#andrewforge

What a fantastic year of exhibitions and programs it has been - thank you all for being a part of it! I am delighted to share with you a brief recap of our successes - we presented six exhibitions, together with 74 in-person and virtual programs! We had over 8000 in person visitors, and over 60,000 digital engagements with our virtual tours, lectures and other programs. One reason this number is so high is that almost 30,000 people have watched the beautiful video tour we created for the Norma Minkowitz exhibition this past winter. Did you see it? If not, you should check it out.

I have just returned from the Association of Academic Museums and Galleries annual conference and am full of ideas for how to make our museum even stronger! It is always so inspiring to hear what our colleagues in the field of academic art museum are doing at their institutions all over the country. Michelle DiMarzo and I were both able to present some of the innovative and exciting work that we are doing at our museum as well. Michelle lead a round table discussion about student-curated exhibitions, sharing the two that we presented to you this past year, and the one we have coming up in fall 2024 (focusing on Old Master prints). I lead a group discussion about virtual programming, and shared our commitment to continuing to providing this service to our communities, where I was able to boast about our remarkable virtual engagement numbers!

This summer at the Museum we are all very busy getting ready for our major fall exhibition, In Real Times: Arthur Szyk: Artist and Soldier for Human Rights. Please take a look at our Eventbrite site, and register for the events that interest you, because some of them may sell out. We have people joining us from all over the country to attend this exhibition, the symposium, and some of the other programs. As always, we will livestream and record as much as we can, but events like gallery tours are limited to small groups and are in person only. We are the exclusive venue for this exhibition in the northeast, and are very excited to be able to share Szyk's remarkable and important artwork with our community. We look forward to welcoming you to the exhibition opening on September 28th, please sign up now for Philip Eliasoph's opening night lecture and for the opening reception.

We continue to work hard to build our collection through donations, and I would like to share the wonderful news of a recent gift to the Museum by a generous Fairfield alum. Patrick J. Waide, class of '59, had previously lent a collection of works from his collection, by artist Andrew Forge, to an exhibition that the museum presented in the Bellarmine Hall Galleries in fall 2020. Very few of you had the opportunity to see this beautiful and important exhibition because the campus was closed to outside visitors, due to Covid-19, during this time. Happily, these works have all now been gifted to the Museum, to be part of our permanent collection. We look forward to sharing them with you again in the galleries someday soon, but in the meantime please visit the exhibition webpage linked above.

Wishing you all an art-filled, relaxing, and restorative summer. Looking forward to seeing you in September! Carey

Dear friends,   I hope this note finds you and your families all well - we’ve missed seeing you in the galleries over the last six months! The health and safety of our students, faculty, staff, and community is our priority as the University moves forward with operations during the Covid-19 pandemic. As the Fairfield University campus is closed to outside visitors this fall, we regret to announce that the museum will also be closed to the public for the foreseeable future. We do, however, look forward to presenting you with a full slate of programming created in celebration of our 10th anniversary.

We were very busy over the summer putting the finishing touches on our fall calendar, but we’d like to know if what we’re doing is working for you! Let us know what kind of online content you have most enjoyed, and what you are interested in seeing more of, by filling out our 2-minute programming survey.

Two wonderful exhibitions will open virtually in September, along with a calendar full of lectures, gallery talks, and events designed to enhance the experience.

The exhibition Ruby Sky Stiler: Group Relief features new relief paintings and figurative furniture-sculpture by New York artist Ruby Sky Stiler (b. 1979). Stiler has been investigating images of women inspired by the techniques and language of classical antiquity for over a decade. Recently, Stiler’s art has expanded to include the subject of “father and child.” The dearth of art historical precedent for depictions of men displaying emotional intimacy, or being defined by their relationship to their children, is in stark contrast to the abundant impressions of “mother and child.”

Curated by Ian Berry, Dayton Director of the Tang Teaching Museum at Skidmore College, this exhibition will also include contemporary interpretations of the traditional museum “viewing bench” as a form of utilitarian sculpture. The exhibition will open with a virtual conversation between Stiler and Berry on September 10th.

Among the works featured in the exhibition is a recent acquisition by the museum (pictured below), made possible by donations to our art acquisitions fund and the support of members of our 2010 Society. 

Andrew Forge: Limits of Sight is organized by scholar and guest curator Karen Wilkin, and features some 20 paintings and works on paper by British artist Andrew Forge (1923-2002). Forge was a painter and art critic, as well as the dean and professor of the Yale University School of Art from 1975-1994. His highly personal abstractions distill his perceptions of place, season, and time of day into subtle orchestrations of pure color. Lenders to the exhibition include numerous private collections, the artist’s widow Ruth Miller, and the collections of the Yale University Art Gallery and the Yale Center for British Art.

As President of the CT Art Trail, I would also like to draw your attention to an exciting exhibition at the Wadsworth Atheneum opening on October 15th, Made in CT: Celebrating 25 Years of The Connecticut Art Trail, to which FUAM is lending artworks. The Art Trail—one of the first tourism trails in the state—has been guiding art aficionados across Connecticut on a journey that includes 22 world-class museums and historic sites for 25 years. In celebration of this milestone anniversary, Made in Connecticut brings together works of art and objects from the collections of each of the Art Trail member institutions.

Curated by James Prosek, American artist, writer, naturalist, and Artist-in-Residence at the Yale University Art Gallery, the exhibition features paintings, drawings, prints and other works of art, alongside a number of decorative and industrial art objects including a rubber desk, an early typewriter, and a selection of historic buttons.

We spent time this summer creating “art kits”! We distributed over 500 to students at Bridgeport’s Turnaround Art Schools, CIRI (CT Institute for Refugees and Immigrants), Mercy Learning Center, and St. Thomas Aquinas School in Fairfield. This fall, we’ll be creating new kits on a monthly basis to accompany our virtual field trip program, as well as our new virtual Family Days, so please check the Eventbrite listings to sign up and join the fun!

I hope you’ll join us in the months ahead to experience our fall exhibitions through our virtual tours and programming, and perhaps to participate in one of our virtual Family Days, Art in Focus programs, or meditation sessions. (Please register at Eventbrite). Thank you for your continued support of the Fairfield University Art Museum. I look forward to seeing you in one of our upcoming virtual programs, and I eagerly await the day when we can be together again in person.

With warm regards, Carey