Danforth Art

Danforth Art, Museum\School

Established	1975
Location	14 Vernon St. Framingham, Massachusetts 01702
Coordinates	42°18′8.77″N 71°26′9.18″W / 42.3024361°N 71.4358833°W / 42.3024361; -71.4358833
Director	Debra Petke
Website	www.danforthart.org

Established as a grassroots organization in 1975 by a committed group of community activists, business owners, educators, and artists, Danforth Art (formerly Danforth Museum of Art) is a museum and school in Framingham, Massachusetts that invites visitors to see, learn about, create, and be inspired by art. Danforth Art educates the public through its permanent collection of American art from the 19th century to the present day, changing exhibitions of contemporary artists, studio art classes and workshops, and a variety of community outreach programs.

In the fall of 2016, Danforth Art Museum\School was forced to relocate from its historical location in Framingham center after it was evicted by a seemingly apathetic Framingham town government.^[1] In May of 2016 the museum was ordered by Framingham Town Manager Bob Halpin to vacate the building within 3.5 months, after having been present there for several decades. Halpin said, "We advised them that they should make some plans to, you know, get out of the building before the next heating (season). It was as simple as that. It was a meeting where we basically informed them that we’ve lost our ability to provide heat, none of which should be a surprise to them because the building is falling apart around them.”

Danforth relocated to the Jonathan Maynard Building on Framingham Centre Common, where the new facility was supposed to house classrooms for studio art instruction, storage for the Museum’s Permanent Collection, and a workroom for its stewardship. However, much to the chagrin of the local community, the new building did not offer any museum galleries or exhibitions, and the museum has not allowed for any public access since its relocation; the only pieces from the museum's permanent collection that were on exhibit as of early-2018 were a handful of items in a small gallery at a private, high-end senior-living facility in Needham, Massachusetts.^[2]

Museum

The museum's permanent collection focuses on American Art from the 19th-century to the present,^[3] and includes work by Gilbert Stuart, Charles Sprague Pearce, Eastman Johnson, Albert Bierstadt, and Thomas Hart Benton, as well as work by the Boston Expressionists and contemporary artists such as Faith Ringgold, Richard Yarde, Andrew Stevovich, and Jason Berger.

As of 2018, Danforth Art did not provide any museum galleries or exhibitions. The website indicates that the museum plans to reopen to the public in 2019, but Danforth's future had been in limbo due to the institution's plan to partner with Framingham State University and transfer ownership of its new building, acquired from the Town of Framingham on advantageous terms, to the university. The City of Framingham maintained a first right of refusal over any transfer of the property, and initially blocked the sale to FSU on the grounds that Danforth's ambiguous plans essentially allowed for the building to eventually "morph into another university building." ^[4]

Danforth management threatened to completely dissolve the institution if the sale of the Jonathan Maynard building to FSU was not allowed to take place, with executive director Debra Petke writing, "The merger of Danforth Art and Framingham State University, and thus, the future of Danforth Art, is contingent on the sale of the building to Framingham State University. Should the Town of Framingham vote to purchase the building rather than allow its sale, the merger contract would be voided, likely resulting in the dissolution of Danforth Art."^[5]

In October of 2017 Framingham town meeting members ultimately chose not to exercise the city's right of refusal on the property's sale, seemingly paving way for the Danforth-FSU merger to take place.^[6]

In the meantime, since 2016 Danforth's permanent collection has sat in storage and the institution only maintains temporary off-site exhibits, hosted at four "trusted partners": the Griffin Museum of Photography in Winchester, MA; Endicott College in Beverly, MA; the Worcester Art Museum; and, puzzlingly to many, at North Hill in Needham, MA, which is a private, high-end elderly assisted living community inaccessible to the general public.^[7]

Some critics have blasted Danforth management, as well as the Framingham city government, for failing to have basic contingency plans in place and for unfairly depriving the MetroWest community of a tremendous cultural asset for a prolonged period of time; others have noted that the public, area benefactors, and local and state government have been generally indifferent to the institution's troubled plight and extended closure, underscoring a socioeconomic chasm in the Bay State's allocation and promotion of cultural resources.^[4]

Nevertheless, FSU president F. Javier Cevallos remained optimistic, saying in October of 2017 that “I can commit to you that we will open the museum in 2019. This is a fast process. We will move as fast as we can, and we will have the museum (open) and working in 2019. It will make a big difference to the community.”

References

External links

• "Danforth Art website". Retrieved 11 November 2013.
• "Framingham Patch". Retrieved 11 November 2013.
• "Profile: Katherine French". Retrieved 7 April 2014.