2021-22 Year in Review

The past year for the Memorial Art Gallery has been one of robust recovery.

We knew that it wasn’t going to be enough simply to welcome people back to the museum in a post-pandemic world. We needed to take them by the hand and show them new ways to find fun and discovery in our outstanding collections and special programs.

We did just that with Up Against the Wall: Art, Activism, and the AIDS Poster, a selection from the AIDS Education Poster Collection at the University of Rochester’s River Campus Libraries. Six years in the making and impeccably timed, the deeply informed, extraordinarily rich exhibition about yet another pandemic came together thanks to the work of a blue-ribbon advisory committee dedicated to representing diverse experts and communities. Because of the committee’s work, an engaged audience was ready to show up long before the 15-week exhibition opened.

MAGconnect, meanwhile, carried on strong with its mission to offer free transportation, a dynamic tour, and a one-year MAG membership to qualified individuals from marginalized communities.

MAG also hit a milestone in integrating itself even more seamlessly with the community it serves. It has been a dream of the Board of Managers to complete the Centennial Sculpture Park along University Avenue since before I arrived in 2014. This fiscal year, enough money was raised for this next phase of the Park’s design, construction, and art acquisitions—with a ribbon cutting planned for 2023.

I felt humbled to be director at a time when the museum took stock of the exceptional 50-plus-year career of our region’s own G. Peter Jemison, a painter and multimedia artist, foundational figure in the Native American art world, and a faith keeper of the Seneca Nation of Indians who founded the Ganondagan Art & Culture Center.

And I continue to revel in exciting news. A transformational anonymous gift of $4.15 million, the largest in our history, enabled us to permanently endow our contemporary art program. Now we can hire MAG’s first curator of contemporary art, who will help shed new light on the latest developments of the international art world, which will inevitably further illuminate the meaning and value of our historical collections.

I offer my sincere thanks to all of you who so generously donate to, volunteer for, and support MAG. Your generosity makes all of the above-mentioned possible. In turn, we’ll keep dreaming of new ways to support the community we are so grateful to serve.

—Jonathan P. Binstock, Ph.D.
Mary W. and Donald R. Clark Director

“We’ll keep dreaming of new ways to support the community we are so grateful to serve.”

Curatorial & Exhibitions

MAG’s Curatorial & Exhibitions teams escalated efforts to acquire and exhibit works emphasizing diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion. The 67th annual Rochester-Finger Lakes Exhibition, for the first time curated locally, saw more diversity among artworks and applicants. We assembled the museum’s first major exhibition devoted to the University of Rochester’s vast collection of thought-provoking and visually arresting HIV/AIDS-related posters, and enhanced an exhibition on Renaissance art with materials from MAG’s permanent collection. Our galleries showcased themes of protest/power, race and gender, feminism, and other socially relevant topics. An Institute of Museum and Library Services grant funded the completion of a major Small Object Storage renovation project.

Docent Gallery Exhibitions

67th RFLX
August 15-October 17, 2021

Rochester’s oldest and longest-running juried exhibition showcases new work in all media by emerging and established artists from a 27-county region of Western and Central New York. Traditionally RFLX has invited curators from outside of the Finger Lakes region. This was the first time that MAG chose a local curator, Amanda Chestnut. We also received a more diverse selection of artworks from a more diverse applicant pool than in previous years.

Renaissance Impressions
November 14, 2021-February 6, 2022

Renaissance Impressions: Sixteenth-Century Prints from the Kirk Edward Long Collection was organized by the American Federation of the Arts. MAG added a significant number of Renaissance paintings, armor, and decorative arts from the permanent collection to enhance the exhibition.

Up Against the Wall: Art, Activism, and the AIDS Poster
March 6-June 19, 2022

Up Against the Wall was the first major exhibition devoted to the University of Rochester’s vast collection of HIV/AIDS-related posters. The exhibition featured 165 of the most visually arresting and thought-provoking posters from the over 8,000 posters from 130 countries assembled by collector, physician, and medical historian Dr. Edward C. Atwater. Dr. Atwater generously donated the entire collection, which also includes a broad range of AIDS-related ephemera, to the University’s River Campus Libraries’ Department of Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation beginning in 2007.

Other Exhibitions

Forman and Cameros Galleries
Kota Ezawa’s National Anthem, and thematically related (protest/power) loan of Shawn Dunwoody’s Unfinished Business
“To Help People See”: The Art of G. Peter Jemison

Lockhart Gallery
Chitra Ganesh: Sultana’s Dream
Paul Garland: Intuitive Progression

Media Arts Watch Gallery
Tony Cokes: Market of the Senses and first-ever acquisition by popular choice from this exhibition
SKy Hopinka: Memories of Movement

Acquisition Highlights

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Learning & Engagement

Department of Academic Programs

After a year of pause due to the pandemic, the Department of Academic Programs (ACP) brought back our robust multi-visit arts integration program, the MAG-Rochester City School District Expanded Learning Collaboration (ELC), and extended its reach from three schools to five serving 518 students in Grades 2–4. We also engaged with the kindergarten students from RCSD #19, one of the partner schools for ELC. A museum educator made visits to their classroom and used art works in MAG’s collection as a vehicle for learning experiences that span beyond visual art.

