Description
An academic unit of Rollins College, the Cornell Fine Arts Museum (CFAM) features exhibitions, programs, and a permanent collection of over 5,600 objects from the ancient era to the contemporary. The collection is particularly strong in European Old Master paintings, American art, and contemporary works. The latter are on view at the museum and The Alfond Inn, a hotel whose proceeds help to fund student scholarships. CFAM is open free of charge and serves the campus and the community of Winter Park and greater Orlando. In 1981, it was Florida’s first college museum to be accredited by the American Alliance of Museums.
CFAM’s American art holdings range in date from the late-18 th century to the present, with representation of major artists and movements across the chronological span. The contemporary art collection has experienced the most significant growth in the last five years with the addition of the Alfond collection of contemporary art, including more than 400 works to date. The collection also includes a small subset of indigenous objects, including ceramic vessels from the Fort Walton culture that inhabited northwest Florida.
The CFAM is undertaking a multi-year project to research, digitize, develop, and program its American art collection. The primary project goals are to fully integrate the collection with the museum’s teaching practices and to prepare for the full installation of the collection in a planned, new facility. The work entails collection research and digitization, development of interdisciplinary curriculum opportunities, creation of a new strategic collection plan, and concept development for the installation of permanent galleries.
The research and documentation work would effectively increase collection accessibility for faculty and students at Rollins, and at nearby Valencia College, University of Central Florida, and Seminole State College. In particular, digitization would streamline the museum’s collaborative work with faculty in developing course specific use of the collection across a range of disciplines, as well as the capacity of faculty and students to engage independently with the museum’s holdings. One of the deliverables of the project would be discipline- and course-specific portfolios of works. Classes that have utilized the collection to date include: Practicing Social Justice; Exploring Race through Dialogue; and Cultures of Leadership. CFAM is already working with a group of faculty and students to explore areas of study that lend themselves to interdisciplinary teaching through the collection.
Collections research would position CFAM to embark on the development plan for the collection, with the aim of identifying priority narratives that would represent a more inclusive story of American art and culture. In turn, this work would inform the installations that will be prepared for a new museum facility, where CFAM will present the first full, and nuanced, installation of its American art collection.
CFAM is motivated by the fact that overall visitor numbers and the number of students engaged with the museum have tripled over the last six years, in response to both the diversity in its new contemporary holdings and to its initiation of conversations and projects with academic departments including business, education, sociology, environmental studies, history, and communications. Faculty/student collaborations inspired by CFAM’s growing African American art holdings in particular, have led to plans for a dedicated curricular gallery in the new facility.
Project work will be carried out under the supervision of Ena Heller, director, and Gisela Carbonell, curator. Grant funds would support: project staff including a post-graduate research fellow and student interns; digital photography; preparation of 35 curricular portfolios; publication of a handbook for teaching from the American art collection; and honoraria for visiting field specialists.
