The Westmoreland Museum of American Art is just getting started with a new art collection sharing partnership that will bring treasures from the Philadelphia Museum of Art to museums across Pennsylvania.
Anne Kraybill, The Westmoreland’s Richard M. Scaife Director and CEO, plans to travel with museum curator Barbara Jones on Monday to Harrisburg, where the Art Bridges and Terra Foundation Initiative will be announced.
“It allows us to bring these world-class art works to our public in southwestern Pennsylvania where we may not be able to afford the insurance, shipping fees, etc.,” Kraybill says.
Art Bridges also provides additional programming support, with funding for a recent Art on Tap performance by The 1491s and upcoming events with “The Sioux Chef” founder Sean Sherman, she adds.
“That’s huge for us. We could never have brought Sean Sherman here without that support,” Kraybill says.
In addition to Greensburg, the initiative will reach communities in Allentown, Lancaster, Erie, Doylestown, State College, Reading and Carlisle.
The grant from Art Bridges and the Terra Foundation for American Art will expand access to American art through loans, exhibitions, staff training and public engagement, according to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
On its website, Art Bridges founder Alice Walton emphasizes making “outstanding artworks” available to everyone, rather than in “museum vaults and private collections.”
Each of the first loans from the Philadelphia Museum of Art will be followed by further exhibition and program development over time, the facility states.
The Westmoreland’s first focus exhibition to include loans from the partnership is “The Outsider’s Gaze,” Kraybill says, an accompanying exhibition to “Mingled Visions.”
On loan from the Philadelphia Museum of Art are “Penn’s Treaty with the Indians” by Edward Hicks and “Indian Encampment” by Ralph Blakelock.
On loan from the Erie Art Museum is “Taos Family, N.D.,” by Joseph Sharp.
Additional exhibition phases are expected, including a “very large scale,” 25-piece loan from the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 2021-22, Kraybill says.
Each exhibit featuring shared works among the consortium will have at least a three-month window for viewing, she adds.
“We are active loan partners,” Kraybill says of the museum’s participation in the program. “We will certainly loan through this partnership specifically.”
