Museum Spotlight: Figge Art Museum
From time to time, we have the opportunity to shine a spotlight on the activities of our member museums, and wish we could do so more often. The range of gifts received is both a reflection of where they are as institutions today, and a hint at where they are headed. This is especially true of The Figge Art Museum in Davenport, Iowa, which has been one of our most enthusiastic partners since joining the platform three and a half years ago. Their acquisitions through Museum Exchange paint an impressive picture of a museum on the move.
For 100 years, the Figge has served the Quad Cities community, comprising around 400,000 inhabitants across Davenport and Bettendorf in Iowa and the bordering Illinois towns of Rock Island and Moline. Joshua Johnson, Co-Senior Curator, has explained:
Like many art museums, the Figge is working to diversify its collection to better reflect the breadth of contemporary art and the community we serve. Gifts facilitated through Museum Exchange have allowed us to bring a wider range of artists and artworks into the collection and share them with the Quad Cities region and beyond—helping us fulfill our mission of bringing art and people together.
Ai Weiwei, Fairytale, 2007, 1001 Chinese visitors, ladies dormitory, mixed media; 1 unit: 10 sets (bed frame, mattress, chair, suitcase, pillow, duvet, bedsheet, towel, washcloth), 48 linen room dividers, 2 bamboo mats, and metal frame, 85 x 394 x 215 inches. Collection of Figge Art Museum; Gift of the Martin Z. Margulies Foundation.
The curatorial team at the Figge have been pursuing some of the most ambitious and cutting edge works in our catalogues, recently landing Ai Wei Wei’s contribution to Documenta 12 in 2007, Fairy Tale (2007), among many others. The installation famously invokes the complexities of immigration and citizenship, which couldn’t be more relevant today. The Figge’s acquisitions also demonstrate a desire to expand the representation of women artists and artists of color within their collection, allowing them to create a more inclusive narrative about contemporary art.
It is always amazing to see the new connections and relationships that our museum members forge through our matchmaking process with our community of collectors, gallerists, and estates across the country. As Co-Senior Curator Vanessa Sage has said, “Museum Exchange has helped us grow the Figge’s collection in ways we never could have imagined.” Illustrative of this point, their gifts have come from donors in San Francisco, Palo Alto, Los Angeles, San Diego, Dallas, Chicago, Champaign, Sarasota, Miami, Palm Beach, and New York—surely far beyond the reach of their development department’s typical campaigns!
We applaud the Figge and their savvy team for the moves they have made to keep their museum and collection relevant for today’s audiences, and are glad to see that our community of donors are approaching their philanthropy with open minds, recognizing excellence and thoughtfulness when they see it. You will surely be reading more about the Figge and their forward-thinking collection-building in the near future as they continue to bring in marquee objects.
Annette Messager, L'Homme - Gants, 1999, gloves, color pencils, and photographs, 70 7/8 x 47 1/4 x 4 inches. Collection of Figge Art Museum; Gift of Emily and Teddy Greenspan.
