Barnes believed that learning to look carefully and methodically would grant students access to a deeper, more enriching experience of art.
At times Barnes pursued partnerships with other schools and exhibition spaces in the region, but the foundation remained independent during his lifetime.Įducation at the Barnes Foundation began as a pedagogical experiment in the systematic study of art. The foundation’s building, programs, and art collection additionally reflected Barnes’s ongoing interest in African American culture, which grew out of his fascination with music and religious ceremonies he encountered as a child. He commissioned noted Beaux-Arts architect Paul Philippe Cret (1876-1945) to design the institution’s facilities. The foundation’s charter and bylaws outlined the terms of these gifts and enumerated detailed guidelines that governed the foundation’s operations. In the most tangible sense, he donated his art collection and a recently purchased plot of land in Merion to the foundation. He launched his foundation with the goal of expanding these experiments in art education.īarnes actively shaped every aspect of his fledgling organization. With advice from painter William Glackens (1870-1938), who knew Barnes from their days attending Central High School, Barnes began collecting art to use in his lessons. While running a factory in West Philadelphia to produce the drug, Barnes introduced the study of philosophy into his employees’ daily schedule. He built a fortune manufacturing Argyrol, a widely used antiseptic that he developed with German chemist Hermann Hille (1871-1962). This act completed the foundation’s transition from inwardly oriented school to publicly oriented cultural institution.īarnes’s successful career in the pharmaceutical industry laid the groundwork for his foundation. Initially based in the Philadelphia suburb of Merion, the foundation famously and controversially moved its galleries to a new campus on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Center City Philadelphia in 2012.
The institution earned international renown, less for its pedagogy than for its art collection, which by mid-century was world-class. Barnes (1872-1951) established the Barnes Foundation in 1922 as a center for art education organized around his growing collection of paintings, sculpture, and furniture.
Philadelphia, the Place that Loves You Backīusinessman, chemist, educator, and art collector Dr.
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