Rose Art Museum Awarded Henry Luce Grant

The Rose Art Museum has received a $350,000 grant from the Henry Luce Foundation in support of the Museum's forthcoming 60th anniversary project, titled re: collections, Six Decades at the Rose Art Museum. This three-year project includes a research-based museum-wide exhibition, scheduled to open in May, and a major publication that will echo and enhance the exhibition. Both will focus on the Rose's stellar permanent collection of 20th and 21st century art, amassed over six decades.

"We are profoundly grateful to the Henry Luce Foundation for their very generous support of this milestone project," said Dr. Gannit Ankori, the Henry and Lois Foster Director and Chief Curator of the Rose Art Museum. "This grant makes it possible for us to conduct in-depth, original research and pursue an innovative curatorial vision. The exhibition will be on view for three years with several rotations, allowing us to showcase many exceptional artworks from our ever-growing collection."

Espousing a multivocal approach, re: collections will highlight the Rose Art Museum's history and legacy, including its radical roots, while also showcasing its evolution and transformative vision for the future. The exhibition casts a critical eye on traditional Euro and U.S.-centric narratives of art, uncovering art history's omissions and biases. Simultaneously, the show will explore new connections between canonical and underrepresented artists, chart alternative genealogies, emphasize the international and diverse scope of the collection, and spark innovative explorations and interpretations of modern and contemporary art. In addition to Dr. Ankori, the Rose curatorial team includes Dr. Elyan J. Hill, Guest Curator for African and African Diaspora Art, and Caitlin Julia Rubin, the museum's Associate Curator and Director of Programs. Artists on view will include Radcliffe Bailey, Christian Boltanski, Mark Bradford, Renee Cox, Jamal Cyrus, Willem de Kooning, Beauford Delaney, Mark Dion, Melvin Edwards, Paul Gauguin, Sam Gilliam, Francisco Goya, Yayoi Kusama, Roy Lichtenstein, Whitfield Lovell, Al Loving, Marisol, Ana Mendieta, Louise Nevelson, Nam June Paik, Yoko Ono, Pablo Picasso, Howardena Pindell, Betye Saar, Cindy Sherman, Andy Warhol, Jack Whitten, Fred Wilson and many others.

"We are so hopeful that the Rose exhibition and catalog, generously funded by the Luce Foundation, will do more than mark our 60th anniversary. We hope the art and ideas we share will launch new conversations about the meaning-making power of art across time and space and bring joy and hope to multiple audiences," stated Ankori. "I want our project to contribute to the fields of art history and theory, as well as curatorial practice and inquiry. Beyond that, my vision is that through our exhibitions, collecting mission, academic and public programming, and welcoming mode of doing museum work, we will transform the Rose into an inclusive and diverse nexus for art, communities, and justice."

Significantly, the Henry Luce Foundation grant will also fund the use of new accessibility technology to ensure the Rose and its collections are open, free, and within reach for all.

re: collections, Six Decades of the Rose Art Museum is scheduled to open May 2021.

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