Museums and our communities are interconnected; museums become more alive through their audiences. In the year just ended, we welcomed more than 1.3 million visitors to the MFA, our greatest number of visitors in the past 20 years.
It is our obligation and our privilege to serve these audiences. To link them to one another and create ways of understanding that lead to new truths. And to listen. In a moment of seismic shifts, we can embrace change in how we learn, how we share, and how we gather with others.
The strength and popularity of the past year’s exhibitions and gifts of art were a tribute to the MFA’s unique history, the depth of our collections, and the energy of our staff to create dialogue and new partnerships.
“Ansel Adams in Our Time” (December 13, 2018–February 24, 2019) allowed us to imagine the artist as advocate, pointing to new possibilities for living ethically and with determination. The iconic visual legacy of Ansel Adams continues to inspire and provoke. Through photographs by Adams and others, “Ansel Adams in Our Time” offered a new perspective connecting his passion for the environment and the land—back to his 19th-century predecessors and forward to contemporary photographers who engage with these issues today. His works point to a way of committing to thought and action, to create change.
On rare occasions, gifts to museums have the ability to create change, to transform collections. In December 2018 the MFA received the largest, most significant gift of Chinese paintings and calligraphy in its history: the Wan-go H. C. Weng Collection. Representing a range of artworks acquired by and passed down through six generations of a single family, this remarkable gift beautifully complements the MFA’s existing masterpieces. Wan-go Weng has said, “My whole life is connected to Chinese paintings and calligraphy. The first museum I ever visited in the US was the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. . . . I am so happy that both collections are together now—it’s almost like destiny.” We are exceptionally grateful, and are committed to sharing his extraordinary collection with future generations.
"Frida Kahlo and Arte Popular" (February 27–June 19, 2019), the Museum's first exhibition about the artist, was revelatory, showing the influence of Mexican folk art on her now iconic paintings. The exhibition illuminated the dialogue between Kahlo’s art, her political views, and her role as a collector and champion of arte popular and its makers—and of Mexican national culture. It also broadened discussions about the influences of unidentified folk artists on famed modern painters.
“Gender Bending Fashion” (March 21–August 25, 2019) explored the last 100 years of fashion that challenges—and transcends—binary definitions of dress. It was an exhibition of the history of self-expression and hidden histories. In order to create inclusive yet declarative content that would draw and engage audiences, we gathered insights from roundtables of diverse voices from our community. The result was an exhibition woven through with new narratives of struggle, defiance, empowerment, comfort, freedom, individuality, and nonconformity.
“Toulouse-Lautrec and the Stars of Paris” (April 7–August 4, 2019) featured more than 200 evocative works by Lautrec and his contemporaries drawing from the Museum’s collection and that of the Boston Public Library, a true collaboration in every way—from curatorial and conservation decisions to coordinated public programs—a civic partnership that included a range of public programs at the MFA and BPL with benefits to members of both.
Our work as a public institution in this moment is important. Our communities need us. We have the opportunity to gather with purpose, and to share our collections and the many interpretations of them. We can bring meaning and pleasure into people’s lives, extend an invitation to come together, and give voice to a range of ideas.
As we anticipate our 150th year, we will honor our past, remember our founders and their principles, while we reimagine our MFA for our 21st-century audiences. We will reaffirm our commitment to excellence in all that we do—including exhibitions with international partnership, and community partnerships that help develop audiences. We will recommit to enhancing the power of art and artists, with a renewed focus on the community in which we live.
With anticipation for the future,