Displaying items by tag: delaware art museum

Early in 1903, illustrator Howard Pyle (1853-1911) began work on a set of nine wall-sized panels for the drawing room of his home at 907 Delaware Avenue in Wilmington, Delaware. The Museum announced that all nine panels are now on view in their entirety for the first time in 75 years. They have been semi-permanently installed in the Museum’s second floor Vinton Illustration Galleries.

While two of the panels were on view during the Howard Pyle retrospective exhibition in 2011-2012, which celebrated the Museum’s 100th anniversary, the complete set has recently undergone conservation work.

The Delaware Art Museum unveiled its renovated and reinstalled 18th- and 19th-century American Art galleries—Galleries 1, 2, and 3—to the public. Just in time for the holiday season, the beautifully redesigned space displays over 50 works of art, including many permanent collection objects that have not been on view for over 10 years. As part of this reinstallation, the galleries highlight 150 years of portraiture, sculpture, landscape painting, still life, and history painting.

“I am excited to be able to present our regional history within the context of the dynamic national art scene,” explains Heather Campbell Coyle, Curator of American Art at the Delaware Art Museum. “The product of more than two years of research and planning, the redesigned space gives us the opportunity to showcase the Museum’s outstanding collection of American art to the local community, visitors, and school groups in new and exciting ways.”

When Delaware Art Museum leaders announced in 2001 an ambitious plan to nearly double the size of the institution's Kentmere Parkway location, they likely had no clue the project would threaten to bankrupt the institution – twice.

In the end, the $32.5 million expansion plagued by cost overruns and construction delays saddled the museum with a crushing debt, which severely depleted its investment reserve fund and discouraged corporate and individual donations.

If the Delaware Art Museum has a signature painting, surely it is Howard Pyle’s “Marooned.” A native of this city, Pyle is justly remembered as the father of American illustration. His “Marooned” (1909) is an image of genuine drama and distress. It shows a pirate near death, curled up on a sand bar, a tiny figure enveloped by a burning yellow sky.

The painting refers to the old custom of punishing insubordinates by shoving them off a ship and onto an island. But these days, you can also view “Marooned” as a curiously precise description of the Delaware Art Museum. 

Citing a sluggish art market, Delaware Art Museum leaders now expect to raise only $19.8 million by selling three works of art.

That amount is enough to retire the museum's construction debt from a 2005 facilities expansion. But it's not enough to replenish the museum's endowment, or reserve fund, which helps a nonprofit institution weather economic downturns.

Facing an October deadline from creditors, the museum board voted last spring to sell up to four artworks in its 12,500-piece collection to raise $30 million to repay the construction debt and replenish the endowment, which had been depleted for years to cover operational expenses. After exhausting fundraising efforts, officials said the museum was in danger of shutting down.

The Assn. of Art Museum Directors sanctioned the Delaware Art Museum on Wednesday for selling its 1868 William Holman Hunt painting “Isabella and the Pot of Basil” this week to help make debt payments and build its endowment.

The painting, part of the museum’s permanent collection, sold for $4.25 million at Christie's, an incident that left the museum directors association “deeply troubled and saddened.”

“Art museums collect works of art for the benefit of present and future generations,” read the statement from the AAMD, which has long said artworks should be deaccessioned only to generate funds to acquire other works of art and to enhance a collection. “Responsible stewardship of a museum’s collection and the conservation, exhibition, and study of these works are the heart of a museum’s commitment to its community and to the public.”

Alexander Calder's prominent "Black Crescent" mobile has been removed from the Delaware Art Museum's East Court and its collections database, making it potentially the third work the museum will sell by October.

Museum CEO Mike Miller would not confirm whether the mobile by the late sculptor, purchased by the museum in 1961, will be sold. The Wilmington museum is trying to raise $30 million to repay construction debt from a 2005 facilities expansion and replenish its endowment.

The Delaware Art Museum will auction off one of its iconic Pre-Raphaelite paintings, "Isabella and the Pot of Basil" at Christie's in London next month, museum officials announced Tuesday. The William Holman Hunt oil painting, purchased by the museum in 1947, is one of as many as four works the museum will sell over the next several months to pay off construction debt and replenish its endowment. The Delaware museum boasts the most significant collection of Pre-Raphaelite works outside of the United Kingdom.

Museum officials have declined to release the names of the other works, explaining that it could hurt the market for private sales. They have promised not to sell any works acquired through gift or bequest. Winslow Homer's "Milking Time," one of the museum's most treasured works purchased in 1967, disappeared from its wall and collections database last month. Museum officials won't confirm that it is scheduled to be sold.

The Delaware Art Museum in Wilmington is trying to track down a group of visitors who recently vandalized a number of the institution’s works with stickers. The stickers, which feature some religious script and imagery, were placed on a number of Pre-Raphaelite paintings and an outdoor statue. Other stickers with a large red “T” were also placed on the paintings.

The vandals were captured on the museum’s security cameras, but attempted to hide their identities. The stickers have been successfully removed by a painting conservator, but the amount of damage done to the collection is unknown. The Delaware Art Museum has one of the most celebrated collections of Pre-Raphaelite art outside of Britain.

In March, the Delaware Art Museum announced that it would deaccession four works from its collection to pay off its $19.8 million bond debt and replenish its endowment. The institution has not specified which works it plans to sell.  

The Delaware Art Museum in Wilmington announced on Wednesday that it had decided to sell up to four works from its collection, to save the museum from closing. The institution found itself in grave bond debt following an expansion and renovation in 2005. The museum did not specify which works it plans to sell, but said that it expected to bring in $30 million from the sale, which is enough to pay off the institution’s $19.8 million bond debt and renew its endowment.

The Delaware Art Museum’s Chief Executive Officer, Mike Miller, released an official statement saying, “After detailed analysis, heavy scrutiny and the exhaustion of every reasonable alternative to relieve our bond debt, the Trustees had two agonizing choices in front of them — to either sell works of art, or to close our doors. While today’s decision is certainly hard to bear, the closure of this 100-year-old museum would be, by comparison, unbearable.”

Miller went on to explain that repayment terms for tax-exempt bonds issues in 2003 for the expansion of the institution’s historic Kentmere Park building became accelerated due to restrictive banking regulations, causing the museum to default on performance covenants. At the same time, the museum’s endowment dwindled as a result of stock market performance, forcing the Trustees to make significant budget cuts, including staff layoffs and funding cuts for exhibitions.

The Delaware Art Museum, which focuses on American art of the 19th through the 21st centuries and English Pre-Raphaelite art of the mid-19th century, expects the sale to be finalized in the next six months.