Attendance started out slowly at this week’s meeting, with only 15 members joining the Zoom meeting by 12:15 pm. By the time we started the business meeting at 12:30 pm, and Tom Strode graced us with America the Beautiful, we were only up to 49 attendees. We would eventually reach 76 by my count.

Once again, the pre-meeting discussion was dominated by talk of the resurging Covid pandemic and when, if ever we could return to in-person meetings. Someone joked that it would probably be 2035 by the time we’re able to get back together. Other topics included:

• the beauty of Rhode Island,

• Heidi Vitso’s knitting, and

• the VITA tax-assistance program.

New member Ellen Putney Moore provided our inspiration, the poem Compass by Amanda Gorman:

This year the size of a sea
Sick to its stomach.
Like a page, we are only legible
When opened to one another.
For what is a book
If not foremost a body,
Waiting & wanting –
Yearning to be whole,
Full of itself.  This book is full
Of ourselves.  The past is one
Passionate déjà vu,
One scene already seen.
In history’s form, we find our own faces,
Recognizable but unremembered,
Familiar yet forgotten.
Please.
Do not ask us who we are.
The hardest part of grief
Is giving it a name.
The pain pulls us apart,
Like lips about to speak.
Without language nothing can live
At all, let alone
Beyond itself.
Lost as we feel, there is no better
Compass than compassion.
We find ourselves not by being
The most seen, but the most seeing.
We watch a toddler
Freewheel through warm grass,
Not fleeing, just running, the way rivers do,
For it is in their unfettered nature.
We smile, our whole face cleared
By that single dazzling thing.
How could we not be altered.

Ingrid Sheldon’s musical selection was Nat King Cole’s Mona Lisa followed. After the quite lengthy list of birthdays, President Susan introduced Charlie Koopman, who gave us a report on our golf and tennis outing. The bottom line is that the outing raised nearly $55,000!

Next, we received a report on the search for new executive director by Dawn Johnson. After a quite lengthy process of defining the position, Dawn reported that the job has been posted on numerous job sites. She then outlined the selection process that the committee will follow.

Before introducing the speaker, president Susan reminded us about our club’s community grants program. The deadline for applying for grants this year is February 20, 2022, with decisions to be made as to who gets the grants by the end of April.

Re-imagining art museums

Dennis Powers introduced our speaker, Tina Olsen, the director of the University of Michigan Museum of Art. She spoke about re-imagining art museums to better reflect the full spectrum of our cultural heritage. Ms. Olsen has been the museum’s director since the fall of 2017.

Olsen recalled that one of the first things she did when she arrived was to hold open office hours to get a feel for what the community liked and disliked about the museum. One of the people she spoke to was a young black student who made a big impression on her. The student noted that he didn’t see any art by any black artists, and that made him feel invisible.

That got her to thinking about how to make the museum more inviting and relevant. One of the ways she did this was to set up a gallery showcasing African-American artists. In the months since, she’s made a determined effort to acquire works of art by African-American artists like the statue Sophie/Elsie by Mary Sibandi (shown below). In addition, UMMA has made a commitment to anti-racist action and be a more inclusive museum.

The museum is also trying to make the museum more welcoming to the LGBTQ community. This includes displaying works by gay artists and presenting theater dealing with LGBTQ issues.

Finally, Olsen also discussed other ways that the museum is trying to be more relevant and welcoming. One of the ways she’s done this is by setting up a cafe. The cafe has become very popular, and not only provides sustenance, but also serves as a gateway to drawing students and the public into the world of art. Another way is by thinking carefully about how they choose items to sell in the museum store.

Personally, it’s been a while since I’ve been to UMMA. Ms. Olsen’s talk has certainly inspired me to return.