17 May: David Little, Mead Art Museum

posted Jun 23, 2016, 7:01 PM by Amherst Club
Allen Hanson called the meeting to order. Guests included Mike Berins (Tina’s husband), Nina Scott and Erik Nakajima (Jim’s guests). Erik is a prospective member.

Announcements: Barbara Freed reminded everyone of the pot luck supper Wednesday, 25 May, at the Freed’s home (33 Echo Hill, Amherst). She will send directions and a reminder.

Thank you letters for grants were received from two organizations—the Family Center and the Center for New Americans.

Jim Scott introduced David Little, director and chief curator of the Mead Art Museum at Amherst College. David likened his first nine months to a whirlwind with a record 22,000 visitors in the past year, 1500 students using the print study room, and visits from 150 classes. He is very interested in making the resources of the Museum available to students. The Museum has 19,000 objects and only 4,600 square feet of exhibition space. He spoke about his experience in other museums and his interests in collaborative artists’ groups. Millions of visitors enter museums every year (Louvre--8,000,000, Tate Modern--5,000,000; Metropolitan--3,000,000) and a great deal of attention is paid to the visitor experience with enhanced access to collections, better restaurants, and technological interfaces.

At the Mead, we will see more frequent rotations in the galleries, more contemporary art, larger displays of non-European art, and works of art from other institutions. There is a great deal happening and David invited us to visit often.

Elsie Fetterman won the $10 and Barbara Freed the wine in the raffle.

Your temporary scribe, Gigi Barnhill
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