Summer is a time when I, along with many others in West Michigan, are encouraged to wander off the beaten path and hit the road.
Before I recommend you visit Muskegon’s lakeshore community, ripe with plenty of cultural activity including the debut of a waterfront cinema program,
Movies on the Beach Muskegon on Friday, June 15, I want you to consider a stop at the Muskegon of Museum of Art.
In order to get there, I want to conduct some time travel. (Time travel is a current theme I am exploring in my art, so it is only appropriate to continue this themes' exploration of mining the past to inform our present. Buckle up.)
I want to take you to the early aughts where I had one of my biggest eye-opening experiences as it related to intersection of art, community and diversity. As a result, it changed much of how I approach our shared world.
At ArtWorks, I was hired to be an arts instructor for a group of students who had expressed interest in photography. Back then, ArtWorks was a newly launched project incubated at the East Hills Council of Neighbors office by Cindy Koning. Eventually they moved to the Urban Institute of Contemporary Arts and later garnered the attention of President Barack Obama.
In addition to creating a curriculum that included choosing a theme asking the students to look around and use the camera to tell their story, I included day trips to cultural institutions to expand their world path. How was I to know it was my world that was about to change?
As we walked the Grand Rapids Art Museum’s halls, taking in the very exciting traveling photography show by one of modern photography’s greats, one of the students turn to me and asked, “Where are the people who look like me?”
I stopped right in my tracks.
She was spot on. The works shown by this photographer whose resume included shooting many notable faces of our last century contained very few who looked anything like any of my students.
So I quickly retooled, made a few phone calls and we were off to a local gallery. The collection there specialized in African American art and we were on our way.
Time travel forward to 2012. As I exited the 84th annual art exhibition at Muskegon Museum of Art’s North gallery, I meandered into the permanent collection space. I discovered the favorites I enjoyed visiting over the years had been relocated to another space because the three galleries in front of me, as reported by the docent holding the door, all represent the additions to the collection in honor of the Museum’s 100-year anniversary celebration,
New Art for the New Century.
As I marveled at such a wonderful and expansive new collection of artwork, something set off in my head.
Wandering from each work, I began to see subtle clues that something marvelous was being presented here. The collection, for all its majesty, included a wonderful representation of people often overlooked in other collections. It was a truly mind-expanding experience and one that soon had me dialing Judith Hayner, the MMA Executive Director, to inquire further.
“When we began thinking about our 100th anniversary in 2006, we knew we had to do something really bold to commemorate this occasion,” said Hayner. “But before we could begin, we needed to examine strategically what we had already and from there, decide how to proceed.”
The talk instantly reminded me of a combination of words that I had learned from a strategic planner and friend, Sandi Frost Parish. She used to say, “You must be strategic, deliberate and intentional.”
The MMA realized that they would never be able to be a massive museum on par with other great collections in this world, but they could build upon their present strengths as well as begin to fill in the gaps.
As a result, the museum sought to enhance their paintings from American and European artists of the 1880s to the 1940s, but began to fill in areas of study like modern, still life and of course, a rich collection of studio glass works.
Another area of focus that surprised me as I walked through the space was the attention to African American art, as well as other diverse populations including Native Americans.
“We have always collected a diverse collection here at MMA,” said Hayner. “Our focus has always been on collecting works from a diverse group of artists and subjects. But over time, we have had patrons who believed strongly that we should include pieces that reflect our community.”
One patron was Dr. Anita Herald, who insisted that community see themselves on the walls of this museum. So, she set out to make it happen.
This intentionality is something that Hayner backs up later, citing that the beauty of this collection has always been enhanced by the few patrons who believed and advocated for its inclusive nature.
To this day, that inclusion is still at work in the collection, but also in how the museum, like many other art institutions in our world, has rediscovered that the art museum is also a place for the community to gather, observe and converse.
We have to remember in telling the story of the city of Muskegon and their cultural beginnings at the turn of the 1900s was a very small population of people. A fact that Hayner reminds me is still true today but has carried forward in the people and partons this generous spirit.
“When the lumber barons left town,” said Hayner, “It was those wealthy businessmen who stayed behind like Thomas Hume and Charles Hackely that began to transform our community in ways never before. They were people of vision.”
The museum’s existence is truly connected to its humble roots, when Charles Hackley, who channeled most of his life’s fortune into his community by building hospitals and libraries and even serving on the school board, sought to adopt the model of community investment put forth by others like the Carnegie family.
Hackley once said, "A rich man, to a great extent, owes his fortune to the public. He makes money largely through the labor of his employees…Moreover, I believe that it should be expended during the lifetime of the donor, so that he can see that his benefactions do not miscarry and are according to his intent. To a certain extent, I agree with Mr. Carnegie...that it is a crime to die rich."
“And Hackley also said he wanted to see a museum in Muskegon filled with ‘pictures of the best kind,'” said Hayner.
These five words have not only informed the collection, but are also the subject of a new book being released in conjunction with the 100-year anniversary celebration.
While Hackley believed that Muskegon should have a world-class art museum, he died in 1905, seven years before this first-in-the-nation project specifically built to house art, would come to pass. It was in his honor that many labored in his community to make sure his vision was brought to reality in 1912.
Steven Sondheim, the iconic American Theater composer, wrote art, along with children, are the things we pass on to the future. It is within them that we pin our hopes for the future. It our message to those who will follow. It informs, connects and sometimes inspires greatness to emerge within the viewer. We are rarely unresponsive in art’s gaze.
After my phone call, I began to reflect again on how wonderful it will be to know that people will walk through a collection like that in the Muskegon Museum of Art and see themselves or their community differently based on this collection created by members of their community.
The epiphany for me came in the morning after I started to type these words. What is it that makes many of us fight so hard and so relentlessly for those who do not look like us?
In short, I have to time travel a bit further back to a period of my life where I sat in a pew. How silly to think that the answer was right in front of me all this time.
Often from the pulpit, I, along with others who shared a similar background, have been commanded to love one another.
And in matters of diversity, or in this case visibility through inclusion in all of our institutions, love still guides (or should inform) our decisions.
For if we love our neighbors, we are truly then loving our community. And if we love our community, then we want to see them included in the places created to reflect our lives or that celebrate our shared journey. Love equalizes us all.
And it is my hope that talks of inclusion and representations will always be couched easily in the power of this mantra, that we love and treat our neighbors as we would have them treat us.
Hackley understood this for his community, and it was his community who created and sustained, long after his passing, the collection that continues to inspire to this day.
And if you need proof beyond what hangs on the MMA’s walls, then look no further than the second painting added to the collection in 1911 (a full year before they would open to the public). Their second purchase was a painting entitled The Holy Family depicting the glorious light at the birth of Jesus.
Those of the Christian faith may rejoice at this art choice because of its religious overtones, but I find a deeper meaning in its inclusion beyond this simple message of love, which is also at the core of many of the world’s religions and even those who choose not to believe in deity.
For me, as I look back in time to when the museum added "The Holy Family" piece, it confirms a remarkable and forward-thinking choice that continued into the next hundred years. This bold work of art was painted by the much beloved African American artist, Henry Tanner.
Thank you, Charles Hackley, and all those who have come after to ensure that "pictures of the best kind" remains not only the mission of the Muskegon Museum of Art, but also that these pictures reflect the community, enshrined through art for others to view and sometimes, to even see ourselves.
The Future Needs All of Us.
Tommy Allen, Lifestyle Editor
Email:
[email protected]
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