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Because the Library’s mission dictates that it serve a broad public, the potential for exhibitions is limitless and enables Library staff to define and display aspects of the collection that have special significance to the research community. Since 2000, the Library has offered patrons and visitors small-scale displays that highlight often overlooked aspects of the research and archives collections.
Two of these exhibitions have featured documents and memorabilia in the Frick Family Archives. These displays capture the temper of the times, as they open a window onto the attitudes toward art collecting of both Henry Clay Frick and his daughter Helen Clay Frick, or conjure the aura of the family’s lifestyle as they traveled, entertained, and gave of themselves in the service of larger causes such as The Red Cross.
Other exhibitions have cast the spotlight on unique materials such as artists’ sketchbooks or ephemeral material documenting avant-garde exhibitions of the early and mid-twentieth century. The Power of Art Journalism was an unusually popular exhibition, as it underscored how the Library has amassed material by and about art critics over the decades. More often than not, the exhibition program reinforces the live discussion element of the Library’s Research Program. |
