The Barnes Foundation is an educational art institution in Lower Merion Township, a suburb of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the United States. It was founded in 1922 by Albert C. Barnes, who collected art after making a fortune by co-developing an early antimicrobial drug marketed as Argyrol.
Today, the Foundation possesses more than 2500 objects, including 800 paintings estimated to be worth about $25 billion.[1] Among its collection are 181 paintings by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 69 by Paul Cézanne, and 59 by Henri Matisse, as well as numerous other masters, including George de Chirico, Paul Gauguin, El Greco, Francisco Goya, Edouard Manet, Amedeo Modigliani, Jean Hugo, Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso, Maurice Utrillo, Vincent Van Gogh, Maurice Prendergast, and a variety of African artworks.
The Foundation became embroiled in controversy due to a financial crisis in the 1990s, partially related to longstanding restrictions related to its location in a residential neighborhood. The relocation of the gallery from Lower Merion to a site in Philadelphia, on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, for enhanced public access is scheduled for 2012.
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In 1922 a villa for the school was designed by Paul Cret, on the grounds of the home of Dr. Albert C. Barnes. The grounds now are the Arboretum of the Barnes Foundation.
Barnes, who derived his fortune from his development of the antiseptic drug Argyrol, began, from 1910 on, to dedicate himself to the pursuit of the arts. He was assisted at first by the painter William Glackens, with whom he had gone to high school and had become friends. In 1912, while in Paris, Barnes visited the home of Gertrude and Leo Stein, where he gained the acquaintance of such artists as Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso. In the 1920s he got to know, thanks to the merchant Paul Guillaume, the work of Amedeo Modigliani and Giorgio de Chirico. In 1922 Barnes began to transform his collection into a cultural institution. In the same year, he began the job of construction of the center and underwriting the charter that sanctioned the birth of the Barnes Foundation.
The Barnes Gallery was built on the grounds of Captain Joseph Lapsley Wilson's fledgling Arboretum. Barnes subsequently built his home next to the gallery, and this building is now the Administration building of the Foundation. Laura Barnes developed the Arboretum and the horticulture program, integral parts of the Barnes Foundation.
The original program of the Foundation, which was not a museum, but a school, was heavily influenced by the philosopher John Dewey. He helped Barnes draw up its mandate.[2][3][4] Dewey brought in two of his students to assist him in this, Lawrence Buermeyer (1889-1970) and Thomas Munro. Munro headed the Education Program at the Barnes for several years.[5]
In order to preserve the institution's identity, Barnes set out detailed terms of its operation in an indenture of trust to be honored in perpetuity after his death. These included limiting public admission to two days a week so the school could use the art collection for student study, and prohibitions against lending works in the collection, touring the collection, and presenting touring exhibitions. Matisse is said to have hailed the school as the only sane place in America to view art.
It was not until 1961 that the collection was regularly open two days a week, and all visitors still had to make reservations for entry.
In 1992 Richard Glanton, president of the Barnes Foundation, claimed that extensive repairs needed on the aging structure required breaking some terms of the indenture. From 1993 to 1995, he sent a selection of 83 French Impressionist paintings to be exhibited on a world tour, the proceeds of which were to pay for needed renovations to the Foundation, including contemporary HVAC systems. The works attracted large crowds in numerous localities, including Washington DC, Fort Worth, TX, Paris, Tokyo, and Toronto.[6][7]
A number of financial irregularities were discovered in the administration of the collection. Between the renovations, these irregularities, and the associated legal expenses, the financial situation of the Barnes declined, in spite of millions of dollars in revenue from the painting tour. A 1999 forensic audit conducted by Deloitte Touche showed the Foundation to be nearing bankruptcy.[8]
On September 24, 2002, the Foundation announced that it would petition the Montgomery County Orphans' Court (which oversees its operations) to allow the art collection to be relocated to a more accessible site on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway and to increase the number of trustees from five to fifteen members. Barnes' will stipulates that the paintings in the collection be kept "in exactly the places they are" — the Barnes estate on the Main Line west of Philadelphia.[7] The Foundation argued that it needed to expand the board of trustees to fifteen members to make fundraising viable, and that for the same reason it needed to relocate the gallery from Lower Merion to a site in Center City, Philadelphia on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. In its brief to the court, the Foundation stated that donors had proved to be reluctant to commit financial resources to the Barnes unless the gallery were to become more accessible to the public.[9]
