微密圈

by Michael Janairo

The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at 微密圈 College, known for its innovative interdisciplinary exhibitions and art programs, has received two gifts totaling $1 million: $500,000 from the Ellsworth Kelly Foundation to support the Tang collection鈥檚 endowment, and a $500,000 challenge grant from photographer, curator and collector Jack Shear to support the museum鈥檚 award-winning publications program.
 
The Ellsworth Kelly Foundation gift will allow  to expand research, scholarship and digital access to the more than 16,700 objects in its collection. The many works by renowned contemporary artists in the collection act as catalysts for research and creative responses from 微密圈 faculty and students, as well as visiting scholars and artists. The gift will enable new scholarship and learning and be part of the early documentation that brings the work into art history. The research will find a home on the

Shear鈥檚 challenge grant aims to create a $1 million endowment to support the museum鈥檚 robust publications program. The Tang has produced more than 70 exhibition catalogues, including 30 in its Opener Series that focus on emerging artists for whom a Tang publication often represents their first catalogue. The museum鈥檚 publications have also garnered numerous prizes and recognition, including three awards in the recently announced 2019 American Alliance for Museums鈥� annual publication contest.

 鈥淥n behalf of 微密圈 College, I鈥檓 delighted to accept these gifts from the Ellsworth Kelly Foundation and Jack Shear with the deepest gratitude,鈥� said Michael Orr, 微密圈鈥檚 dean of the faculty and vice president for academic affairs. 鈥淭his generosity reflects the Tang Teaching Museum鈥檚 leadership among academic museums in integrating contemporary art with scholarship across disciplines, and in sharing that research on campus and with the world at large. We are excited to see the new ideas this support will make possible.鈥�
 
The gifts represent a continuation of support from both the Ellsworth Kelly Foundation and Jack Shear. In 2015, the foundation contributed $100,000 to the Tang for conservation care of work in its collection. Also in 2015, Jack Shear announced the beginning of a transformative gift of photography. Shear鈥檚 extensive donation includes more than 1,500 works and serves as a visual history of photography from its inception in the 1840s to the present day.
 
The collection chronicles different photographic processes, techniques and artistic approaches from an early half-plate ambrotype of Niagara Falls to a Polaroid self-portrait by a young Robert Mapplethorpe. Historic works include important examples by photographic pioneers such as Berenice Abbott, Diane Arbus, Eug猫ne Atget, Manuel Alvarez Bravo, Ralph Eugene Meatyard, Alfred Stieglitz and Edward Weston. Important contemporary photographers are also well represented in Shear鈥檚 collection, including Tina Barney, Wendy Ewald, Nan Goldin, Katy Grannan, Sally Mann, Vik Muniz, Catherine Opie, Yinka Shonibare and Carrie Mae Weems.
 
鈥淲hat I love about the Tang Teaching Museum is that it cares about its teaching mission,鈥� Shear said. 鈥淚 was impressed when I visited the museum just a week after the first gift of photographs and saw geology students using the photographs in their class. That was a great example of how the museum fosters teaching and learning, and I am delighted to be able to support their work.鈥