Merlion
06-05-2008, 03:17 AM
Art museum hit by Katrina takes to road (http://www.mercurynews.com/pattyfisher/ci_9474400?nclick_check=1)
Jun 4, 2008 (MecuryNews) When the levees broke, the New Orleans Museum of Art became a white stone Beaux Arts island surrounded by Katrina's flood waters.
Built nearly 100 years ago on a ridge in the heart of New Orleans, the museum and its renowned 40,000-piece collection came through the 2005 hurricane relatively unscathed. But like the rest of the city, recovery has been slow and costly.
"From an art standpoint, we were very lucky," museum Director John Bullard said. "But we had four inches of water in the basement and had to close for six months. We lost a lot of revenue. And we had to lay off 85 percent of our staff." ....
Needing $15 million to get back on its feet, the museum has taken its show on the road. Today "Spared From the Storm," a collection of its most famous works, opens at the Cantor Art Center on the Stanford University campus, where you can see it until Oct. 5.
It's a show with something for just about every art lover: paintings from the court of Louis XV; Impressionist works by Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Mary Cassatt and Pierre-Auguste Renoir; and modern pieces by Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollock, Georgia O'Keeffe and Rene Magritte. ...
The New Orleans collection is considered one of the most comprehensive in the American South. And it has a definite local flavor. Degas, for example, spent six months in New Orleans and painted several pieces there. A portrait of his sister-in-law, who lived there, is part of the show. ...
Bullard, a Southern Californian, has been director of the New Orleans museum since 1973. When Katrina hit, he was away on vacation and had to rely on cell phone updates from staff members who moved into the museum with their families to protect the collection.
FEMA came to the museum and told them they had to leave, but they refused," he said. "Then two days later the National Guard arrived in helicopters with guns and ordered them out."
Without electricity to run the sump pumps and climate-control systems, the artwork was in serious danger. Miraculously, only a few pieces were damaged. The worst destruction was to the five-acre sculpture garden. ...
Jun 4, 2008 (MecuryNews) When the levees broke, the New Orleans Museum of Art became a white stone Beaux Arts island surrounded by Katrina's flood waters.
Built nearly 100 years ago on a ridge in the heart of New Orleans, the museum and its renowned 40,000-piece collection came through the 2005 hurricane relatively unscathed. But like the rest of the city, recovery has been slow and costly.
"From an art standpoint, we were very lucky," museum Director John Bullard said. "But we had four inches of water in the basement and had to close for six months. We lost a lot of revenue. And we had to lay off 85 percent of our staff." ....
Needing $15 million to get back on its feet, the museum has taken its show on the road. Today "Spared From the Storm," a collection of its most famous works, opens at the Cantor Art Center on the Stanford University campus, where you can see it until Oct. 5.
It's a show with something for just about every art lover: paintings from the court of Louis XV; Impressionist works by Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Mary Cassatt and Pierre-Auguste Renoir; and modern pieces by Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollock, Georgia O'Keeffe and Rene Magritte. ...
The New Orleans collection is considered one of the most comprehensive in the American South. And it has a definite local flavor. Degas, for example, spent six months in New Orleans and painted several pieces there. A portrait of his sister-in-law, who lived there, is part of the show. ...
Bullard, a Southern Californian, has been director of the New Orleans museum since 1973. When Katrina hit, he was away on vacation and had to rely on cell phone updates from staff members who moved into the museum with their families to protect the collection.
FEMA came to the museum and told them they had to leave, but they refused," he said. "Then two days later the National Guard arrived in helicopters with guns and ordered them out."
Without electricity to run the sump pumps and climate-control systems, the artwork was in serious danger. Miraculously, only a few pieces were damaged. The worst destruction was to the five-acre sculpture garden. ...