2024YearinReview
2024 in Numbers
- 151number of partners with approved projects in 2024
- 235number of projects approved in 2024
- 5.38Mnumber of people impacted by projects approved in 2024
Increasing access to museums
Access for All programming launched in January 2024! The $40 million, three-year funding initiative provides support to 64 current Art Bridges museum partners by covering the costs of admission, programming, marketing, outreach, and additional efforts that reduce barriers to access. Over the summer, we conducted a series of 8 site visits to collect data and analyze the initiative’s impact. On average, Access for All visitors are younger, more diverse, and first-time museumgoers, who reported a greater sense of social connection with their respective museum compared to more general audiences.There was also a 280% average increase in attendance on Access for All days at a few sites!
In preparation for the Fighters for Freedom exhibition, Oklahoma City Museum of Art produced four large free-standing labels, placed several feet away from the artworks on purpose-built stands. These labels provided in-depth explanation of the various individuals and historical events portrayed in the works on view. The labels also had textured tactile reproductions of the works of art for blind or low-vision visitors.
Borrower: Oklahoma City Museum of Art
Lender: Smithsonian American Art Museum and Renwick Gallery
Sharing art nationwide
The Art Bridges Collection continued to solidify its position as a vital resource for our partner museums and communities nationwide. Last year, we supported multiple projects, including the Elizabeth Catlett retrospective at the Brooklyn Museum, which featured "Homage to My Young Black Sisters." This exhibition highlighted the artist’s activism and honored her legacy in American visual culture. Additionally, 4 works from the Art Bridges Collection, including Mickalene Thomas’ "Portrait of Qusuquzah #5," were placed in the Lisanby Museum at James Madison University for the "Worlds Within and Without" show. These works engaged intergenerational audiences and fostered learning and connection with Black poetic traditions, all exemplifying the depth of access and community we aspire to achieve through art.
Mickalene Thomas (b. 1971), Portrait of Qusuquzah #5, 2011, rhinestones, acrylic, and enamel on panel, 72 x 46 in. Art Bridges.
Supporting inclusive exhibitions
While aiming to increase access to art in communities nationwide, our Traveling Exhibitions program continued to highlight exhibitions that both celebrate and challenge the American art canon. In collaboration with our partners, we actively traveled 11 exhibitions in 2024, including "Silver Linings: Celebrating the Spelman Art Collection," a stunning group of works by African American artists spanning decades of art history, and "Blanche Lazzell: Becoming an American Modernist," which has introduced new audiences to a lesser-known female printmaker and painter. We also have 16 new exhibitions in various stages of development that are slated to begin touring as soon as this spring.
Michelangelo Lovelace, My Community, 2016, acrylic on canvas, 39 x 36 in. Courtesy of the Michelangelo Lovelace estate and Fort Gansevoort Gallery.
Getting art out of storage
In 2024, we expanded our commitment to getting art out of storage by adding 264 new artworks to the Partner Loan Network. We now have a total of 581 artworks circulating the country, one being Julie Green's "The Last Supper," which was displayed in its entirety for the first time at the Boise Art Museum. This long-running visual art and research project—a recent addition to the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art collection—illustrates final meals requested by persons on death row in the United States on nearly 1,000 secondhand plates. We also added works from institutions like the Toledo Museum of Art, Museo de Arte de Ponce, and Whitney Museum of American Art, all of which will continue to tour the country through our Partner Loan Network.
Julie Green (1961-2021), The Last Supper, 1999-2021, paint on found ceramic plates, overall dimensions vary with installation. Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, gift of The Last Supper Irrevocable Trust, 2023.6. Image courtesy of College Art Association.
Facilitating museum collaborations
The Cohort Program wrapped up the year with 4 newly launched cohorts, 17 exhibition openings, and 11 Learning & Engagement projects. Convenings continued to be a cornerstone of the program, giving our partner museums the opportunity to enjoy professional comradery and project planning at 13 gatherings in US cities like Anchorage, Cincinnati, Little Rock, Montgomery, Norfolk, and Fort Worth. Our first 4 cohorts—led by the Detroit Institute of Arts, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art—celebrated over 5 impactful years of collection sharing, having opened 44 exhibitions, shared 1,071 objects, and engaged 1,165,981 people. One such exhibition, "Many Wests: Artists Shape an American Idea" presented by the Smithsonian American Art Museum cohort, was recognized for the advancement of diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion by the American Alliance of Museums. We also began an evaluation of the Cohort Program, and following a period of reimagining and restructuring, we're excited for its new design to launch in 2025!
Philadelphia Museum of Art cohort’s final convening at the new Palmer Museum of Art.
Engaging communities
Over the last year, the Learning & Engagement team collaborated with our partner museums on 73 unique projects. We activated 7 works from the Art Bridges Collection at their debut venues and partnered with 19 new organizations, such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art. As part of the Met’s first Learning & Engagement award, our team helped develop programming to complement the presentation of Henry Ossawa Tanner’s painting "The Thankful Poor." This included a dinner in Harlem that brought together individuals and organizations from across New York City to celebrate art, culture, and community. Guests were treated to a three-course meal by Ghetto Gastro, reflections by Dr. Jessica B. Harris and Sylvia Yount, music, souvenir portraits, family passes to The Met, and more. Additionally, we launched the Idea Center on our website, which highlights 51 previous Learning & Engagement projects and counting. This repository will continue to grow and serve as a source of inspiration and idea generation for current and future partners.
The Met hosted a memorable Community Dinner at Refettorio in Harlem in honor of The Thankful Poor by Henry Ossawa Tanner, currently on loan to The Met’s American Wing from Art Bridges. Photo by Argenis Apolinario.
Empowering the next generation
We continued to support emerging arts professionals through our growing Internship Program. Last year, we hosted 12 summer interns from across the country and Puerto Rico for an eight-week residency at our Bentonville office, and then, we welcomed 8 academic-year interns to our team in September. In working with each of our departments, these interns helped us achieve our mission of increasing access to American art, while engaging in professional development workshops and educational site visits to cultural institutions across the region.
Summer Class of 2024 interns attend a painting class.
Fostering arts leadership
The Fellows Program also expanded with the launch of the third and final class in the three-year pilot program, which was conceived to establish career pathways for historically underrepresented groups in the arts and offer new models for fellowship roles within museums. The new fellows participated in a monthlong residency in Bentonville to directly engage with the work of the foundation and connect with previous fellows before stepping into their roles at six of our partner museums, including the Columbus Museum of Art, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Delaware Art Museum, Mattatuck Museum, Peoria Riverfront Museum, and Toledo Museum of Art.
Art Bridges Fellows attend an excursion during their residency (Bentonville, AR).
Gathering actionable data
Last year, the Art Bridges COVES program welcomed 38 new sites to the cohort, increasing the total to 78 participating museums. Within the year, our partners collected 14,708 surveys, which showed an average Net Promoter Score of 73.4. The surveys also included a belongingness questionnaire, and over 90% of visitors strongly agreed that they felt like they belonged when attending our partner museums. As we move into 2025, we look forward to sharing additional findings from COVES and helping art museums better serve their communities.
14,708 surveys were collected by partners in collaboration with the Art Bridges Evaluation team.