Transcript
The Barnes Foundation
An Introduction
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Dr. Albert C. Barnes
• Born 1872 in Philadelphia• Studied medicine,
chemistry, and pharmacology
• Created Argyrol in 1902, bought out company in 1908
• Started collecting art in 1910
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The Barnes Galleries
Indenture of Trust
• First established in 1922
• Edited several times before Barnes’ sudden death in 1951
• This charitable trust was to be maintained in perpetuity after Barnes’ death
Early Litigation & The Barnes
• In 1960, a judge ruled that the Barnes Foundation could be open to the public:– 200 hundred visitors per day for two days
per week– Revocation of tax status threatened
• Through 1960s and 1970s, the Foundation was run mostly according to the slightly amended Indenture of Trust
“Current” Controversy
• Early 1990s - worldwide exhibition of paintings
• Early 2000s - Foundation has used up the $6 million operating fund and exhibit funds
• 2004 - Montgomery County Orphans’ Court rules that the Barnes move to the Parkway
• 2009 - Architectural plan published, construction started on new building
In Favor of the Move
Barnes Foundation
The Reason
The move preserves, in the most sustainable sense, the goals that Dr. Barnes had in mind when he created the
Foundation in 1922 - to educate ordinary, working-
class people.
Barnes’ Own Words“It will be incumbent upon the Board of
Trustees to make such regulations as will ensure that it is the plain people,
that is, men and women who gain their livelihood by daily toil in shops,
factories, schools, stores and similar places, who shall have free access to the art gallery upon those days when
the gallery is open to the public.”Section 31, Indenture of Trust
Location, Location, Location
• 300 North Latches Lane, Merion, PA
Location, Location, Location
$17
+ $4
+ 1 mile walk
= $21 (and 1 mile/person)
$17
+ $15
= $32 (and a car)Driving a Car
Public Transportation from 30th Street Station
On the Parkway
Barnes Foundation
On the Parkway
Barnes Foundation
George Widman/AP
On the Parkway
• New 93,000 square foot building includes:– a classroom space on each floor– a garden area where one can take a
break from the galleries– a lecture hall– a café and museum store
Fulfilling the Mission
“Bringing the Barnes Foundation’s art collection to a new home on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway will fulfill Dr. Barnes’s educational
mission in crucial ways appropriate to the 21st century.”
Derek GillmanExecutive Director and President of the Barnes
Foundation
Fulfilling the Mission
“It may… hereafter appear that some one or more of the
trusts, conditions and stipulations… are improper or impracticable and should be
modified.”Section 32, Indenture of Trust
What did Barnes want?
The Final Words
“ ‘An art gallery for the education of the public,’ and ‘the education of the masses in art, etc.’… That, of course,
is the purpose of the Foundation after I am gone… I want to prepare
the way for the gallery to be a public one after my death.”
Albert C. Barnes to Owen J. Roberts, 1923
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