BJU closes museums: one for renovation, one permanently
“There are no plans to sell works in the collection, Page said. The paintings at the Heritage Green location are part of BJU’s permanent collection and will be exhibited in the future in the renovated main museum.”
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20,000 visitors per year sounds impressive until you realize that’s only 55 visitors per day…visiting those little museums can be fun on a slow day, because quite frankly it’s fun with the whole staff being excited they’ve got something to do, but they’re really more of a labor of love rather than a viable business plan.
Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.
They don’t need a museum to display their art - they can loan the art out to public museums across the country
Excerpt: “Because Baroque art was unpopular in the 1950s, “Dr Bob” got started with twenty-five paintings including works by Botticelli, Botticini, Ghirlandaio, Tintoretto, Veronese, and Ribera. By 1954 his collection had grown to 40 paintings, then within ten years the owned 211 old masters, and by 1991 the Bob Jones Gallery had over four hundred works on permanent display including works by Rubens, Dore, Rembrandt, Murillo and van Honthorst. They added seven large Benjamin West paintings and also began acquiring valuable antiques, vestments and a glittering collection of Russian icons.
On entering the Bob Jones gallery one is entranced by the austere beauty of altarpieces from the early Sienese school, then as one progresses through the galleries the history of European sacred art opens up through the late medieval Flemish and Italian masters through the Renaissance and Baroque to the nineteenth century. The paintings in the Bob Jones collection are arranged chronologically and by geographical regions in galleries that are lavishly decorated and professionally lit. The artwork is displayed with salvaged architectural features, complementary wall hangings, tapestries, sculpture, church fittings and period furniture.”
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Excerpt: “It’s been called “Greenville’s best kept secret.”
Even South Carolina natives are surprised to learn that their state is home to perhaps the most important collection of religious art in the Western Hemisphere, with paintings by Old Masters like Rubens, Tintoretto and Veronese. Jaws drop when they learn that some estimate the collection as being the second largest collection of sacred art in the world – second only to the Vatican.
Bob Jones University Museum and Gallery has been displaying its awe-inspiring collection for more than 50 years.”
http://discoversouthcarolina.com/articles/enjoy-art-at-bob-jones-university-museum-and-gallery
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Excerpt: “Paintings that were already going at fire-sale prices often were procured for just a few hundred dollars. By the 1970s, BJU had amassed a collection of some 400 works that covers the 14th to the 19th centuries, with a few stellar Dutch and English pieces among the predominantly Italian Renaissance and Baroque works.
Today, tastes have shifted, and now the pieces are worth hundreds of thousands each; several would easily fetch more than a million dollars. Not that BJU is looking to sell.”
Jim & Larry’s comments suggest it’s a great time to send some of this artwork on a road show. Could do a world of good for BJU in particular and fundamentalism in general. I’d pay to see it if it came to my part of the world.
Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.
I’ve been to the on-campus gallery a number of times, sometimes for special showings. I don’t live in Greenville, but when I get down there, I do often visit the museum. While it’s not as overwhelming as visiting the Louvre or the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. (both of which I’ve toured), it’s still impresses me when I see the amount of religious art on display there — very well done, just like in major galleries. It is definitely a major cultural resource for Greenville, SC. I’m sorry to hear it will be closed for two years, but I’m sure the eventual renovations will be a good thing.
Edit: I agree a road trip for the art would be great.
Dave Barnhart
Lot’s of fun memories in the art gallery. Scared night watchmen in the middle of the night!
One time we told some guys that you could go there to pick up girls - it’s a really funny story that I will not elaborated on at this time.
Oh, and the art is nice too.
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