Dallas Museum of Art Bulletin, Fall 1983 Page: 1
24 p. : ill. ; 26 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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FIVE MAJOR CHALLENGES
In the coming year the Dallas Museum of Art faces five
major challenges that will significantly affect both its
immediate and long-term future. The first, of course, is
the challenge of the move, itself, transferring the art
collections from our present Fair Park building to the
new Museum downtown. Moving and installing approx-
imately 10,000 works of art of every imaginable size,
medium, and condition, represents a complex series of
logistics which, already, has involved extensive planning
and preparation for more than a year, and will preoccupy
most of the staff when implemented this fall.
To facilitate the move, we have computerized our hold-
ings, a process that will enable us to closely monitor the
transfer of the art works from one building to the other.
The comprehensive computer program has been flexibly
designed so as to also offer numerous, ongoing benefits,
such as the immediate retrieval of information keyed to a
large range of indicators. The cross reference data bases,
for example, make it possible to obtain detailed informa-
tion concerning the art collections, ranging from paint-
ings by an individual artist or school of artists, to the
number and donors of Pre-Columbian gold objects, to the
dimensions and media of a monumental contemporary
sculpture, to the loan or conservation status of works of
art. In the future the public will have access to the
Museums computer terminals as an educational resource.Another important aspect of our move preparations
which, like the computerization project, is not presently
visible to the public, has been the creation of mock
installations to anticipate the dramatically different
environment in the new building. The staff has spent
months experimenting with different vitrines, wall and
fabric colors, and lighting techniques to determine the
most attractive and appropriate means by which to dis-
play the art in the new Museum.
A second major challenge we face at the time of the
opening is the importance of establishing an image of the
highest quality; locally; nationally; and in the art world at
large. Initial impressions often have lasting impact, and
we want the Dallas Museum of Art, its collections and
programs, and the City it represents, to be favorably
perceived by the public and among professional organi-
zations. We plan to expand greatly our education and
outreach programs, and we hope to schedule the
Museum's opening events to reflect a proper balance
between celebratory activities and scholarly programs,
social occasions and a series of lectures and perfor-
mances by distinguished artists. Our goal is to identify
new friends in the community and to further enhance
our growing reputation as a major American cultural
institution.
A third challenge to be confronted is the inevitable
"shakedown" of any new facility This is especially true of
the new Museum, because it is almost three times as large
and features more service capabilities than the Fair Park
building. The expanded programs and additional services
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Dallas Museum of Art. Dallas Museum of Art Bulletin, Fall 1983, periodical, Autumn 1983; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth224951/m1/3/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Dallas Museum of Art.