 "Photo: McMullen museum website")
Just a few years before Edvard Munch's paintings such as The Scream were the subject of world renowned art heists, his masterpieces were quietly displayed in our own internationally acclaimed McMullen Museum of Art. From Munch to 18th century fans to Caravaggio, Boston College's museum has boasted exhibitions so prestigious that even the best art thief would feel guilty disrupting its honor.
The McMullen is just finishing its 10th anniversary season. The Fernand Khnopff exhibit Inner Visions and Landscapes, which opens Sept. 20, marks 10 years of world class art displayed right in the middle of campus.
Museum's beginnings
The arts at Boston College have improved dramatically over the past decade or so, with the McMullen at the heart of this expansion. Former Dean of Arts and Sciences Rev. J Robert Barth, SJ, remembered, "When I became dean in 1988, we had no music department, we had no theater department, the art department was a small departmental gallery up on the Newton campus. So, one of my first priorities was to establish an arts program."
Devlin Hall, the then former chemistry building, was renovated to house the fine arts department and the two-story museum. The placement of the museum and its design was an important step in creating the arts program at BC.
"What we wanted was a real museum, close to the heart of campus. We gutted the whole building and then completely redesigned it," Barth recalled.
Barth remembers working with the architect, Royston Daley, on the space. "I told Daley that I wanted an interior stairway within the museum, and I still remember working with him on that. If you look at the stairway, you will see that there is a slight curve in the design. I remember him sketching it out ... he did it straight, and he said now, 'watch what I do,' and he sketched a curve, and it made a dramatic difference and was so unique." In addition to the stairway, the walls inside the museum are flexible and moveable, to allow for interesting exhibition displays. Even down to the design of the space, the McMullen is art.
Museum & Education
"We wanted a museum so it could be part of our student's education; so that they could see art being done before their eyes," said Chancellor and former University President J. Donald Monan, SJ.
Monan believes the McMullen's most important function is education. "The museum plays several roles, the most important of which is to make the educative values of the Fine Arts more accessible," he said. "Not only to our university, but to the community as well. We have had 50 to 60,000 people who come to see the quality of art, many from off campus. The museum is an educational resource to the community as a whole."
Barth, Monan, and their colleagues succeeded at what they set out to do, and today the arts at BC have become an integral part of the educational program. The McMullen stands at the heart of this improvement, as a unique tool utilized by the school and the community.
"The museum was one of the means to highlight the importance of the arts in the Jesuit tradition," Barth said. "The arts are teaching tools, they reach people on a different level, beyond the intellectual. It reaches them in their heart. It was a way for BC to make a public statement about supporting the arts."
The museum is used by professors and their students in departments of history, fine arts, and others as ways to integrate hands on learning with classroom procedure. The exhibits are often put together by faculty and their classes.
"One of the things the McMullen does very well is the somewhat rare idea of an interdisciplinary approach," said Alston Conley, Chief Curator of the McMullen. "If you go into most museums, they have a curator of a certain period. We have so many faculty with expertise in different periods, and people involved in literature and philosophy from every period, it gives us a very broad base. All of this contributes to creating intellectually challenging exhibits."
Exhibitions
The McMullen has seen much growth over the past 10 years. Although its space in Devlin Hall has remained the same, the art exhibitions themselves have grown in number and in variety.
In 1995, the exhibitions were Memory and the Middle Ages, which consisted of sculptures, prints, and manuscripts from the Medieval period and the neo-Medieval movement. There was also an exhibition all about shields from Southeast Asia as works of art called Protection, Power, and Display.
Since then, the exhibits have ranged from sculpture to costume to photography from all over the world. "The size of the museum has remained the same, but we have been able to bring increasingly ambitious exhibitions throughout the years," said Nancy Netzer, the museum director.
The year 1999 was one of those ambitious years, with exhibitions that seemed to highlight the exact mission of the McMullen: using quality art to educate and enlighten. The season began with Saint and Sinners: The Caravaggio and the Baroque Image, which featured The Taking of Christ painted by Michelangelo Merisi de Caravaggio.
"The response we got to the Caravaggio was amazing," Netzer said. "That was a huge success for us." The painting was a favorite of many McMullen supporters.
Next, the McMullen featured the works of 18 faculty members in an exhibit called Artists at Boston College: Celebrating 25 years of Excellence in the Visual Arts. The exhibit brought the best of the art world and the educational world together by highlighting works of art that hit close to home. This is what the McMullen always strives to do.
Monan agreed. "The museum draws on everything. It is a wonderful example of inter-departmental, educational cooperation in a way that a non-university museum can't produce," he said.
Choosing exhibits is usually handled by faculty and the museum staff. Supported by patrons, the art chosen always has educational value. The works also represent the unique vision of each individual artist.
"Most of the exhibits have a conceptual basis, and raise ideas in the minds of the viewer," Conley said. "The ones that are visually and intellectually stimulating are the most interesting to look at. They reflect the human experience, what is going on now. Here you have visual artists turning experience into imagery and trying to connect to their own times."
The exhibits play an important role in expanding the museum. As the McMullen expands and attracts attention, the exhibits become more and more interesting.
"The museum has changed and improved in every way over the past 10 years. From the small studios on Newton Campus to now needing an expansion, its capacity of education has become important to the function of the school," Monan said.
Significance/Recognition?
The museum has also brought recognition to BC beyond academics and sports. The McMullen has brought international attention to the arts at BC as well. "The museum has been able to bring world class exhibitions and international press recognition to BC. It has been able to bring attention to BC through the arts," said Netzer.
The museum will continue to present art to the community in distinctive ways. In the future, the McMullen hopes to expand on the successes it has already had. "In the future we would like to do two things. One is to expand our research and raise more funds. Second, we would like to incorporate the museum with teachings, even more so than we do right now."
The McMullen is an important and one of a kind piece of BC that thousands enjoy. Its development over the past 10 years has created a world class museum. Art, along with sports, academics, and religion, is now an important part of the BC community.
Barth is thrilled at the success. "It is a joy to work with artists, and to come to BC and be a part of building the arts community up, and see it come to flower, was a joy," he said.
Now that's something to "Scream" about.
Be the first to comment on this article!