pope Satterwhite made a significant gift to the museum - his collection of fifteenth-century and sixteenth-century French and Italian Decorative Arts including tapestries and furniture. In 1944, he donated the English Renaissance Room, which was moved in its entirety from Devonshire, England. Dr. Satterwhite’s gift necessitated an enlargement of the museum and in his will he provided for the addition that bears his name. Completed in 1954, it was the first of three additions to the original building.

Hattie Bishop Speed died in 1942 and after her death, her niece, Jenny Loring Robbins, held the position of Director. Catherine Grey, a member of the museum’s first Board of Governors and a friend of Mrs. Speed’s, was acting director until 1946, when Paul S. Harris became the first professional director. During his tenure, acquisitions to the collection were made mostly in the areas of decorative arts and furniture. In 1962, he was succeeded by Addison Franklin Page, curator of contemporary art at the Detroit Institute of Arts, who served until 1984. During Mr. Page’s tenure, the museum collection was enriched and expanded, and the north and south additions were built.

After another major addition to the building in 1973, the Speed celebrated its 50th anniversary in 1977 with the acquisition of Rembrandt's magnificent Portrait of a Woman. Mr. Page and the Board of Governors led the campaign to raise the $1.5 million necessary to purchase the work, one of the museum’s most significant acquisitions. In 1983, the Speed’s most recent wing, designed by Robert Geddes of Princeton, New Jersey, opened.

Mr. Page retired as Director in 1984 and was followed in 1986 by the museum’s current director, Peter Morrin, who was formerly curator of twentieth-century art at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta. Mr. Morrin has continued the enrichment of the collection and initiated an outreach program to involve the communities the museum serves.

While the museum was closed for a dramatic renovation project in 1996, the museum received a life-changing gift, a bequest of more than $50 million from Alice Speed Stoll, granddaughter of James Breckinridge Speed. The bequest marks one of the largest given to any art museum and significantly increased the Speed's endowment, ranking it among the top 25 in the United States. Mrs. Stoll’s bequest secured the museum’s future and has allowed for several significant acquisitions including Jacob van Ruisdael’s Landscape with Cottages and a Blasted Tree, (1653), and Paul Cezanne’s Post-Impressionist masterpiece, Two Apples on a Table (about 1895-1900).

Since reopening in November 1997, the Speed has dazzled the region with exciting traveling exhibitions, new acquisitions to the permanent collection, and a new parking garage. It has also benefited greatly by a bequest from the estate of long-time Board of Governors member General Dillman A. Rash who left the museum works by Marc Chagall, Jean Dubuffet, Paul Klee, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, and Maurice Utrillo.

The museum is supported entirely by donations, endowments, grants, ticket sales, and memberships. The focus of the collection is Western art, from antiquity to the present day. Holdings of paintings from the Netherlands, French and Italian works, and contemporary art are particularly strong, with Sculpture prominent throughout. Representative artists include Rembrandt van Rijn, Peter Paul Rubens, Giovanni Tiepolo, Henry Moore, Thomas Gainsborough, Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso, and contemporary artists Frank Stella, Helen Frankenthaler, Sam Francis, Petah Coyne, Sam Gilliam, Vito Acconci, and Juan Munoz.

Today, the Speed Art museum has come a long way since Mrs. Speed first opened the doors to the original museum nearly 75 years ago. Its magnificent building and impressive collection of over 12,000 pieces serve more than 180,000 visitors each year, making it a nationally recognized institution.

Speed Museum Announces its Selection as Opening Venue for Blockbuster Exhibition in 2002

Louisville, KY. The Speed Art Museum announced today that it is scheduled to present a major exhibition in 2002, its 75th anniversary year. Millet to Matisse: 19th- and 20th-Century French Painting from Kelvingrove Art Gallery, Glasgow, Scotland is scheduled to premiere at the Speed from November 6, 2002 to February 2, 2003. Drawn from the distinguished Kelvingrove Art Gallery, the exhibition includes 64 paintings rarely seen outside Scotland. Millet to Matisse includes works from the Impressionist, Post-Impressionist and Modern periods by such masters as Monet, Renoir, Cassatt, Cézanne, van Gogh, and Picasso. The show will be traveling to only six cities in the United States and Louisville is scheduled as the opening venue. The exhibition is organized by the American Federation of Arts (AFA) and the Glasgow Museums. The presentation in Louisville is sponsored by The Humana Foundation. The television partner for the exhibition is WAVE-3 TV.

Organized chronologically, Millet to Matisse begins with a selection of canvases from the Barbizon School including Jean- Francois Millet's (1814-1875) monumental treatment of peasant life, Going to Work (1850-51). It also includes several important works by Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (1796-1875). The development of Impressionism is represented in landscapes by Camille Pissarro (1830-1903) and by Claude Monet (1840-1926), Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919), and Alfred Sisley (1839-1899). Two early landscapes by Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) and Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) show how both artists, though aware of Impressionism, developed their own unique styles.

Van Gogh's portrait of Glasgow art dealer Alexander Reid, painted when the two men lived together briefly in Paris in the late 1880's, illustrates the role art dealers played in the formation of the collection at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery. Reid was one of the major figures responsible for bringing 19th-century French art of distinction to his native Scotland.

