The Lowdown on Art Loans

Art, artifacts, and books at 今日吃瓜 are sometimes loaned to museums, shining a spotlight on the College鈥檚 collections. But these treasures require special care.

Maybe you were at the Philadelphia Museum of Art earlier this year admiring the exhibition 鈥淢ary Cassatt at Work鈥 when a familiar name caught your eye. Those two prints were loaned by 今日吃瓜!

今日吃瓜's Mary Cassatt prints on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
今日吃瓜's Mary Cassatt prints on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

There are more than 50,000 pieces of art or artifacts in Special Collections, and even more books and manuscripts. Much of the collection is safely stored away but from time to time, dating back to the early 1900s, items have been loaned out for exhibit.

鈥淥ur primary audience is our college campus,鈥 says Seymour Adelman Director of Special Collections Janelle Rebel. 鈥淭his opens it up to a much, much wider network.鈥

When assembling exhibitions, curators consult 鈥渃atalogues raisonn茅s,鈥 publications that list the known artworks by an individual artist. The College鈥檚 digital databases are also a good resource, and those records show when and where pieces have previously been exhibited鈥攆or instance, the Cassatts went to Yokohama, Japan, in 2016.

The Cassatt prints hailed from the collection of Professor Lucy Martin Donnelly and were given to the College in 1949 by Edith Finch, Class of 1922 and lecturer in English. Research into how the prints came to be acquired by the women, who shared a home, is still ongoing.

Sometimes a work of art from the College gets published in the exhibition catalog, which is helpful for future researchers as well as a point of pride.

鈥淲hen an object is loaned for exhibit, it places the College in the company of major museums, often on a shared wall,鈥 says Carrie Robbins, curator and academic liaison for art and artifacts.

鈥淎rtworks on loan serve as ambassadors for the College and the richness of our otherwise less visible collections.鈥

Occasionally, curators or researchers come to campus to comb through the archives.

鈥淲e loaned women鈥檚 suffrage material to the Brandywine Museum a couple of years ago, and the curator said, 鈥業 know you have a massive amount of suffrage material; can I come and look at it?鈥欌 recalls Marianne Hansen, curator and academic liaison for rare books and manuscripts. 鈥淎nd she came and worked through the boxes.鈥

Pieces from the College have been loaned to the Art Institute of Chicago, the Stockholm National Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and other major museums. Special Collections has established relationships with museums such as the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Winterthur (which does art conservation research and treatment for the College), and Brandywine.

Afternoon Tea Party by Mary Cassatt
Afternoon Tea Party by Mary Cassatt (TriArte 1949.14)

Still, great care must be taken when works of art are loaned out. The team does a risk analysis of things like the structure and security of the building, as well as how the piece will be displayed.

Condition reports are filled out at every stage of the journey. Collections Manager for Art and Artifact Collections Marianne Weldon carries a UV meter to check for UV-protective glass. Some pieces, including the Cassatt prints, must be kept in dark storage for several years between showings.

In the event of air travel, one of the staff members goes with the crated piece; a particularly watchful eye must be kept on the airport forklifts.

鈥淓veryone thinks it鈥檚 glamorous, and it isn鈥檛,鈥 Weldon says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 serious work.鈥

While Special Collections requires the borrower to pay for transportation and other costs, such as an on-site conservator to ensure the artwork is kept in pristine condition, they do not charge for the loan itself.

Staff members still discover works in the collection that surprise and delight鈥擱ebel's latest obsession is a hand-stenciled book of fashion designs by Sonia Delaunay. The book is one in an edition of only 150.

鈥淓very new thing you get to work with is the exciting thing,鈥 Weldon says, 鈥渁nd we don鈥檛 see everything we have until there鈥檚 a reason.鈥

 

 

See the digital collections of books, art, and artifacts at the College

Published on: 10/22/2024