Connecting communities to art in Tulsa
he Philbrook Museum of Art in Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA, is a prime example of how philanthropy can spread far and wide, making art and history accessible to broader segments of the population. The ornate, Renaissance-style villa was constructed in 1927 as the family home of wealthy oilman Waite Phillips. Set in 23 acres (nine hectares) of beautifully tended grounds, the 72-room mansion became fi lled with thousands of pieces of art (paintings by Boudin, Corot, Courbet, Daubigny and Vuillard among them) and furniture. Waites lived there with his wife and two children until 1938 – surprising the city of Tulsa by gifting it the entire property (much of the original furniture moved with them to a new penthouse), to be preserved for the future as an art museum for all to enjoy. Today, that mission endures, and the Phil- brook has just expanded (June 2013) into a new modern space in the newly regenerated
T Oilman Waite Phillips gifted his villa to the city of Tulsa – it has since become the Philbrook Museum of Art
Brady Arts District in Tulsa’s downtown. Here, says the museum’s director Rand Suffolk, will be displayed some of the fi nest pieces of Native American art to be found anywhere. The new development will also free up space in the original house for hitherto unseen works to be displayed (an adjacent, newer wing at the Philbrook site is already home to works from major modern artists
such as Picasso and Kandinsky). The mu- seum has taken great strides since Suffolk became director in 2007, with an intention to foster a culture of “growth, inclusivity and collaboration”. On taking over, he carried out an “unscientific survey” in the com- munity which told him that around 98 per cent of people “knew the Philbrook for what it was, not what it did”.
Expanding art and life at Kettle’s Yard
Times newspaper’s roundup of the world’s 50 greatest galleries (May 2013) is a great tes- timony to its benefactor, says the museum’s director Andrew Nairne.
T Jim Ede, a former curator at the Tate
Gallery in London, lived in the house with his wife from 1958 to 1973, during which time he amassed a remarkable art collection (including works by Christopher Wood, Joan Miro, Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth) and hosted a lively open house every Sunday.
www.attractionshandbook.com Kettle’s Yard House Museum is set to be remodelled
In 1966 he gifted the house and its collec- tion to the University of Cambridge, and in 1970 a new exhibition space was added. “Jim never wanted this place to be seen just as a museum. He was very interested in
Julie Cramer has worked as a news editor for BBC News Online for more than 10 years. She now has a successful freelance writing career.
juliecramer@me.com
Attractions Handbook 2013–2014 103
he fact that the modestly sized Kettle’s Yard house museum in Cambridge, UK, was recently voted number 33 in The
how art can change the spaces you live in. He was saying look harder at your world, you should care about mixing art and life together and if you do you’ll live a better life. It’s a pretty ambitious philosophy,” says Nairne. Today, the museum is as Ede curated it, right down to the row of pebbles on a window ledge and the positioning of freshly cut fl ow- ers in the loo. The adjoining exhibition space offers a year-round programme of events.
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