“I’ve always felt very strongly that a museum is a form of education,” said Bonnie Clearwater, NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale director and chief curator. “We find ways for people at every level of knowledge to enter the museum and to be engaged and excited.”
Today at the NSU Art Museum, exhibits feature works from American realists visualizing an escape from bustling cities. You can also follow the journey of animation from hand-painted cels to digital graphics, as well as define a movement at Yale University of artists of color who attended as graduates in the early 2000s and their efforts for greater representation in the art world. The museum highlights well-known artists, emerging talent, and works that may have been overlooked when they were initially created. From Latin America to Europe, and from the classics to contemporary, Clearwater and her team draw from an extraordinary art collection to create a unique experience for every visitor.
“We have been blessed by collectors who recognize how essential it is to have artwork accessible to students and the public—not hidden away in their homes or even warehouses,” Clearwater added.
“This includes people like Fort Lauderdale collectors Dr. Stanley and Pearl Goodman, who in the early 1990s made the decision to follow their passion and build a comprehensive collection of Latin American modern art that would be of great interest to students and the public,” she explained. “These works, which are a promised gift to the museum, are true masterpieces. Not only do we show the collection, but the works are constantly on loan to great museums around the world.”
Another example is the artwork of William Glackens and the Ashcan School, late 19th/early 20th century artists who were aiming to forge an American style of painting. Through donations from the Sansom Foundation and the artist’s son Ira Glackens, NSU Art Museum houses the largest collection of the artist’s work. The Sansom Foundation continues to provide funding for exhibitions, research, documentation, and conservation and recently established an endowment for the museum.
“We are constantly curating new shows from that collection,” Clearwater noted. “Now on view is an exhibition called By the Sea, By the Sea that not only looks at Glackens’ paintings of the seaside, but includes his illustrations of New York City in the early 20th century. The lower East Side and Fifth Avenue being so packed with people makes it obvious why there was this need to escape these dense urban centers to go to the seashore.”
The museum also boasts a large, contemporary collection, including an extraordinary portfolio of contemporary artists beginning in the late 1980s to the present, and with a focus on women and artists of color, that is a promised gift of Fort Lauderdale collectors Francie Bishop Good and David Horvitz.
The museum often presents timed-based art, such as a current immersive film installation from the renowned contemporary South African performance artist William Kentridge. Clearwater organized a concurrent exhibition from the museum’s collection of digital and video works by a number of artists who also experiment with animation, like Kentridge.
This exhibition, entitled Animation Generation, includes cels from Disney’s original animated film Pinocchio, as well as digital animation created from a single repetitive image. “It’s an interesting way of presenting technology,” Clearwater said. “Our university is at the forefront of technology and innovation. Well, that’s what art museums are. That’s what artists are.”
The current Lux et Veritas exhibition focuses on a transformative generation of artists of color who attended Yale in the early 2000s. The exhibition was sparked by a conversation Clearwater had with Barry Silverman, M.D., vice chair of the NSU Board of Trustees, as well as the chair of the museum’s art collection committee, and a dedicated collector of works from artists of color, led to the organization of this exhibition. Artists included in this group are Kehinde Wiley, who is famously known for painting President Obama’s portrait, and Torkwase Dyson, who was recently featured in a New York Times article.
“Not only did these artists change contemporary art, but they formed an artist collective while at Yale, which continues to the present day,” Clearwater said. “One of their purposes was to bring attention to those who came before them who had struggled and sacrificed so much so they could have this opportunity. And not only did they play a major role in bringing attention to those artists, but they also saw that they had a key role in mentoring the next generation.”
Their success can be seen not only in their own artistic endeavors, but also in the increase in the percentage of Yale School of Art graduate students who identify as artists of color (currently 64 percent) and the programs they’ve created to help younger students find a path to art.
Clearwater shares that aspiration to help teens discover art and art careers. Two years ago, the museum started a teen program. Participants learn about the museum field, create portfolios for college applications, and even develop their own programming. Earlier this month, the teens took over the museum’s inaugural, no-cost Thursday Starry Nights event, organizing programs with the Museum of Discovery and Science and other partners, developing drop-in art projects for visitors, and designing performances for the event.
“The students are getting these outstanding opportunities. What a great way to introduce these bright, young students to NSU,” Clearwater said.
In addition, more than 3,000 public school students visit the museum every year thanks to the donor-funded education programming. The museum pays for transportation and admission for the students and creates specific guided tours for classes, including an art workshop. A recent experience for school groups and teens included the opportunity to watch dancers from South Africa create a new performance in the museum’s galleries. Long-time museum supporters Nancy Bryant and Jerry Taylor joined a group of students for one of the interactive sessions and were able to see the impact of their gifts.
“We couldn’t do any of this without the support of our donors and our extraordinary board. They recognize their role in fundraising, they engage, and they get results. Our board is completely diverse, with all ages and a diverse representation of the community. We have strong representation from Broward County, but we also have board members from all over the world,” Clearwater noted.
“All of this goes to helping bring awareness of the museum,” she added. The museum gets an enormous amount of local, as well as national and international recognition—all of which also brings awareness to Nova Southeastern University.”
For more information on how to support the NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale, please contact Bonnie Clearwater, director and chief curator, at bclearwater@moafl.org.