The Spencer’s exhibition “Trees and Other Ramifications” brought together a variety of tree-centered images, including “Programmable Do-Gooders,” an etching, by Valerie Lueth. Click image for larger view.
The Work of Art
A new grant will help redouble the efforts at KU’s Spencer Museum of Art to immerse its collection in teaching and research.
For years, the Spencer has brought together scholars from fields as diverse as economics and physics to help create exhibitions and programs. These interdisciplinary efforts rise from the belief that, especially in an academic museum, art and artifacts shouldn’t sit cloistered in boxes on shelves or hang on a wall mute and disconnected from the present.
“A museum is a place to explore ideas and raise questions. It’s not just a storehouse,” said Spencer Director Saralyn Reece Hardy. “How do we treat our collections responsibly and make them relevant by relating them to current issues? That’s the big question for us now.”
Visit spencerart.ku.edu, and you’ll find information on past, current and upcoming exhibitions. What’s posted there hints at the size of the job of developing and overseeing related programs.
For years, Hardy and the museum’s curators and staff handled this interdisciplinary programming project by project. They saw how much more could be accomplished by a full-time staff member dedicated to the job. So last year, they submitted a proposal to the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for $1.2 million to support a new position: director of academic programs. And they got it.
The first $200,000 covers the new staff member’s salary, benefits, travel funds and program support for two years. The remaining $1 million must be matched by other gifts. The result will be a $2 million endowment that permanently supports the position.
To see examples of recent and ongoing Spencer exhibitions and projects that illustrate this approach, read the full version of this story by downloading a copy of Issue 7 of our magazine, KU Giving.