ARTHUR EVANS
Skidmore College’s Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery has received a $1 million one-to-one matching grant from the Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund, to bolster the Tang’s endowment and support the expansion of museum programs. The Illumination Fund has been a patron of the museum since 2008, when the fund provided a $1.2 million gift that enabled Skidmore faculty to expand their use of the Tang’s resources in their coursework, and support programs with visiting artists and scholars from across the globe.
Founded in 2000, the Tang takes an interdisciplinary approach to art, combining visual and performing arts with fields like economics, astrophysics, literature, and organic chemistry results in exhibitions, events, and performances that explore new ideas and challenge perspectives. The museum’s Dayton Director, Ian Berry, told ARTnews, “The Tang and the Illumination Fund’s priorities are a perfect match. [The museum is] interested in a wide range of conversations and dialogue across all different kinds of ideas and creative people, and we like putting those people together and having the museum serve as a laboratory.” The money, Berry said, will be used for the purpose of building new audiences.
The Illumination Fund will be hosting a New York showcase of works from a show called “I was a double,” curated by Berry and composer David Lang, which closed last month at the Tang. Each of the featured artists were asked to contribute a sentence about their paintings, drawings, photography, installations, and furniture (courtesy of Los Angeles-based couple Chris Johanson and Johanna Jackson), which Lang then set to music, filling the gallery with a score of ethereal voices. For this version of the show, Turner Prize nominee Ciara Philips will create a new work based on her recent exhibition at the Tate Modern.
“Every year we have at least one or two shows like this—something a little different, something where we’re changing up the point of view and the vocabulary of looking at what’s going on in contemporary art. Something a little tangy,” Berry concluded with a laugh.