American Art Initiative
History
In late 2003, the Museum began an 18-month period of self-examination during which we sought to redefine our mission, vision, and values. The core of our newly formed institutional identity centered three things: American Art, art education, and making art have meaning to people in the community. In 2005, in an effort both to clearly articulate our new direction and to maximize our impact, we created the American Art Initiative. In addition to the programmatic elements of the Initiative, major infrastructure enhancements were projected that would enable our facility to support increased programming and an expanded collection. These critical infrastructure changes were made possible by the Initiative’s Capital Campaign of $7.5 million dollars which is just now coming to a successful close.
Description
The American Art Initiative is a programmatically integrated strategy to increase our audiences interest, appreciation, and understanding of America’s historical and contemporary art and a concentrated effort to demonstrate the relevancy and significance of the visual arts to the everyday lives of people all backgrounds, ethnicities, and ages.
Philosophy: The visual arts myriad aspects of our collective cultures, historical experiences, and of the human condition. We believe that the visual arts open our eyes, hearts, and minds to the intersecting dimensions of the worlds we live in and, in doing so, add value and meaning to our lives. This added value and meaning develops from: the broadening of personal perspectives, promoting an increased in empathy, sparking moments of self-discovery, fostering the development of new insights, as well as nurturing our human spirit. We further believe that our Museum has a responsibility to extend the experience of the visual arts to everyone in the community and to all the communities within our region.
Our Current Goals for the American Art Initiative
• Complete our building expansion/renovation and reopen by March of 2010 to offer dramatically increased onsite service through our three new permanent historical galleries, five renovated galleries for changing exhibits, a gallery focusing on regional art, the new Print Study Center, a new, publicly accessible Auer Art Library, the Sculpture Garden, the new Knight Foundation Learning Center, the enhanced Rothschild Atrium, free public WiFi, an expanded Museum Store, the new Lincoln Auditorium, and the Lecture Hall.
• Expand the public’s understanding and appreciation of American Art.
• Increase the size and scope of the Permanent Collection.
• Be a vital and welcoming center for the visual arts in the community.
• Become a statewide art resource and our outreach services in the Northern Indiana region.