Minneapolis Institute of Art

History

The Minneapolis Society of Fine Arts was established in 1883 to bring the arts into the life of the community. This group, made up of business and professional leaders, organized art exhibits throughout the decade. In 1889, the Society, now known as the Minneapolis Institute of Art, moved into its first permanent space, inside the newly built Minneapolis Public Library.

The institute received gifts from Clinton Morrison and William Hood Dunwoody, among others, for its building fund. In 1911, Morrison donated the land, formerly occupied by his family's Villa Rosa mansion, in memory of his father, Dorilus Morrison, contingent on the institute's raising the 500,000 needed for the building. A few days later, the institute received a letter from Dunwoody, who got the ball rolling: "Put me down for $100,000." A fundraising dinner a few days later brought in 335,500, donated in 90 minutes.

The new museum, designed by the firm of McKim, Mead and White, opened in 1915. The building came to be recognized as one of the finest examples of the Beaux-Arts architectural style in Minnesota. The art historian Bevis Hillier organized the exhibition Art Deco at the museum, presented from July to September 1971, which caused a resurgence of interest in this style of art. The building was originally meant to be the first of several sections, but only the front piece was built. Several additions have been built to other plans, including a 1974 addition by Kenzo Tange. An expansion designed by the 2012 Driehaus Prize winner Michael Graves was completed in June 2006. Before the latest expansion, just 4 percent of the museum's nearly 100,000 objects could be on view at the same time; now that figure is 5 percent. Target Corporation, for which the new wing is named, was the biggest donor, with a lead gift of more than $10 million.

In 2015, the institute rebranded itself, dropping the final "s" from its name, to become the Minneapolis Institute of Art and encouraging the use of the nickname Mia instead of the acronym MIA.

Kaywin Feldman became director and president of the institute in 2008. During her tenure, attendance doubled, digital access was emphasized, and social justice and equity programs were adopted. In December 2018, she was named to be the next director of the National Gallery of Art took that office in March 2019.

In October 2019, Katherine Luber, formerly of the San Antonio Museum of Art, was named as the new director and president of Mia.

In January 2024, Robert Cozzolino, a curator who had garnered praise for spotlighting underrepresented artists, was fired. This decision prompted accusations from former and current employees that the museum had become "a toxic environment for people of color" and their allies under Luber's leadership. Over 560 members of the city's art community and the broader art world, including David Lynch and Dyani White Hawk, signed an open letter of support in response to Cozzolino's firing.

Collection

The museum features an encyclopedic collection of approximately 100,000 objects spanning 5,000 years of world history. Its collection includes paintings, photographs, prints and drawings, textiles, architecture, and decorative arts. There are collections of African art, art from Oceania and the Americas, and an especially strong collection of Asian art, called "one of the finest and most comprehensive Asian art collections in the country". The Asian collection includes Chinese architecture, jades, bronzes, and ceramics.

The institute owns the Purcell-Cutts House, just east of Lake of the Isles. The house was designed by Purcell & Elmslie and is a masterpiece of Prairie School architecture. It was donated to the museum by Anson B. Cutts Jr., the son of its second owner. The house is available for tours on the second weekend of each month.

Services

The museum features a regular series of exhibitions that bring in traveling collections from other museums for display. Local business partners fund many of these exhibitions, and some feature the artists leading public tours through the exhibition.

The museum houses the Minnesota Artists Exhibition Program, an artist-controlled program devoted to the exhibition of works by artists who live in Minnesota.

The Museum Library contains more than 60,000 volumes on art and art history. The library is open to the public.

Outdoor exhibits

The institute has a number of exhibits outside the building. A pair of Chinese lions sit on either side of the 24th Street entrance. They were a gift from Ella Pillsbury Crosby in 1998. Because a museum curator determined that it would be too difficult to export 18th-century statues, new ones were carved in China in the 18th century style.

The Chinese Garden, which can be seen from inside the café, contains Taihu stones. These stones are said to represent the mountains of the Buddhist and Taoist immortals.

Target Park, which sits behind the museum, contains several contemporary statues, including an untitled work in bronze (c. 1968) by Pietro Consagra, Samba in African granite (1993) by Richard Erdman, and L'arbre de vie in stainless steel and pigment (20th century), designed by Jean Willy Mestach and manufactured by Michael Chowen. There is also a granite and steel pavilion entitled Labyrinth (1993) by John Willenbecher. There are wide lines cut into the steel roof of the pavilion so that when the viewer stands inside, the labyrinth can be viewed by looking up.

