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Tired of Fighting: A new director is trying to turn around the embattled Barnes Foundation
December 8, 1999
by Jeffrey Kastner, Art News Staff
MERION, PA-When Kimberly Camp was appointed director of the Barnes Foundation late last
fall, the event capped one of the most volatile years in the institution's 77-year history.
First, Camp's controversial predecessor, Richard H. Glanton, lost his post in a boardroom
battle related to litigation the Philadelphia-area foundation was mired in. Then,
Lincoln University, a historically black college that controls four out of five of the
seats on the foundation's board, ran into troubles of its own. After a Pennsylvania
state audit revealed spending irregularities at the university, Lincoln president
and Barnes trustee Niara Sudarkasa-who had been a principle force behind Glanton's
departure-handed in her own resignation. Now Camp is attempting to turn the embattled
institution around.
The first task of the 42-year-old Camp, who was formerly director of the Charles H.
Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit, has been to address the Barnes's
finances. The foundation, which houses one of the world's finest and most valuable
collections of French Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings, is now facing
charges from Glanton, who remains a trustee, that the interim administrator, Earle L.
Bradford, Jr., spent down the endowment from $11 million to $7 million over the course
of last year. While Camp disputes these claims, she does acknowledge the foundation's
fiscal problems. "The operations of the foundation have eaten away at the funds," she
says. "The endowment simply did not grow as it should have."
Established in 1922 by Albert Barnes, a pharmaceuticals magnate, the foundation has
more than 800 paintings now estimated to be worth as much as $2 billion. Among its
works are 180 Renoirs, 69 Cezannes, and 60 Matisses, as well as numerous Old Masters
and a range of African artworks. Yet the institution has long struggled to generate
income under the strict conditions placed on it by its founder. Originally accessible
by appointment only, beginning in 1946 the foundation began opening one day a week.
In 1961, the state successfully sued to increase access to 2.5 days a week but the
number of visitors remained strictly limited to 500 a week. Barnes also stipulated
that works were to remain hung in the exact floor-to-ceiling arrangement he had chosen
and were never to be deaccessioned or put on loan.
Under Glanton, the foundation attempted to loosen some of the rules of its charter
but ran into continual controversy-often in court. A 1991 plan for deaccessing
works was withdrawn after fierce criticism from both Barnes trustees and the general
public. Then, in 1992, a court allowed the Barnes to finance an ambitious renovation
by mounting an exhibition of highlights from its collection, which traveled to major
museums worldwide from 1993 to 1995. Considered a success at the time, the show raised
over $17 million. But when the renovated building drew more visitor traffic, Merion
officials began issuing citations for zoning violations. The foundation countered by
suing the township commissioners and individual neighbors, claiming their actions
against the largely African American-run Barnes were racially motivated.
The commissioners sued back, saying they had been defamed.
The long legal standoff, along with several other proceedings involving the foundation
in the mid-1990s, ate up some $2 million of the institution's endowment, according to
press reports. Now, the foundation has initiated an audit of its financial records from
1992 to 1997. (The audit is being conducted by Deloitte & Touche; Debo Adegbile, a lawyer
with Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison in New York, who represents the Barnes,
confirmed that the audit was ongoing, but declined comment on its status.)
There are signs that some of the wrangling is coming to an end. Settlement has been
reached with the township, and the zoning board has approved an increase in the foundation's
opening hours to three days a week. It has also expanded the number of visitors it can
admit, to 1,200 a week. Moreover, the court overseeing the Barnes's charter has ruled
that the foundation may hold fund-raising events on its premises, something explicitly
barred by Barnes. Camp sees the changes as steps toward financial stability and the
beginning of a less-fraught phase in the institution's history. "I think folks get
tired of fighting each other," she says.
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