| Brian Kennedy |
A glance at traditional museums, whether the Toledo Museum of Art or the National Gallery in London,
establishes their aspirations.
They look like ancient temples. Visitors must climb up to them, and when they enter viewers typically
confront one of the institutions’ signature works.
They are like temples, said Brian Kennedy, the director of the Toledo Museum of Art, at a talk, "The
Toledo Museum of Art: Temple and Forum," Monday at Bowling Green State University.
While traditionally, and for some even now, they should be places of contemplation, others see them as
more a marketplace of ideas.
When that idea emerged, the architecture of museums changed reflecting both the modernistic concepts of
contemporary art and the more welcoming attitude.
Kennedy, who was appointed as museum director a year ago, used two images of the Cloisters at the museum
to show the contrast. In one image, people ate and drank at tables as they listened to a band. In the
other the room is empty, clearly silent.
A museum can be both a temple and a forum, he said. And as the institution’s director, he will guide the
museum to fulfill both those roles, serving both visitors new to art who want guidance and aficionados
who just want to be alone with the art.
Especially a free museum such as Toledo needs to broaden its social reach, he said.
For Kennedy that means taking an active role in is teaching visual literacy. People can come to the
museum "to learn to see better," to learn the vocabulary and basics of visual language, vital
knowledge in such an image saturated world.
Technology can help in this, especially with young people who grew up in the digital age. The museum has
launched a new smart phone app showcasing the museum’s sculpture garden and continues to add more of its
collection that can be viewed online.
Kennedy would like to see the museum have a closer relationship with the area’s practicing artists.
For regional artists there is little chance of their work ever entering the museum’s permanent
collection. But the museum can provide temporary exhibits. For the first time one artists from the
Toledo Area Artists Exhibition will receive a solo show. That honor will go to Toledo painter Leslie
Adams.
And the museum’s newest gallery, the Wolfe Gallery for contemporary art that is set to open next year,
will have work space for artists in it.
Kennedy said the first show in the gallery will be devoted to glass, fitting both because of the medium’s
deep roots in Toledo and because the space housed the museum’s glass collection before the 2006 opening
of the Glass Pavilion across the street.
The museum will also make better use of its existing spaces by reorganizing the Classical Court and
allowing people to go into the Peristyle, the museum’s concert hall, any time the museum is open.
The museum will continue to bring in the best whether through acquisition – a major purchase will be
announced in October – or through visiting shows – the museum will host an exhibit of portraits by
impressionist Edouard Manet a year from now.