To celebrate its 100th anniversary, the institute purchased a sculpture by the Polish artist Igor Mitoraj (1944–2014). Eros Bendato Screpolato, 1999, is one of a series of bronze "bandaged heads" produced by Mitoraj. Similar Mitoraj sculptures can be found at other public sites, including Market Square in Kraków, Poland, and Citygarden in downtown St. Louis, Missouri.

Management

Finances

In August 2016, the institute announced a $6 million bequest to fund the Gale Asian Art Initiative, which is designed to highlight the museum's holdings in Asian art, estimated at 16,800 objects. The bequest was made by Alfred P. Gale, an heir to the Pillsbury flour fortune. The first exhibition of the initiative will be Ink Unbound: Paintings by Liu Dan. Liu Dan, a contemporary Chinese artist has been asked to create an ink painting based on a painting in the museum's collection. Dan chose St. Paul and St. Barnabas at Lystra, a 17th-century painting by the Dutch artist Willem de Poorter.

In popular culture

Scenes from the 1982 film The Personals were filmed in the museum, and Chuck Close's "Frank" and Max Beckmann's "Blind Man's Buff" were featured.

Restitution claims

In 2008, the museum restituted Fernand Leger's "Smoke Over Rooftops" to the heirs of Jewish collector Alphonse Kann whose collection had been looted by Nazis. The painting had passed through the Buchholz Gallery in New York in 1951.

In April 2024, the Italian Ministry of Culture ordered a ban on loans to the museum due to a legal dispute regarding the provenance of the Stabiae Doriforo, a Roman-era copy of the ancient Greek sculpture The Doryphoros of Polykleitos, which Italy said was looted from Stabiae and was subsequently bought by the museum from a private dealer in 1986. The museum released a statement saying that it believed it had acted "responsibly and proactively" when acquiring the statue.

Selected objects & paintings

|File:Imperial Portrait of a Prince 83.30.jpg|Imperial Portrait of a Prince, China, Qing dynasty |File:Ceremonial vessel in the form of a water buffalo 2000.204.1.jpg|Ceremonial vessel, central Thailand, c. 1000–300 BCE, |File:Pair of winged dragons 50 46.371,2.jpg|Pair of winged dragons, China, Warring States period |File:Henri Matisse, 1907, Les trois baigneuses (Three Bathers), oil on canvas, 60.3 x 73 cm, The Minneapolis Institute of Arts.jpg|Henri Matisse, Les trois baigneuses (Three Bathers), 1907 |File:El Greco (Domenikos Theotokopoulos) - Christ Driving the Money Changers from the Temple - Google Art Project.jpg|El Greco, Cleansing of the Temple, 1571 |File:Ceramic Bowl Fish, Mimbres, c. 1050-1150.jpg|Ceramic Bowl Fish, Mimbres, c. 1050–1150 |File:Jean Siméon Chardin - The Attributes of Art - WGA04781.jpg|Jean Siméon Chardin, The Attributes of Art, 1766 |File:Joan Miró, 1920, Les cartes espagnoles (The Spanish Playing Cards), oil on canvas, 63.5 x 69.5 cm, Minneapolis Institute of Art.jpg|Joan Miró, Les cartes espagnoles (The Spanish Playing Cards), 1920 |File:Vincent van Gogh - Olive Trees - Google Art Project (Minneapolis Institute of Arts).jpg|Vincent van Gogh, Olive Trees Saint-Rémy, November 1889 |File:Rembrandt van Rijn - Lucretia - Google Art Project (nAHoI2KdSaLshA).jpg|Rembrandt's Lucretia, 1666 |File:Ainu attush robe, Hokkaido, Japan, 19th c.JPG|Ainu attush robe, Hokkaido, Japan, 19th |File:Gauguin I raro te oviri II.jpg|Paul Gauguin, Under the Pandanus II, 1891 |File:Fernand Léger, 1910-11, Le compotier (Table and Fruit), oil on canvas, 82.2 x 97.8 cm, Minneapolis Institute of Arts.jpg|Fernand Léger, Le compotier (Table and Fruit), 1910–11 |File:Doryphoros MIA 866.jpg|Doryphoros (the Spear Bearer) |File:Henry Ward Ranger - Landscape (1909).jpg|Henry Ward Ranger, Landscape (1909) |File:Alvan Fisher - Approaching Storm, White Mountains.jpg|Alvan Fisher, Approaching Storm, White Mountains (1820s) |File:Winslow Homer - The conch divers.jpg|Winslow Homer, The Conch Divers (1885)

