The battle over the art collection at Fisk University in Nashville is over. Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art announced moments ago that it will remain intact and be viewed, appreciated, and studied by a wide public audience because a long-term collection-sharing relationship has been finalized between Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and Fisk University. The agreement for sharing the Stieglitz Art Collection, which, according to the New York Times, gives the University $30 million for the right to display the collection every two years, was bequeathed in 1949 by artist Georgia O’Keeffe to Fisk University. Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and Fisk University each now own a 50 percent interest in the collection, which will be exhibited at both institutions at rotating two-year intervals. The agreement will allow the works to remain on display at Fisk for two uninterrupted years out of every four, thus allowing every Fisk student the opportunity to view or study the artwork for a period during the student’s academic career. Victor Simmons, Director and Curator of the Fisk University Galleries, said in a press release, “Alfred Stieglitz spent much of his life advocating and supporting American art, including the support of American artists such as Georgia O’Keeffe, Marsden Hartley, Arthur Dove, John Marin and Charles Demuth, among many others. I can think of no better place for the art to be exhibited, while away from Fisk, than in a museum of such quality and as dedicated to American Art as is Crystal Bridges.”
Urban Art & Antiques 