Georges Seurat's (1859-1891) Boy Sitting on the Grass (about 1882) and The River Banks (about 1883) are among the notable Post-Impressionist works. Pablo Picasso's (1881-1973) The Flower Seller (1901), painted upon his arrival in Paris, and a group of works by Edouard Vuillard (1868-1940) and Pierre Bonnard (1867-1947) as well as superb Fauve paintings by André Derain (1880-1954), Raoul Dufy (1877-1953), and Henri Matisse (1869-1954) take the exhibition into the early 20th-century.

Speed Museum Director Peter Morrin remarked, "In 2002, the Speed marks its 75th anniversary year. Our continuing mission of bringing great art and people together will be celebrated by this wonderful show. We are proud to be the opening venue for the world tour of Millet to Matisse and delight in bringing works of this period to Louisville. We are grateful for the support of our presenting sponsor, The Humana Foundation. For 25 years, the Humana Foundation has been a major supporter of the museum’s permanent collection and its temporary exhibitions. Following the success of Rembrandt to Gainsborough, presented in 2000, Millet to Matisse, will allow visitors to see works from a different period in art, but yet a very significant one. The exhibition relates well to the Speed's collection since so many of the artists represented are also included in the Speed's collection. Recently, we announced the purchase of Two Apples on a Table by Paul Cézanne, and now we are thrilled that even more works by Cézanne will be coming to Louisville."

Ticket prices for the exhibition will be announced at a later date and tickets will go on sale in the summer of 2002. Museum members will be offered a significant discount. Discount tickets for groups of 20 or more are available by calling the group sales office. The museum is currently booking groups and schools for both guided and un-guided tours of Millet to Matisse. For more information the public should contact the museum at (502) 634-2700.

Millet to Matisse is sponsored in Louisville by The Humana Foundation. Humana Foundation Chairman David A. Jones remarked, "The Humana Foundation is proud to help make an outstanding exhibition like Millet to Matisse possible. We feel that the exhibit will both raise the quality of life and significantly enhance the cultural landscape of our region. And, as a long-standing supporter of the Speed Museum, we are delighted to help the museum celebrate its 75th anniversary."

Founded in 1927 by Hattie Bishop Speed as a memorial to her husband, Louisville businessman James Breckenridge Speed, The Speed Art Museum has over 13,000 pieces in its permanent collection. The collection spans 6,000 years, ranging from ancient to contemporary art. The museum has distinguished collections of 17th century Dutch and Flemish painting; 18th century French art; Renaissance and Baroque tapestries; and significant holdings of contemporary painting and sculpture. African and Native American works also represent a growing segment of the Museum’s collection. "Passport to the Speed," an audio tour of selected works in the permanent collection, is available for a rental fee of $3 at the museum’s Welcome Center.

Established in 1981, The Humana Foundation is the philanthropic arm of Humana Inc. The Humana Foundation is dedicated to improving the health and well being of communities throughout the United States and abroad. The Foundation supports charitable organizations and institutions that promote education, health and human services, community development, and the arts.

Humana Inc., headquartered in Louisville, is one of the nation's largest publicly traded health benefits companies, with approximately 6.5 million medical members located primarily in 18 states and Puerto Rico. Humana offers coordinated health insurance coverage and related services through traditional and Internet based plans to employer groups and government-sponsored plans.

Speed Art Museum Acquires Post-Impressionist Masterpiece

The Speed Art Museum today announced the acquisition of a painting by Post-Impressionist Master, Paul Cézanne (1839-1906) entitled Two Apples on a Table. This landmark purchase for the Speed’s collection is the most important single addition to the collection since Rembrandt’s Portrait of a Woman entered the collection in 1977.

Two Apples on a Table, 1895-1900 Paul CŽzanne (French, 1839 Ð 1906) Oil on canvas

Two Apples on a Table was painted between 1895 and 1900 and shows the artist’s characteristic lively and animated brushwork as well as his striking balance between three-dimensional illusion and two-dimensional decorative structure. In the composition, a plate and two apples are seen on a tabletop. Behind the table is a detail of a painted screen that the artist made for his father around 1860. Cézanne’s subtlety in the analysis of color and tone is richly evident in the bold yellow and orange modeling of the apples and the blue and violet shadows which surround them. The highly ordered, spare composition is a striking example of the artist’s reinvention of pictorial space, which was to have such a strong influence on 20th century masters such as Picasso and Matisse.

Museum Director Peter Morrin commented, "We are thrilled to add this wonderful small masterpiece to the Speed’s collection. It is truly a lasting gift to our community and region. This painting tells a great deal about Cézanne and it enhances our 19^th Century collection in a major way. It will also serve as a valuable teaching tool for students in our region."

The first work by Cézanne to enter the Speed’s collection, the painting is now on view in the museum’s Preview Gallery. The painting was acquired with funds from the Alice Speed Stoll Accessions Trust and with donations from Wayne Perkey and Family, Mrs. W. L. Lyons Brown, Mrs. Harry S. Frazier, Jr., Sandra A. Frazier, Mr. and Mrs. Randall B. Hockensmith, The University Of Louisville Foundation, Inc., Helen Condon Powell, and Mr. and Mrs. Edmund A. Steinbock, Jr.

The Speed is Kentucky’s oldest and largest art museum with collections spanning 6,000 years, with significant works of contemporary art, old masters, modern American, native American, and African art. Since completing a major renovation and expansion in 1997, the Speed has brought major presentations of photography, painting, design and sculpture to the region, such as the world-class traveling exhibition, Rembrandt to Gainsborough: Masterpieces from England’s Dulwich Picture Gallery, which premiered in January of this year.

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