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PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
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Stanhope Hall, Princeton, New Jersey 08544-5264
Telephone 609-258-3601; Fax 609-258-1301Contact: Ruta Smithson (609) 258-3763
February 7, 2000
University Art Museum Receives Gift of Contemporary Art
Norton Collection Donates Group of Contemporary Photographs
PRINCETON, N.J. -- The Art Museum, Princeton University, has been named one of twenty-nine museums in the United States and abroad to receive gifts of contemporary art from the well-known collection of Peter and Eileen Norton.
The Nortons are donating nearly 1,000 works, with a total estimated value of more than $2 million, to The Art Museum and such institutions as the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Tate Gallery in London. Most of the gifts, however, are going to college and university art museums and to institutions outside the biggest cities, bringing the works of challenging younger artists to the attention of a broader public and building the collections of the most active and vibrant of America's smaller museums.
Most of the pieces in the Norton donation were made in the 1990s and are the work of younger artists. To encourage inventiveness in building museum collections, the Nortons have organized the donation in packages, suiting each group of works to the needs and curatorial direction of the museum receiving the gift. Rather than group the works in conventional categories -- by style or period, for example -- the Nortons have preferred to package the gifts by themes. The Art Museum at Princeton has received a group of 22 contemporary photographs.
The Nortons hope their gifts will inspire others to be inventive in supporting these museums. "Even the biggest museums have very limited funds for the purchase of contemporary art," Peter Norton explains. "The many smaller art museums and arts centers are even shorter on acquisition funds. So we thought the most interesting and beneficial thing we could do was to create mini-collections that would be organized in some meaningful way -- by region, for example, or by subject matter -- and donate them to lean but admirable arts institutions across the country: the university galleries and museums in smaller cities that have shown spunk and interest in this realm."
"Our purpose," Mr. Norton continues, "is to respond to the rise of cultural excellence across the United States. Virtually every regional capital, from Miami to Seattle, now has some cultural facility that exhibits contemporary art and collects it to the extent it can. That's an important phenomenon -- but it's gone unheralded. So, as much as we honor world leaders such as MoMA and the Tate, we feel that's not enough. To do our part for the values of experimental art, we also want to help strengthen these important smaller institutions all around the country."
Acting Director Peter C. Bunnell expressed his pleasure that Princeton was chosen to receive this gift. "The twenty-two photographs by contemporary artists enhance our already strong collection in this area by providing new depth in our holdings by Jo Ann Callis, Robert Dawson, Philip Lorca di Corcia and John Pfahl, among others, and new representations by such photographers such as Merlin Carpenter, Biff Henrich, Fran Jamore and Yriea Nagashima. This expression of support for the museum and our academic program by Eileen and Peter Norton is greatly appreciated." The Art Museum will exhibit the photographs later this year.
The Nortons began to assemble their collection in the 1980s, concentrating on new works that embodied socially meaningful ideas in visually exciting forms. The couple stepped up their collecting in 1990, the year Mr. Norton merged his company, Peter Norton Computing Inc., with Symantec Corp. Since then, the Nortons have consistently been included on the ArtNews list of the world's 200 top collectors.
Through the present donation, the Nortons are giving away some 40 percent of their existing collection. The donation follows upon a decade of similar initiatives by Eileen and Peter Norton. Among the couple's best-known philanthropies in the arts has been the Curator's Grant Program, initiated in 1990. Each year, the Nortons provide discretionary funds to two or three contemporary-art curators of exceptional merit, so the curators can purchase works of art for their institutions. In this way, the Nortons have rewarded and encouraged fresh thinking by curators, developed a nationwide community among curators, built the collections of museums, and provided much-needed sales to artists.
Independent curator Thomas Solomon and the Nortons' Senior Curator Susan Cahan surveyed institutions throughout the United States on behalf of the Nortons in order to propose a list of smaller museums and university art galleries that might benefit from the donation. Among the institutions receiving gifts through the Norton donation are the Bass Museum of Art, Miami Beach; the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, New York; the Contemporary Museum, Honolulu; High Museum of Art, Atlanta; Oakland Museum of California; Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle; University Art Museum, Santa Barbara; and University of California Berkeley Art Museum; and Weatherspoon Art Gallery, University of North Carolina, Greensboro.
"We are interested in museums that are in a process of growth or evolution," Peter Norton explains. "We felt a well-conceived donation could give a boost to a program that was under way. We also felt the donation could encourage the community to support the museum and become involved in it. When someone from outside steps in with a gift, it says to the community, 'You have a worthwhile institution in your midst.'"
"At the same time," Mr. Norton continues, "this donation says, 'These artworks deserve to be exhibited and discussed.' Even if they haven't been certified as art-historical, even if the market hasn't stamped them with a dollar value, these artworks have meaning and legitimacy in their own right. By placing them within thematic contexts, and by giving them to museums where we know they'll be appreciated, we help put these works into the public discourse. And that's where the ideas and spirit of contemporary art belong."
The Art Museum is open to the public without charge. Free highlights tours of the collection are given every Saturday at 2 p.m. The Museum is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m. It is closed on Monday and major holidays. The Museum Shop closes at 5 p.m. The Museum is located in the middle of the Princeton University campus. Picasso’s large sculpture Head of a Woman stands in front. For further information, please call (609) 258-3788.