On December 15, 2004, after a two-year legal battle that included an examination of the Foundation's financial situation, Judge Stanley Ott of the Montgomery County Orphans' Court ruled that the Foundation could relocate.[9] Three charitable foundations, the Pew Charitable Trusts, the Lenfest Foundation and the Annenberg Foundation, had agreed to help the Barnes raise $150 million on the condition that the move be approved.[10]
On June 13, 2005, Barnes Foundation president Kimberly Camp announced her resignation, to take effect no later than January 1, 2006. Camp had been appointed in 1998 with the goal of making the foundation economically viable. It was during her tenure that the proposal to move the Barnes was initiated.[11]
With the recent appointment of the Foundation's new Director of Education, it is apparent that the education program will be preserved and expanded in the new gallery, which will be the site of the Foundation's art and aesthetics courses.[12] The Foundation has also pledged to reproduce Dr. Barnes's idiosyncratic installation of artworks and other objects within the new gallery.[13]
In May 2006, the Foundation announced that it had successfully reached its $150 million fund-raising goal, and that it would expand the campaign to raise another $50 million for endowment purposes. In August 2006, the Foundation announced that it was beginning a planning analysis for the new gallery. Derek Gillman (formerly of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts) was selected as its new director and president.[14]
The Barnes Foundation is moving ahead with its plans to relocate the gallery collection to a new facility to be constructed in the 2000 block of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.[15] Tod Williams & Billie Tsien Architects of New York have been selected as lead Architects of the building project. The building team also consists of the Philadelphia-based firm, Ballinger, as Associate Architect, Olin Partnership as Landscape Architect and Fisher Marantz Stone as lighting designers. Aegis Property Group will serve as external project managers with L. F. Driscoll as construction Managers. Supervising and coordinating the project for the Barnes Foundation is Project Executive Bill McDowell.[16] Students and staff at the Youth Study Center, which was formerly on the planned site, have been relocated to West Philadelphia. The Youth Study Center building was demolished to allow sitework to begin for new construction.
The Construction for the new building is planned to start in the Fall of 2009 and be completed by Winter 2011. The new Barnes Foundation building on the Parkway is planned to house the Foundation's world-renowned art collection in galleries that replicate the scale, proportion and configuration of the original Merion galleries. The new site will also contain increased space for the Foundation's art education program and conservation department, a retail shop and cafe.[17]
After Judge Ott's decision in 2004, a group called "Friends of the Barnes Foundation" was formed. The Friends of the Barnes Foundation and Montgomery County filed briefs in Montgomery County Orphan's Court to open the hearings that allowed the move. They hoped to persuade Judge Ott to reopen the case because of the changed circumstances in the County. On May 15, 2008 Judge Ott published an opinion dismissing the request of both the Friends of the Barnes Foundation and the Montgomery County Commissioners to reopen the case due to lack of standing. Congressman Jim Gerlach has strongly supported keeping the Barnes in Lower Merion. [18][19]
On May 20, 2009, Friends of the Barnes Foundation appeared before the Commissioners of the Delaware River Port Authority (DRPA) in Camden, New Jersey to request that they reconsider their 2003 authorization of a grant for $500,000 toward the plan to relocate the Barnes Foundation. They contended there was not sufficient evidence of substantial economic benefit to Philadelphia, and that DRPA had not undertaken necessary economic evaluation assessing the impact at both locations. They introduced a study by economist Matityahu Marcus that challenged claimed benefits. The DRPA said that it would consider the Friends' request.[20][21]. The controversy is chronicled in the 2010 documentary The Art of the Steal.[1][22]
 by Henri Matisse |
 by Amedeo Modigliani |
 by Claude Monet |
 by Claude Monet |
 by Georges Seurat |
 by Vincent Van Gogh |
 by Paul Cezanne |
 by Paul Cezanne |
 by: Paul Cezanne |
 by Paul Cezanne |
 by Paul Gauguin |
 by Pierre-Auguste Renoir |
 by Henri Toulouse-Lautrec |
 by Vincent van Gogh |
 by Vincent van Gogh |
 by Vincent van Gogh |
Coordinates: 39°59′52.65″N 75°14′26.13″W / 39.9979583°N 75.2405917°W
   | Barnes Foundation - Official site - The Barnes Foundation |
| | The New Criterion, The Barnes Foundation, RIP - The New Criterion |
| | Friends of the Barnes Foundation - Friends of the Barnes Foundation |
| | Slate article on reconstruction - A makeover for the Barnes Foundation. - By Witold Rybczynski - Slate Magazine |
| | Montgomery Court Approves Barnes Foundation Move - Press Releases | Philaculture.org |
| | Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance: Montgomery Court Approves Barnes Foundation Move Cultural Alliance Supports Decision - Press Releases | Philaculture.org |
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