1999
by Chad G. Glover, Tribune Staff
The Barnes Foundation. The art education center in Lower Merion Township, has received a
facelift with the appointment of two new trustee members. Dr. Bernard Watson and Dr. Jeff
Donaldson, both with well deserved reputations in education, philanthropy and fine arts.
The makeover came in the wake of a string of problems.
Dr. Bernard Watson |
A lawsuit fought the construction of a parking lot at one of the world's greatest private
collections of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist and early French modern art.
The Foundation has suffered through problems with its neighbors, township officials and
former Barnes art education students. There were also allegations of racism.
Dr. Jeff Donaldson |
But with the board appointments last week of Dr. Watson and Dr. Donaldson. As well as of an
executive director in the last year, many hope the Foundation will again turn its attention
to the reason it was created in 1922 - art education.
"It's a major coup for us." Said Executive Director Kimberly Camp. "It really is just
another piece that needed to happen for us to continue to build the presence of Barnes in
the field of education."
Dr. Watson and Dr. Donaldson were named as replacements for controversial lawyer Richard
Glanton and his ally-turned-nemesis Niara Sudarkasa, former president of Lincoln University.
The university appoints four of the five members of the Barnes board.
Dr. Watson is a Philadelphia legend. Currently a vice chairman of the Pennsylvania
Convention Center, Watson served as a presidential scholar at Temple University and was
the first Black named as president of the William Penn Foundation.
His academic background is convincing. He was a public school teacher in Indiana, deputy
superintendent of the Philadelphia School District, professor of urban studies and later,
academic vice president at Temple University.
Dr. Donaldson's credentials are equally impressive. Donaldson describes himself as an
art historian, critic, artist and art educator, but not necessarily in that order.
Most recently he served as the dean of the College of Fine Arts at Howard University
in Washington. Others have credited him with being instrumental with blending art and
activism through the organization, AfriCobra.
He is to the visual arts in the '60s what Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker were
to jazz in the '40s and '50s," said Dr. E. Ethelbert Miller, director of Howard University's
African American Resource Center.
"Jeff is nationally recognized." Said Camp of Donaldson. "He is a seasoned art
professional who has trained three generations of emerging Black artists."
Of the two new board members, Camp commented, "Watson brings a wealth of information
to the table, from regional politics to contemporary education. And Jeff brings a wealth
of connections and resources with [him] from the African-American arts community.
The pair arrive on the board of the Barnes at the tail end of a time marked by
political infighting and lawsuits.
The Barnes Foundation, however, was mired in controversy from its inception. It was
created by Dr. Albert Barnes in 1922 "to promote the advancement of education and the
appreciation of art."
To Philadelphia high-society, it was a blue blood collection in the hands of a
blue-collar buyer.
Stories abound of Barnes banning people from the Philadelphia Museum of Art
from seeing his collection, which is located just a quarter mile off City Line Avenue.
It is a credit to the collection that those museum officials then donned disguises and
tried repeatedly to sneak in.
Other tales describe how Barnes dealt with his snobby neighbors. He simply bought
their homes and allowed his friends to move in.
Sudarkasa entered the picture in 1988, when Lincoln University began its full
stewardship of the Foundation as was specified in Barnes's will , which was written in 1950.
Two years later, Glanton was appointed to the Barnes Board of Trustees and elected its
president.
After that, Glanton was alternately praised and vilified for his handling of the
estate.
Among Glanton's most controversial actions was allowing part of the 2,500-piece
collection to go on a three-year world tour.
The tour was opposed by the county court which oversees the estate and many Barnes
insiders who said it was a violation of the Barnes Charter, a list of guidelines for the
handling of the collection as specified by Barnes.
"All the things the tour did was bring about all the things that Barnes didn't agree
with," former Foundation art student Nick Tinari said in 1995 shortly after the world tour.
The tour, however, raised $16 million, which was desperately needed, and exposed
the collection to 5 million people, including 477,000 in Philadelphia.
Most of that money would be used to update the facilities that house the collection,
which had not been renovated since Barnes's death in August 1951.
The security system was woeful, and the climate control was not up to the precision
required to safeguard a valuable art collection, thus placing the entire collection in jeopardy.
Barnes officials had to go to court to seek permission to build a larger parking
lot and battled to have a gala on the lawn of the Foundation when it was reopened
following $12 million in renovations in November 1995. Glanton refused to comment on
his removal from the board but Camp has this to say.
"Glanton is a tough fighter," she said of his contentious relationship with the
community and township officials. "If it wasn't for him, the Barnes would have closed
years ago. But tough fighters also make enemies. Maybe he could have been more attentive.
Maybe he could have listened to the neighbors a bit more. Maybe not. Hindsight is 20/20."
The foundation sits just outside of Philadelphia amid quiet suburban homes ranging
from modest to mildly ostentatious.
Inside, its collection occupies every inch of the valuable space. It is exactly as
Dr. Barnes left it after dying in a car crash in 1951. Until 1988, even the dust was original.
Reniors and Cezannes abut Amish trunks and folk art, which sit beneath barn hinges from
the turn of the century. Some of the pieces appear to be no more than knickknacks and are
oddly displayed.
But in a strange disjointed way, even to the untrained eye, a semblance of
symmetry emerges from the clutter.
Including furniture and sculpture, the collection contains 2,500 pieces.
There is an extensive collection of African masks, 1,100 paintings and scores of grandfather
clocks that chime on the hour, kind of in unison. In all, the collection is valued at more
than $4 billion. Some say it is worth much more.
For perspective, a Renoir not held by the collection fetched $78 million almost
10 years ago.
The Barnes owns 180 Renoirs in addition to 69 Cezannes, and 60 Matisses, as well as
the works of Pippin, Picasso, Modigliani, Rousseau, Monet, Manet and Van Gogh.
But amid the headline grabbing controversy, Camp said something essential had been
lost. Barnes is more than a collection of paintings, she said. It is a school.
"All of those battles were about more than the Foundation," said Camp.
"They were about personality clashes and ego issues.
"People ask me if we still teach," she continued, "Yes, we do. That just
tells us how much work we still have to do."
The Foundation's program costs just $500, and exposes students to what many
describe as one of the most unique art experiences in the country.
"How do we shift priorities so that the education programs receive more of an
audience," Camp asked.
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300 North Latch's Lane
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