January 2012

It is a pleasure to write my first letter to introduce myself as the new Richard J. Schwartz Director of the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art. My family and I moved to Ithaca in November, and we greatly appreciate the warm welcome we have received, both on campus and within what is clearly a very special community.

This is an exciting time for me to join the Johnson, and I am thrilled to be working with such an excellent group of colleagues. The exhibitions planned for spring 2012 are broad-based collaborations. They not only show the range of the Johnson’s permanent collections, which span six millennia and include works made just months ago. They also demonstrate the engagement of our faculty, curators, and students in the world we live in. These exhibitions and programs encourage independent thinking and help visitors experience the multiple ways that information can be conveyed by a work of art. They will also surely delight our audiences’ senses and provoke their curiosity.

The Johnson Museum’s ongoing mission is to further develop the role it plays in teaching and research at Cornell and within the community. The Museum has always been an excellent collaborator, and we will continue to build upon this strength and our position as a nationally and internationally recognized museum. 

Our recent expansion is fantastically successful and provides excellent opportunities to launch new collections-based teaching and research initiatives. It also challenges us to creatively explore how the Museum’s collections can be re-contextualized. Last summer, the Johnson was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts grant to reinstall the major galleries in the 1973 building. This will be done over the next year and a half with input from faculty and others who will work with us to create new ways of using the permanent collection for its greatest educational benefit, and to show the collection of European and American art to its greatest advantage.

I look forward to meeting many more of you over the coming months as I begin leading this great museum. My colleagues and I enthusiastically continue the Johnson’s vibrant tradition of serving as a major educational and cultural asset of the University and the surrounding regions of New York State. Thank you for your vital support.

Stephanie Wiles
The Richard J. Schwartz Director