PHILA., Pa. – Joseph Neubauer, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Barnes Foundation, and Jerome Bogutz, Esq., President and member of the Board of Directors of the Violette de Mazia Foundation, are pleased to announce that the Violette de Mazia Foundation has been granted permission by the Montgomery County Orphan’s Court to affiliate its art appreciation education programs with the Barnes Foundation.
The Barnes-de Mazia Education Program will be based at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia. As part of the affiliation, the Violette de Mazia Foundation will transfer approximately $8 million to the Barnes Foundation to create the Barnes-de Mazia Education Endowment Fund, dedicated to supporting and expanding education programs at the Barnes Foundation, including scholarships, an annual Violette de Mazia Lecture, and a fellowship for a scholar to research the theories, writings, and teaching practices of Albert C. Barnes, Violette de Mazia, and John Dewey. In addition, the archives of the Violette de Mazia Foundation will be added to the archives of the Barnes Foundation.
“Perpetuating the educational programs developed by Albert C. Barnes, Violette de Mazia, and John Dewey has always been at the heart of the mission of the Violette de Mazia Foundation,” said Mr. Bogutz. “Uniting our programs and housing them at the Barnes will expand their reach and secure their future as well as ensure permanent recognition for the important role Violette de Mazia played in education at the Barnes Foundation,” he said.
The Barnes-de Mazia courses provide extraordinary access to the masterpieces in the Barnes Foundation. Students study art and aesthetics in rigorous programs based on the teachings of Albert C. Barnes, Violette de Mazia, and John Dewey, which encourage students to read art as an artist does and to study its formal elements. This method of teaching students the language of art makes art accessible wherever it is encountered.
“The Barnes Foundation and the Violette de Mazia Foundation share a commitment to art appreciation and aesthetics, as well as to maintaining structured multi-year education programs based on those methods jointly developed by Albert C. Barnes, Violette de Mazia and John Dewey,” said Mr. Neubauer. “The unification of the education programs of the Barnes Foundation and the Violette de Mazia Foundation will lead to an expansion of educational programming at the Barnes, and help to advance its mission through robust programming and outreach.”
In its first joint program, the annual Violette de Mazia Lecture will be inaugurated at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia on Sunday, April 26, from 2-3 pm. The lecture features Richard Wattenmaker, a widely recognized authority on late 19th- and early 20th-century modern art, as well as a former student of Violette de Mazia, and a former instructor at the Barnes Foundation. Wattenmaker will discuss the artist Chaim Soutine. Tickets are free. Registration is required online, or by calling 215-278-7200. Barnes-de Mazia courses will begin in the autumn of 2015.
Visit the Barnes Foundation online at www.barnesfoundation.org.
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