References

References

1. Minneapolis Star-Tribune, December 30, 2022
2. "Minneapolis Institute of Art".
3. Gihring, Tim. (January 1, 2015). "Mia Stories". Minneapolis Institute of Art.
4. Tillotson, Kristin. (June 9, 2006). "Minneapolis Institute of Arts Opens New Wing". Star Tribune.
5. Wurzer, Cathy. (June 7, 2006). "Minneapolis Institute of Arts Opens New Wing". Mprnews.org.
6. (August 10, 2015). "MIA reboots brand to become 'Mia'". Mprnews.org.
7. Tim Gihring. (August 3, 2015). "Once at Mia: What's in a name? — Minneapolis Institute of Art". New.artsmia.org.
8. Kerr, Euan, [https://www.mprnews.org/story/2018/12/11/mia-director-will-leave-to-head-national-gallery "Mia's director will leave to head National Gallery"], ''[[Minnesota Public Radio. Minnesota Public Radio News]]'', December 11, 2018.
9. McGlone, Peggy, [https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/museums/national-gallery-chooses-a-woman-as-new-director-for-first-time-in-its-77-year-history/2018/12/10/1e2aec84-f28c-11e8-bc79-68604ed88993_story.html "The National Gallery of Art will have a female director for the first time in its history"], ''[[The Washington Post]]'', December 11, 2018.
10. (October 1, 2019). "A New Leader for the Minneapolis Institute of Art".
11. Karen K. Ho. (February 26, 2024). "Firing of Minneapolis Institute of Art of Curator Prompts Accusations of Toxic Work Environment". ART News.
12. Alex V. Cipolle. (February 22, 2024). "Allegations of toxic work environment shake Minneapolis Institute of Art". MPR News.
13. Alicia Eler. (February 23, 2024). "Firing at Mia sparks union accusations of toxic work environment". Star Tribune.
14. (January 4, 2025). "Managing the Collection".
15. "New and Improved: The Minneapolis Institute of Arts Reopens". Antiques and the Arts Online.
16. "Jade Mountain Illustrating the Gathering of Poets at the Lan T'ing Pavilion". www.framemuseums.org.
17. "Purcell–Cutts House".
18. "Unified Vision: The Architecture and Design of the Prairie School > The Purcell-Cutts Tour".
19. "The Minnesota Artists Exhibition Program (MAEP)".
20. "Museum Library". Minneapolis Institute of Art.
21. Mault, Coco. (October 24, 2011). "A Look at MIA's Outdoor Art". Minnesota.cbslocal.com.
22. (December 29, 2012). "Ella Pillsbury Crosby: Museum Lioness". Startribune.com.
23. (April 30, 2012). "Myth and Modernity: Barlach's Drawings on the Nibelungen". Berghahn Books.
24. "Erinnerungstag 19. Juni 1954: Geistkämpfer von Ernst Barlach vor der Nikolaikirche enthüllt".
25. "The Fighter of the Spirit, Ernst Barlach".
26. "Gethsemanekirche: Prenzlauer Berg".
27. "Chinese Rock Garden, China".
28. "You searched for target park — Minneapolis Institute of Art".
29. "Eros Bendato".
30. Uren, Adam. (April 28, 2015). "The Big, Bronze Head Worth $1M: Meet Minneapolis Museum's Newest Attraction". Bringmethenews.com.
31. "Gateway Foundation".
32. (1922). "Handbook of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts".
33. Dobrzynski, Judith H.. (March 14, 2012). "A Fund for Buying Art Burnishes Collections and Reputations". New York Times.
34. Abbe, Mary. (March 5, 2009). "MIA Cuts Staff, Programming". Startribune.com.
35. Abbe, Mary. (April 20, 2011). "Minneapolis Institute of Arts Cuts Jobs to Salvage Budget". Startribune.com.
36. Abbe, Mary. (August 18, 2016). "Minneapolis Institute of Art Gets $6 Million for "Gale Asian Art Initiative".". Startribune.com.
37. (1982). "The Personals".
38. "MIA sends Nazi 'loot' home to Paris".
39. (October 31, 2008). "Museum returns painting found to be Nazi loot".
40. (April 24, 2024). "Museum returns painting found to be Nazi loot".
41. (April 26, 2024). "Minneapolis Institute on Art Statement on Doryphoros".