Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum

Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum
Established November 1964
Location 258 Main Street, Ridgefield, Connecticut, USA
Type Art museum
Website www.aldrichart.org

The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum is a contemporary art museum located in Ridgefield, Connecticut. The Aldrich has no permanent collection and is the only museum in Connecticut that is dedicated solely to the exhibition of contemporary art. [1]

History

The Aldrich was founded in 1964 by Larry Aldrich (1906–2001) with the purpose of being one of the first truly contemporary art museums in the United States. Using money he raised from selling his own art collection (which included works by Picasso, Miró, Chagall, Paul Klee, and others), Mr. Aldrich bought an eighteenth-century former church and general store known as “Old Hundred” and converted it into the Larry Aldrich Museum. [2]

The Museum, whose original Board of Trustees included Alfred Barr, Joseph Hirshhorn, Philip Johnson, and Vera List, was renamed The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art in 1967. To better focus on its founding mission to exhibit only the very newest art, the Museum's Board voted in 1981 to deaccession the Museum's permanent collection. [2]

Mr. Aldrich stayed active and involved with the Museum until his death in 2001, shortly prior to which The Aldrich's Board of Trustees, with their chairman emeritus in attendance, had voted to proceed with a major renovation and expansion. Groundbreaking took place in April 2003, and the galleries reopened to the public in June 2004 with a new name, The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum. The new building received a design award from the American Institute of Architects (AIA). [3]

Exhibitions

The Aldrich Museum features works by national and international emerging and mid-career artists. Larry Aldrich said in a 1986 interview,"Almost all the well-known American artists you can think of have been seen here at early stages of their careers. Among them Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Frank Stella and Cy Twombly."[2]

Recent notable exhibitions include Velimir Chlebnikov by Anselm Kiefer (2006); 50,000 Beds: A Project by Chris Doyle (2007); No Reservations: Native American History and Culture in Contemporary Art (2007); Cameras by Tom Sachs (2009); Under the Westside Highway by Rackstraw Downes (2010); and the first solo museum exhibition of the work of KAWS in 2010. A full list of past exhibitions can be found here..

In 2011, The Aldrich implemented a new programming strategy of twice-yearly show changes in which solo and group exhibitions are united under common themes that link their content. Recent themed exhibition series include Portraiture and Collaborations (2011) and Found (2012).

Education

The Aldrich Museum has numerous educational programs for adults, teens, children, and families, According to its website, the programs and materials are designed “to help people think in new directions by focusing on the process of looking at and analyzing contemporary art with the hope that these skills translate to the everyday lives of our viewers.”

In 1993, former director Harry Philbrick, while director of education, started The Aldrich Museum’s currently discontinued Student Docent Program. Student Docents from local schools were trained to lead their classmates through the galleries while discussing contemporary art and concepts like structure, content, form, symbolism, abstraction and metaphor. Students also got to see the installation process of the exhibitions on view and meet the artists. In an interview with The New York Times Philbrick said: "It begins to get them to think critically about the process—making the work of art and hanging an exhibition. They know there's a real live human being who makes these things, and can relate what they learn to a work of art." The program was adopted by museums across the United States. [2]

Directors

Notable board members

References

  1. ↑ "The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum Website".
  2. 1 2 3 4 Russell, John (October 30, 2001). "Larry Aldrich, Who Founded Art Museum, Dies at 95". The New York Times.
  3. ↑ "About Harry Philbrick".
  4. ↑ "Ruth Dyer, sculptor, museum official" Acorn, Obituaries from The Ridgefield Press. Retrieved November 7, 2011
  5. ↑ William Zimmer, "In Stamford, a Decorous Annual" The New York Times" (April 14, 1996). Retrieved November 7, 2011

External links

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Coordinates: 41°16′37″N 73°29′48″W / 41.2770°N 73.4968°W / 41.2770; -73.4968

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