OLD LYME, CT.- The Florence Griswold Museum in Old Lyme, Connecticut presents a new exhibition entitled A Collective Endeavor: Three Decades of Acquisitions, on view through March 25, 2007. Organized in conjunction with the thirtieth anniversary of Jeffrey Andersen’s tenure as the Museum’s director, the exhibition features forty-five carefully selected paintings and objects that educate visitors on what the Museum collects and the process it uses to acquire objects and works of art. From historical artifacts that tell the story of Lyme’s past to treasured paintings of the Old Lyme School to the magnificent gift of the Hartford Steam Boiler Collection, this exhibition portrays the breadth and diversity of the Museum’s holdings in an entirely new manner. The philosophy and reasoning behind some of the acquisitions may come as a surprise to visitors. A Collective Endeavor also highlights several examples of promising new directions of collecting at the Florence Griswold Museum. The exhibition is co-curated by trustees and longtime Collections Committee members Charles T. Clark and Hedy Korst.

Thirty Years of Collecting - The process of acquiring works for a collection is a behind-the-scenes mystery to most museum visitors. Using the Florence Griswold Museum as a model, the items in A Collective Endeavor guide viewers though the process and pose questions for further thought. How is an artifact chosen for consideration? Who has a say? Does the Museum buy at auction, from dealers, or rely on gifts? Since the 1960s, the Florence Griswold Museum has distinguished itself as a museum dedicated to “promoting the understanding of Connecticut’s contribution to American art, with emphasis on the art, history, and landscape of the Lyme region.” Given this charge, the Museum actively collects art and artifacts that fulfill this mission.

Jeffrey Andersen began his tenure as director in 1976. Building upon an early 1970s campaign to recover art specific to the Lyme Art Colony, Andersen brought renewed focus to the Museum’s collections. In doing so, he worked closely with the trustee-led Collections Committee and a series of talented curators on this “collective endeavor.” Together, the Museum’s director, curator, and Collections Committee carefully consider each work on its individual merits and relevance to the Museum’s mission. “The Museum’s focus may seem a bit narrow to some,” Andersen notes, “but A Collective Endeavor seeks to demonstrate how the Museum has shaped a collection whose dimensions has surprising depth and diversity for our audiences.” The exhibition engages the viewer in a dialogue about the Museum’s integrated approach in which archival materials such as letters, photographs, and the like are collected to complement the art collections.

Collecting the Art of Lyme
Collecting work by the artists of the Lyme Art Colony, which was centered at the boardinghouse of Florence Griswold (now part of the Florence Griswold Museum), has, until recently, been the Museum’s principal focus of collecting. Friends and patrons, including descendants of the colonists, have contributed hundreds of works of art by the nearly two hundred painters, sculptors, and printmakers associated with the colony.

A Collective Endeavor includes major works by Childe Hassam, Willard Metcalf, Bessie Potter Vonnoh, Charles Ebert, and Ivan Olinsky. The Museum’s current plan is to deepen the representation of certain artists and to acquire works by lesser known and later members of the colony who have not yet benefited from scholarship and attention in the art market. Works by artists such as Oliver Lay, who pre-date the colony, and contemporary artists such as Elizabeth Enders and Judy Cotton, capture the breadth of the collection and highlight the artistic traditions that still thrive in the area today.