The state’s largest museum has a global art collection that ranks 12th among North America’s art museums.
But even with that cachet, The Newark Museum learned in a survey that 50% of the public didn’t realize that and weren’t quite sure what this grand institution was all about on Washington Street.
After 110 years, things are going to be different. The museum is rebranding itself Wednesday with a name change that that calls upon its roots. Please welcome the Newark Museum of Art, a moniker that Linda Harrison, its director and chief executive officer, believes will help build on its solid foundation in the arts, education and science.
“We need to take advantage of being relevant and having people get right off the bat who we are," said Harrison, who spearheaded the shift.
Who they are started in 1909 with the museum’s first founding director, John Cotton Dana, who established it as an art museum in the Newark Public Library.
Since then, the museum has amassed fine art collections from Asia, Africa and the Americas, and it has significant holdings in science, technology and natural history. A cultural experience takes visitors to the Victoria Hall of Science, the Alice and Leonard Dreyfuss Planetarium, the MakerSPACE, the Billy Johnson Auditorium, the Alice Ransom Dreyfuss Memorial Garden, an authentic 1784 Schoolhouse, the Newark Fire Museum, and the Ballantine Victorian Mansion.
Stature alone, however, is not enough.
“We wanted to understand how we are relating to the people who are here in Newark and the region," Harrison said. “Museums are here not to just to survive, but to thrive.”
Clifford Blanchard, co-chair of the board of trustees, said the new name is “perfectly appropriate," in that it helps to clarify for the community what the museum is about while highlighting its collections.
The Newark Museum has changed its name to the Newark Museum of Art. This is its new logo.Newark Museum of Art
“It more clearly connects the museum with our mission which, at its core, is about encouraging new types of experiences and learning engagement through art and science."
Hiring Harrison when she left her post in January as director and chief executive officer of the Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco, California was a bold move for the museum’s board of trustees, too. She’s the first African-American in the Newark Museum’s history to be its leader in an industry that Harrison said has less than five African-Americans running major museums.
“I come from world where we must reimagine the notion of what a museum is or we lose that museum as being an anchor in the city and being a place that people can relate to and consider it a museum," Harrison said. “That’s the challenge of museums across the country."
In the survey, Harrison said folks knew the Newark building was a museum. They just didn’t know what type, let alone the extensive art collection. Some even questioned if it was for them, a mindset Harrison doesn’t accept. She lives in the city, right downtown, often walking through Military Park to work, a place she wants to be an art hub for residents.
“We want to be a relevant museum for people who live here, and for the people who are coming here," Harrison said.
It’s about telling stories in the museum’s collections, as well as providing programs that attract a wider audience with contemporary and diverse artists. Earlier this year, the museum showcased Wendy Red Star, a contemporary multimedia artist from the Apsáalooke (Crow) Tribe, whose work examines Native American ideologies and colonialist structures.
One current exhibition, “Beyond Zen," is the work of Japanese Buddhist artists from 1615 to the present. Another is a pop culture display titled, “What Exit, The New Jersey Spirit," an exhibit by photographer Timothy White featuring portraits of homegrown artists like Queen Latifah and John Travolta.
The name change, Harrison said, allows the museum to talk to new audiences while retaining its adult clientele with new staff challenged to think outside the box. Say hello to Catherine Evans, former chief curator at Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Museum of Art, who will be the deputy director for curatorial affairs; and Silvia Filippini Fantoni, former director of programs and audience engagement at the North Carolina Museum of Art. In Newark, she will be the deputy director of education and audience engagement.
The roll out the name and logo Wednesday plans to be festive.
Admission is free with gallery tours, music, hands-on activities, and selfie stations that will be used to create a mosaic of the celebration.
What’s in a name. Apparently, a lot by adding two words.
“We are a museum who doesn’t sit here on Washington Street," Harrison said. “We are committed to being a cultural hub that is meaningful to the folks here in Newark and the region."
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Barry Carter may be reached at bcarter@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @BarryCarterSL. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips.
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