This is the first of a series of blog posts that will explore exhibits during the 1960s at the Museum of Art at the University of Oregon, known today as the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art.  As part of the Documenting UO History Project, this series will investigate three major types of exhibits: the Statewide Services Program, national exhibits that traveled to the Museum, and international exhibits that the Museum displayed. The University Archives collection of the Museum’s records, cross referenced with the Jordan Schnitzer’s current holdings, reveal a unique institutional history of the Museum, its exhibits, and its employees. Though the Jordan Schnitzer’s current focus is on Asian art, this project will focus on a variety of other kinds of exhibit subjects.

Did you know that art doesn’t sit still? Museums are always on the move. Pieces of art and large exhibits often travel around to different regions so that large numbers of people can see them. Because art means different things to each viewer, it is important to make art freely available to the public. The Museum of Art at the University of Oregon began to circulate exhibitions free of charge through its Statewide Services program in 1965. It could do so through the Friends of the Museum, which helped with the financial backing of the program. Statewide Services coordinator Dennis Gould and Museum employees organized the distribution of traveling exhibits. They also taught community organizations how best to use the exhibits in their regions. This blog post will highlight the methods the Museum used to circulate their art in the state of Oregon.

The program’s goals were simple: to bring art collections to communities around the state that could not afford to curate their own collections. Poorer communities are often unable to enjoy high-quality art, and Statewide Services brought the art to the people. Accessibility democratized art and was extremely important to the museum’s goals as an academic institution. As long as exhibition space met museum standards of security and cleanliness, a community art center could choose an exhibition. Hosts could choose from more than forty options, such as “Kachina Dolls” and “Pacific Northwest Architects,” and find one that was interesting for their neighborhood. The Museum’s staff would then help with the transportation and installation of the art. On a larger scale, this operation was highly successful – over two years, more than 60,000 people saw forty-two exhibits in cities from Portland to Klamath Falls.[1]

Now, think about the last time you went to an art exhibit. Did you see the event on Facebook? Was someone passing out fliers at Starbucks? Statewide Services made sure it had long-term funding by creating publicity. In this age before Instagram filters and Internet promotion, Statewide Services required the host organization to send “copies of all…posters, invitations and flyers, as well as clippings of all newspaper articles…to the Museum.”[2] The program’s employees collected these advertisements to demonstrate its success to the Friends and other donors. Publicity gets funding, and fundraising is the backbone of any arts organization. This marketing technique also took place at conferences held on the University of Oregon campus. For example, at the Community Arts Center Conference in July 1967, Dennis Gould wrote “A Sketchbook of Gallery Techniques” that helped readers set up exhibits if they had limited experience. He also recommended that community art centers hold events for locals, as “the opening is an opportunity to hold events that add dimension to the exhibition” and “to stimulate membership.”[3] In this primer, he consistently asked for feedback from the hosts on the program’s successes and problems in their hometowns across Oregon. Statewide Services participants were the most useful form of promotional data because they could prove how useful it was to their communities.

Before 1965, the Museum of Art used a similar method of sharing art with the community. At this time, the Friends of the Museum could not afford to send the exhibits around the state without a sponsor, so the members of the Friends brought them to their own communities. Some of these displays were the “Haseltine Collection of Pacific Northwest Art,” “Contemporary Japanese Prints,” and the “Arts of Nepal.” If a Friends of the Museum member had Patron level membership – someone who paid $100 or more in dues every year – they could borrow the exhibition for free.^[4] Essentially, they were the event’s guarantor. They staked their reputation and finances on the exhibit’s success. Other areas without a member of that level could also borrow the exhibitions, but had to pay $50 for a 3-week period, “plus insurance, two-way transportation, and travel expenses for the representative of the Friends of the Museum installing the exhibition.”^[5] That price would have been a large sum for a small community. Basically, this style of circulating exhibitions operated before the real intent of the Statewide Services program began – sending high-quality exhibits free of charge to areas that otherwise would not have been able to view them. The requirements before 1965 limited the shows to places where members already lived, which were likely affluent, instead of less wealthy communities.

In essence, the Museum of Art’s Statewide Services program fulfilled the need for quality art throughout Oregon. In 1967, the Governor’s Planning Council on the Arts and Humanities was extremely frustrated by the lack of arts exposure in the state. Because “very few Oregon communities [had] even reasonably adequate facilities or funds to schedule professional performances and exhibitions in the performing and visual arts,” the Museum and the Friends collaborated to serve multiple audiences.[6] By not only providing the exhibits, but also educating community members across the state about the best practices available in museum planning and display, the Museum of Art achieved its academic mission outside of the University of Oregon campus.

Angela Rothman
Special Collections Intern
Documenting UO History Project

Information for this article was collected from the following sources:

Blog Title Source: Gould, Dennis, “A Sketchbook of Gallery Techniques,” Table of Contents, 13-15 July 1967, Box 37, Folder 64, Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art records, UA 120, Special Collections & University Archives, University of Oregon Libraries, Eugene, Oregon.

[1] Gould, Dennis, “Statewide Services: Museum of Art, University of Oregon,” page 2, 1967-1968, Box 37, Folder 64, Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art records, UA 120, Special Collections & University Archives, University of Oregon Libraries, Eugene, Oregon.

[2] Statewide Services “Exhibition and Publicity Policy,” n.d., Box 37, Folder 64, Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art records, UA 120, Special Collections & University Archives, University of Oregon Libraries, Eugene, Oregon.

[3] Gould, Dennis, “A Sketchbook of Gallery Techniques,” page 20, 13-15 July 1967, Box 37, Folder 64, Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art records, UA 120, Special Collections & University Archives, University of Oregon Libraries, Eugene, Oregon.

[4] Friends of the Museum, “Circulating Art Exhibitions 1963-64,” page 1, n.d., Box 37, Folder 64, Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art records, UA 120, Special Collections & University Archives, University of Oregon Libraries, Eugene, Oregon.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Report, “Survey of the Arts in Oregon 1967,” Governor’s Planning Council on the Arts and Humanities, page 3, 1967, Box 37, Folder 64, Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art records, UA 120, Special Collections & University Archives, University of Oregon Libraries, Eugene, Oregon.