As we celebrate the 75th anniversary of our museum, it’s an opportune time to look back at our history. From now until the end of the year, we’ll be featuring a post once a month about the history of the museum through the decades. This month, following the kick-off to our year-long celebration of our history as a source of free inspiration, we take a look at our first years on campus and history in the 1950s.
Following the initial opening of the Georgia Museum of Art in 1948 in the basement of the old UGA library, now the Administration Building, the museum quickly became an established part of the campus fabric, showcasing an ever evolving display of new works and exhibitions of all kinds and later serving as a venue for meetings, visiting speakers and conferences.
In the early years of the 1950s, founder Alfred Heber Holbrook took on the task of making the new museum known to people far and wide, reaching out all across the state to share his love of art and promote the museum. According to a 1952 newsletter for the museum, he gave talks to “some 20 local organizations from Tallulah Falls to Brunswick and from Statesboro to Blakely.” Newspaper archives document his tour to various groups around the state, bringing along more than 20 paintings from the museum collection in his trunk.
Early exhibitions at the museum included a variety of works, including everything from local artists and works by UGA faculty to Brazilian and Indonesian artists to ceramics and works focused on the history of UGA and Athens. According to newspaper archives, mostly from UGA’s student newspaper, the Red & Black, the following exhibitions were on view in the early 1950s:
- Works by an 18th-century Brazilian sculptor and painter;
- Athens relics and art objects that featured many pieces by Athenians that were borrowed and solicited by the museum to include in the exhibition;
- A Greek vase from the 5th century that was gifted by a professor of psychology at the University of Athens, Greece;
- Handmade fabrics from the Jay Hambidge Art Foundation meant to highlight the idea that all art expression is built on the handcrafts;
- Amish Folk Art that depicted Amish life;
- Works by five sculptors works from the National Sculpture Society and sponsored by the Athens Art Institute and the University Press;
- An annual Georgia Student Art Exhibition in Fine Arts;
- A ceramics display from the 15th annual National Ceramics Exhibition;
- Kolomoki Mound Relics, from the Blakely, Georgia, area;
- Works featuring portraits of Abraham Baldwin, Josiah Meigs and other early UGA presidents; also included clips of UGA opening and photos and etchings of early Athens and UGA scenes;
- Works by artists in the Association of Georgia Artists;
- Indonesian art exhibition;
- Works that paid tribute to Victor Hugo;
- Works of “outstanding foreign artists” that were loaned to the museum from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago and other established national galleries and museums;
- Photography focused on the art of dance;
- and works by UGA art faculty artists.
The 1950s was also a time of expansion for the newly established art museum. In 1952, Holbrook announced that the Georgia Board of Regents had agreed to renovate the current building and expand the museum once the new UGA library had been built. News archives show a delay in the construction of the new library due to a steel shortage, and it wasn’t until 1958 that the library moved into its newly constructed building and the museum took over the entire structure and added five new galleries to the museum space.
The early years of the decade also saw the establishment of the museum’s Board of Advisors, which included as its first members Pope Brock Sr., general counsel of Coca-Cola Company; Edward S, Shorter, artist and head of art school, Burnsville, North Carolina; Edith Stallings, dean of women, UGA; George Hugh Boyd, dean of the UGA Graduate School, Lamar Dodd, head, department of art, UGA; and Harold Wescott, professor of design, UGA.
While the museum’s expansion and presence on campus to showcase art was of major significance to the UGA campus at the time, the museum also became known as a location to host meetings, conferences and speakers. The museum was available and encouraged as a place to bring parents and family on visits to campus.
A close look at the historical archives of the museum in the 1950s shows that the decade was a significant time period for the museum’s established presence on campus. The North Campus location, in the heart of campus, served as the museum’s home until the mid-1990s and ultimately helped cement the museum as a part of the UGA campus in a big way. By all accounts, this time period helped the museum become a part of campus life and establish it as the renowned institution on campus that it is today. Holbrook’s tireless efforts also made the museum known and respected by artists and art communities all across the United States.
Holbrook’s unrelenting dedication to this effort ultimately paid off by the end of the decade. In January of 1958, the museum held a dedication ceremony for its expanded space at which Lloyd Goodrich, associate director of the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, made the opening remarks. The museum was dedicated to Holbrook and Lamar Dodd at the ceremony, with a newspaper article from the Red and Black noting the significant contributions that both men had made to the field. Goodrich’s remarks also highlighted the significance of art in the 1950s, as he “praised the diversity of style in modern American art as a sign of freedom and progress in this country.” While artists once served the role of photographers, the invention of cameras freed the artists so they could concentrate on emotional expression rather than forms. He compared the role of today’s artist to that of the poet or musical composer, “creating works which are as purely expressions of thought and emotion as the poem or the symphony.”
Authored by:
Jessica Luton