ACP also offers engaging public programs that connect our audiences with the permanent collection or temporary exhibitions.  The programming for fiscal year 22 included artist talks by Tony Cokes and Sky Hopinka, two symposia: Renaissance Impressions: A Guide to the Exhibition and Speaking Through Silence: A Public Conference on HIV/AIDS Histories, and a performance of Whether to Scream or Breathe: A Collaborative Concert Between the Sequoia Reed Quintet and MAG, which premiered a new composition inspired by five artworks in MAG’s collection.

Increasing accessibility for all audiences is a continuing endeavor of ACP. We produced our first Deaf-centric virtual tour that showcases objects in MAG’s permanent collection. This virtual tour, the first in the series on our YouTube channel, spotlights George Harvey’s Pittsford on the Erie Canal, and is led entirely in American Sign Language (ASL). ACP’s public programs always incorporate live ASL interpretation.

Creative Workshop

In-person art classes made a vibrant comeback at the Creative Workshop. All eight weeks of our hands-on, all-day Art Day Camp sold out, as did most adult ceramics classes. Member birthday parties also returned. Our outreach extended to more community-requested programs, including working with Norman Howard School students on curriculum-based clay projects and Girl Scout Brownies on earning pottery badges. Our efforts landed us a spot on the Kids Out & About list of favorite Arts Educators in Rochester.

Marketing & Engagement Department

The Marketing & Engagement Department boosted audience engagement efforts with increased crossover programming and social media outreach. Highlights include a World AIDS Day event featuring free admission and a livestreamed concert to preview the exhibition Up Against the Wall: Art, Activism, and the AIDS Poster. During the Dudes, Nudes, and Broods DeTOUR, tied to the Renaissance Impressions exhibition, visitors received an educational, entertaining lesson on the intersection of art and human anatomy. We geared new programs toward our youngest audiences, with monster and bunny themes. For the community at large, the #MAGmoment hashtag inspired more people to brand their museum experiences on Instagram.

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Volunteers

The Gallery Council

The Gallery Council’s active and enthusiastic volunteer members participated in four on-site fundraisers, plus additional fundraising through Art Tours and THE STORE @ MAG. The innovative and creative thinking of its members, as well as innumerable hours of hard work and friendship, continue to help sustain MAG. Among the Council’s highlights were being lead sponsor of the 2021-2022 Celebration Series, the 67th Rochester–Finger Lakes Exhibition, and the Creative Workshop. Thirty volunteers provided sales assistance, customer service, and merchandising support in THE STORE @ MAG. To be as accommodating as possible, the Program Committee planned and hosted creative programs both in-person and virtually.

Volunteers

This year, more than 1,000 people donated their time and energy to help further the mission of the Memorial Art Gallery. Our volunteers are a crucial part of the MAG team and help in all areas across the museum, including day-to-day operations, special events, and everywhere in between. All volunteers receive on-site training and an invitation to an annual volunteer recognition reception. Volunteers who work more than 100 hours annually receive discounts at THE STORE @ MAG and free or reduced admission to museum events.

Docents

MAG’s Docents are an integral part of the museum’s efforts to enhance people’s lives by cultivating relationships and building community through the direct experience of art and creativity. Each year, our volunteer Docents lead thousands of schoolchildren on tours of the collection and exhibitions. A welcoming Docent voice is the first introduction to MAG for many visitors.

Docent-led tours, including weekly public tours, welcomed 6,247 visitors.

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Advancement

As the MAG and the Advancement Team continue to emerge from the two-and-a-half-year pall created by the pandemic, we realize how much we depend on the generosity and friendship of so many MAG lovers. We are so grateful for the ongoing support of members, patrons, and community organizations, including corporations and foundations.

Even with the obstacles posed by the pandemic, we were able to raise enough annual and special gifts to meet operational needs and fund critical programs. Notable efforts included a collaboration with the River Campus Libraries to present Up Against the Wall: Art, Activism, and the AIDS Poster, the first major exhibition devoted to the University of Rochester’s vast collection of HIV/AIDS-related posters, given to the University’s library, by Dr. Edward C. Atwater, collector, physician, and medical historian.

Also, MAG received an extraordinary gift, the largest cash gift in its history, from an anonymous donor, to fund a new position: curator of contemporary art. The gift also established an endowment for the acquisition, care, and exhibition of contemporary art.

We are deeply grateful for all gifts, large and small. In this publication we recognize the
following organizations and individuals who donated $25,000 or more in fiscal year 2022 (July 1, 2021–June 30, 2022):

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Financial Report

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Publications