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The Business of Art
by Robert Baxter, Courier-Post Staff
Courier-Post's South Jersey News, October 1999
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Camden-born Kimberly Camp calls herself "a starter and a fixer." After starting
The Experimental Gallery at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington and opening
the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit, the
43-year-old artist and museum administrator is back in her fixing mode.
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Ten months ago, Camp became executive director and chief executive officer
of the Barnes Foundation in Merion, Pa. Camp took up her demanding new job as
the foundation was still trapped in the lawsuits and community controversies that
erupted four years ago during the world tour of its priceless collection of French
Impressionist paintings.
Camp stepped into a poisonous atmosphere filled with conflicting lawsuits and
counter suits. Even the Barnes Watch, a watchdog group of former students, was
suing the Barnes' board of directors, claiming it broke the founder's restrictive
charter by sending the collection on tour.
At the same time, wealthy neighbors feared their secluded and exclusive community
would be overrun by tour buses and hordes of art lovers when the Barnes reopened
its renovated galleries after the tour.
"I'm a change agent," notes Camp in her sunny office surrounded by art treasures.
Despite the controversies swirling around her, Camp radiates confidence and serenity.
"I've had some very interesting people put opportunities in my lap and encourage
me to run with them. Here at the Barnes Foundation, I'm trying to dispel misconceptions,
heal old wounds and build a different image."
Camp says she wants the foundation to emphasize the educational programs envisioned
by Dr. Albert Barnes, the controversial art collector who created it.
"Albert Barnes assembled this collection as an educational and teaching tool,"
explains Camp. "He saw art as a way to educate people and transform their lives.
"I want the Barnes Foundation to become a think-tank again, a lively place of
discussion about aesthetics, painting and sculpture. Dr. Barnes saw the foundation
as a place where he could break down the walls separating rich and poor, black and
white."
Development director Anthony Ng says under Camp the Barnes Foundation has a new
slogan: "New Leadership, New Relationships and New Beginnings."
"She's writing a new chapter," says Ng. "She's returning the Barnes Foundation to
its original mission, and people are responding to that."
Controversy has swirled around the Barnes Foundation almost from the moment in
1922 when Barnes acquired the 12-acre Wilson Arboretum in Merion and built a
gallery to house his fabulous art collection. Rejected by the Philadelphia art
establishment, Barnes pursued his own unique vision of art and education for the
common man.
At his death in a 1951 automobile accident, Barnes left behind a charter that
put stringent restrictions on how his collection could be viewed and studied. Art
lovers had to make an appointment to see the collection. No reproductions of the
priceless Cezannes and Renoirs could be made.
Four decades later, the fabled collection was endangered by the deteriorating
building that housed the paintings. After a court battle in 1992, the foundation's
board won approval to send part of the collection on a world tour to raise $14 million
to renovate the Barnes Gallery.
When the renovated gallery reopened in 1995, visitors were greeted by pickets
from the Barnes Watch. Neighbors began filing lawsuits against the foundation.
One even counted and photographed visitors to make sure the foundation was not
allowing in more than the 500 people allowed to view the collection each week.
When Camp arrived late last fall, she was greeted with signs put up by neighbors
who claimed she was going to try to increase attendance and jam their narrow
street with parked cars and buses. She stepped into the middle of ongoing and
costly legal battles.
"You know how when you're young." says Camp, "you imagine what your life would be
like if you become a doctor or a lawyer. Well, I'm finding out what a lawyer's
life is like. I spend half my time meeting with lawyers and reading through law
briefs. It's been an education."
Camp is no stranger to controversy. When she opened the African American Museum
in Detroit, she offended both black nationalists and white supremacists by
insisting the museum be multicultural.
"I had death threats and I had body guards," she says calmly. With a smile of
relief, she adds, "I've had no death threats here. "
Camp thinks Barnes' story is ripe for the cinema. She has already approached
a Hollywood filmmaker about a movie project. In her mind she has cast Anthony
Hopkins as Barnes, Glenn Close as his wife, Laura, and Jeremy Irons as Barnes'
friend and educational adviser, John Dewey.
