Greetings from Brandywine’s Chairman

January, 2012

Dear Friends and Supporters:

In anticipation of our exciting anniversary celebration, I invite you to renew your membership or join the Friends of Brandywine, our national support group.

Membership during 2012 means you will receive special updates and discounts made available as part of our Fortieth Anniversary Year. The year –long celebration will include a number of programs in our home Philadelphia, but also events sponsored by Friends Chapters and partner institutions in other cities. We will celebrate four decades of artistic success and the completion of key projects that have been  in planning for several years. These include:

Satellite Collections

Brandywine has committed to donating  hundreds of Visiting Artist prints to public collections- museums and universities- around the country at a time when acquisition budgets have been drastically reduced or eliminated. The program emphasizes ethnic specific institutions and those that  demonstrate a strong commitment to promoting and documenting the works of artists of color. In recent years, the following institutions have accepted Satellite Collections, thus promoting the art, artists and furthering national access to works in the Brandywine Collection.

·       Samella Lewis Collection at Scripps College, Los Angeles, CA

·       Memorial donation honoring Anne d’Haroncourt, Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA

·       John T. Scott Collection at Xavier University, New Orleans

·       Paul R. Jones Collection at the University of Delaware Museums, Newark, DE

Brandywine Archives

In 2011, the Archives was the recipient of large print donations from the Estate of Robert W. Blackburn and The Printmaking Workshop and Camille Billops and the Hatch-Billops Collections in New York City. Donations totaling 170 prints have helped to build on the breadth and diversity of our permanent collection of contemporary prints in all media.

Forty Square Portfolio Project

Four former master Visiting Artists are being invited to create a limited edition print to be included in a portfolio  that will be offered to members of the National Support Committee for the Fortieth Anniversary.  Forty  Art Collectors will be able to reserve a portfolio of the prints and receive other V.I.P. benefits when participating in special anniversary events and programs. For more information, contact our president Allan Edmunds. Invitations to collectors will be sent out in January.

Renderings

In addition to the four master artists visiting, nine African American artists new to Brandywine are being invited to serve residencies in 2012. Several of the artists are young and represent the next generation of future masters-i.e.,  Lorna Williams and Ayannah Moor (PA), Tia Simone Gardner (AL), Robert Pruitt , Jamal Cyrus (TX) and Sedrick Huckaby (TX).  The thematic  residency program is the prelude to a 2013 traveling exhibition project, Renderings: New Narratives and Reinterpretations, which is being curated by Cheryl Finley, Ph.D., art historian, Cornell University.

The highlight of the anniversary year is the September , 2012 opening of Full Spectrum: Prints from the Brandywine Workshop, an exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, selected from the 100 prints donated in honor of former director Anne d’Haroncourt.

A series of artist receptions, workshops, panel discussion, special auctions and sales, lectures and other events is being coordinated by local groups and the National Support Committee. These are just a few of the major programs and new initiatives planned for 2012. Friends Chapters around the country are being asked to plan receptions for collectors and reserve for a weekend Collector Excursions to Philadelphia to visit the Full Spectrum exhibit, tour the new Barnes Foundation Museum and participate in a Collectors’ Art Sale and Artist Reception at Brandywine for former  Brandywine Achievement Awards Recipients.

This is a great time to invest in the growth of your art collection and participate in exciting and meaningful programs to help build expertise and expand your art network among artists, patrons and other collectors. Membership guarantees you updates and special opportunities while demonstrating your support for a national organization severing the needs of underserved young artists and the interest  of culturally diverse communities.

In order to help you join at the level and benefits most attractive to you, we provide a payment plan option through PayPal online processing with credit cards. Pay the full amount of desired membership by clicking the Donate button on the web site or choose  a two or three payment plan by clicking Fortieth Anniversary Support Payment Plan Option button.  

On behalf of all of us, may this new year bring good health and prosperity throughout your family.

Yours truly,

Elmer L. Smith

Chairman

To receive updates and notices on the above  programs and  upcoming special events, please sign up for emails or look for announcements on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.