Update on The Barnes Museum

But good post nevertheless. Good to get discussion going.

...we can agree to disagree...just this once :<}

this is as big a bag of lies as I've ever seen.
The area residents didn't want all the buses and tourists for YEARS. they act as if no one has EVER read a newspaper or remembered a story that was written about how they've been SUING the barnes for years.

now that they are faced with PUBLIC DISGRACE they raise they're monetary hackles and try to fight...

More people will see the barnes collection in a week, predominantly school children then in a YEAR out in lower merion, And if he was alive, he would agree with that idea...

on some fundamental level.

the elite of merion should find some REAL cause to get behind.

dear anonymouse,

you are quite misinformed...but we don't have the energy to explain the whole saga.

we will point out that it is hardly just the elite of merion who want to keep our township's art collection from being raped by philadelphia.

sorry, but it is our art collection and philly can't manage what it has now.

please give our regards to the crooks like fumo and street who are partially facilitating this.

When the Gerard Trust Will was broken decades ago it exposed the breakdown of the idea that any will [ yours/mine ] is no longer safe. How confident can we be that our wishes will be honored after our deaths. Dr Barnes wishes are being trashed. He had the insight to select these master's works for us to see here in the U S rather than travel to Europe at great expense. He deserves our dedicated respect not insults.
As a professional painter and instructor many of my student's can access this collection with out the added expense and stress of going into Philadelphia. It's hard enough to get some of them to the Philadelphia Museum of Art with it's on site parking. There is fear of harm, traffic, parking and worse be it real or media generated. Many are accomplished artists that need to see original work to advance their training.
Many serious art students and lovers from overseas often come to the Barnes first on their tours of U S Museums even before the Metropolitan, Modern, Whitney, Guggenheim, and Frick in NYC. or the many major collections in Wash.DC. and Boston.
Except for the Barnes, Brandywine, Delaware, Mitchner, and Woodmere museums... most Fine Art, Archeological, Natural, Library and Scientific collections are concentrated in center city. In the very possible event that terrorist attacks of a Nuclear or Biological nature were unleashed in the city then access to yet one more source of art scholarship would be compromised perhaps for many decades if not destroyed for all time. I'm opposed to the move more on those grounds than even the legal ones.
As long as we are at War With Terror from extremists then waiting will only help to reduce security risks. Terrorist planners have discussed the strategy of detonating nuclear devices in seven major U S cities on the same day. Can you say Philadelphia is not on that list with all it's historic properties, symbolism, port, industry, institutions, refineries, and of coarse population? Supposedly cells in this country have as many as 26 nuclear bombs...the Barnes Museum is one of the strongest structures in the region and out of reach of the core blast area of the most likely types of atomic weapons terrorists would use. This is a very patient enemy that will lull us into complacency then do what they will when all seems calm. I hope we never see that day but I'd rather not gamble with the Barnes masterpieces. They do not belong to the City of Philadelphia anyway.
The Philadelphia Museum of Art and others have great numbers of works that have been waiting for conservation for decades. Why take on the custodial responsibilities of some of the most valuable art in the U S when what the city already has can't be cared for now. It's unethical if not immoral and dangerous to to move this collection out of it's intended home.
Thank you.

The school children can be bussed to Merion as easily as to the Ben Franklin Parkway. The elite are not worried about disgrace just the
loss of a cultural landmark that Barnes "willed" to that very spot not any other. How about if we take your possessions and give them to the City of Phila. to sell or distribute among strangers instead of the designated people in your will. Why can't you see that it's theft pure and simple or are you in favor of the governmental redistribution of wealth that is also socialism pure and simple.

Build your own art collection and give it to Phila. Barnes would let you take his art collection over his dead body after the legal fight of his life then stand in the doorway with a shotgun when the trucks showed up to move it. You are unprincipled and a sad representative of an attitude that thinks art belongs to the "people" when you didn't lift a finger to create it or collect it. Just Take Take Take ! As an Artist you offend me even though I know you mean well and think your solution is best. This is a very complex issue that just doesn't get to be solved on public priority grounds. This Is private property and not in the public domain like the works in a city run museum. As much as i wish it was owned by the PUBLIC it is not and my values say HANDS OFF.

Lincoln University has a tuff decision to make and I hope it can honor Albert C. Barnes' gift by not welching on his wishes. Integrity demands such a stand despite all pressures to do a popular politically correct gesture that would ultimately be regretted in my experienced opinion. The world is full of well meaning folks that don't have a clue that the superficial ideas they profess are lacking in the rule of law or the ethics of more complex issues not always obvious to the proposal on the table. Despite my arguments roots you may win the battle as the die cast by the powers that be hold the reins be they right or deeply flawed.

Philadelphia doesn't understand that it has the possibility to make the greatest contribution to learning in history if somehow they could put the Barnes closer to the Phila. Art Museum.

Barnes was brillant, but even he movedhis paintings around sometime. He should give us that loving privilege as well. But, the Barnes should be moved to the grounds of the Phila. Art Museum with, somehow an interconnected shared gallery that would permit the Phila Museum's paintings & Barnes' Paintings to be sometimes mixed and matched.

If this was really about Art and Art education and not about politics or Barnes' ego or the personal tastes of the citizens, the two museums should be interconnected. A consolidated location would make Philadelphia a greater post-impressionist educational setting and museum stop than the MoMA, hands down. The impact on the economy and long-term integrity of the city would be immesurable.

I'm troubled that the current site for the move panders to some special developer interest to develop the site in Center City. My feeling is that they could add underground parking on the PhilaArtMuseum site (like the Metropolitan) and put the Barnes right where they are currently expanding the north side of the PhilaArtMuseum.

Barnes has everything the Phila Museum doesn't; and, likewise, there are some very large holes in Barnes collection which could be filled by the Phila Museum's 3 big Cubist Picassos and their Duchamp collection. If this was about education, they two facilities could be better put together (like beautiful music) to make a one stop trip to the best art education in the world. After all Barnes has Cezanne's Bathers and the Phila. Art Museum has the penultimate study for the Bathers - Why won't these ever be shown together? There are enough Cezannes between Barnes and the Phila Museum to start a worldwide phenomenon. There are two Manets, one in the Barnes (the laboring ship tarrers) and one in the Phila. (the idle rich passengers embarking on a journey) that if hung together reveal some of Manet's social commentary at the height of the Zola's Revolutionary France. Barnes has one great Monet (self-portrait of the artist scketching in a boat) while PhilaArtMuseum has many more. It would be nice to see them together in a shared special exhibition gallery from time to time. Barnes has one of the best Bonnard's while the PhilaArtMuseum has about five others.

Phila. as a community could expand Dr. Barnes' vision while maintaining the integrity of the Barnes which would truly capitalize on these two great existing resources. We could do in our lives what Barnes and his contemporaries who contributed to the PhilaArtMuseum could never do in their lifetimes.