"How could you go wrong with a story like this" she asks. "There's intrigue,
adventure, romance. How could anyone imagine a life like this?
"Barnes is living on the Main Line and hanging out with William James and
John Dewey. Meanwhile, two women are running his factory while he's collecting
fabulous works of art."
Camp's life could also be told in a fascinating film. She grew up in Camden in
a Broadway home filled with art and artists. Her father, dental surgeon Dr. Hubert
Camp, and her mother, Marie, encouraged her interest in the arts.
After Graduating from the University of Pittsburgh, Camp returned to Camden. For
several summers, she directed the Paint Camden Beautiful program, supervising
teams of artists and teens who covered graffiti-splotched walls with colorful
murals.
After earning a master's degree in arts administration from Drexel University,
Camp joined the staff of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts in 1987. Two years
later, she became the founding director of the Smithsonian's Experimental Gallery.
In 1994, she went to Detroit to open the African American Museum.
After the Detroit museum opened, Camp began looking around for a challenging new
assignment. She passed over an offer to launch the planned Gateway Visitors Center
near Independence Hall to accept the position at the Barnes Foundation.
In her prior jobs, Camp demonstrated she has ideas and is willing to fight to
implement them.
"In Detroit, I was called churlish and abrasive," she says. "You've got to have
a tough side or you can't do this kind of work."
In her months at the Barnes, Camp has concentrated on refurbishing the foundation's
infrastructure and healing the wounds caused by years of community conflict.
She has begun a series of "discreet" breakfast meetings with local residents.
"I see a change. It's starting to turn around," says Camp. "Richard Glanton
(the Barnes Foundation's former president) had a no nonsense, in-your-face style
that was somewhat confrontational.
"Add to that a couple of people on the road who are also confrontational and you
have a volatile situation. This is the incendiary situation I'm trying to deal
with."
Camp is busy upgrading the foundation's staff. In addition to Ng, who joined
the staff in February, she has hired a new director of education, Robin Muse
McClea, and also added two new trustees to the Barnes'board.
Ng, the foundation's first director of development, is developing corporate
partnerships and corporate and individual memberships. Major Philadelphia
corporations are already expressing an interest in the foundation.
Why the emphasis on money? "We're broke," laments Camp. "I'm literally looking
for angels to invest in the concepts and ideas in what we want to do here."
Expenses keep mounting. The foundation recently completed a 50-car parking lot.
But an environmental impact study and legal expenses cost as much as the paving.
Camp admits she's constrained by the limits imposed by Barnes' charter. In
Detroit, she shook the money tree and million-dollar grants from corporations
and foundations fell into her lap.
"Corporations are always looking for impact. How can you attract the big grants
when you only allow 500 people a week into your galleries?"
The Barnes Foundation recently won court approval to increase weekly attendance
from 500 to 1,200 and expand its hours to three full days a week from 2 1/2.
"I spend more time telling people why they can't come here," says Camp. "The rules
are so stringent (that) before I came here we even turned away Elton John because he
didn't have a reservation. Name me one nonprofit that wouldn't welcome Elton John
with open arms!"
When Bruce Springsteen asked to come to the Barnes with his wife and children during
his sold-out concert run in Philadelphia, Camp welcomed him with open arms.
If Camp can't bring more people into the galleries, she can take the Barnes out into
the community. She has already embarked on a partnership with West Chester University
and foresees linking up with other arts institutions.
"We may be limited in what we can do to bring people into the galleries, but
there are no restrictions on our educational programs," she says. "I want to take
Barnes' concept and go out into the community. We've got to redefine the way people
see this institution."
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The Barnes Foundation
300 North Latch's Lane
Merion, PA 19066-1729
610.667.0290
info@barnesfoundation.org
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