Whitney Museum of American Art Early years When was the Museum created? she created in 1918 Who was museum named for? Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, Who was she? Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, the museum's namesake and founder, How did the museum begin? she offered to donate over 500 works of art to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but the museum declined the gift. What did she do when she was declined? This, along with the apparent preference for European modernism at the recently opened Museum of Modern Art, led Whitney to start her own museum,
What did she name the  museum?
What did Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney name the museum?
Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, the museum's namesake and founder, was herself a well-regarded sculptor as well as a serious art collector. As a patron of the arts, she had already achieved some success as the creator of the "Whitney Studio Club", a New York-based exhibition space which she created in 1918 to promote the works of avant-garde and unrecognized American artists. Whitney favored the radical art of the American artists of the Ashcan School such as John Sloan, George Luks and Everett Shinn, as well as others such as Edward Hopper, Stuart Davis, Charles Demuth, Charles Sheeler, and Max Weber.  With the aid of her assistant, Juliana R. Force, Whitney had collected nearly 700 works of American art. In 1929, she offered to donate over 500 works of art to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but the museum declined the gift. This, along with the apparent preference for European modernism at the recently opened Museum of Modern Art, led Whitney to start her own museum, exclusively for American art, in 1929.  Whitney Library archives from 1928 reveal that during this time the Studio Club utilized the gallery space of Wilhelmina Weber Furlong of the Art Students League to exhibit traveling shows featuring Modernist works. In 1931, architect Noel L. Miller converted three row houses on West 8th Street in Greenwich Village - one of which had been the location of the "Studio Club" - to be the museum's home as well as a residence for Whitney. Force became the first director of the museum, and under her guidance, the museum concentrated on displaying the works of new and contemporary American artists.  In 1954, the museum left its original location and moved to a small structure on 54th Street connected to and behind the Museum of Modern Art on 53rd Street. On April 15, 1958, a fire on the second floor of MOMA that killed one person forced the evacuation of paintings and staff on MOMA's upper floors to the Whitney. Among the paintings moved in the evacuation was A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte which had been on loan from the Art Institute of Chicago. CANNOTANSWER
Whitney.
Joséphine Bowes (18251874), was a French actress, artist and art collector who founded the Bowes Museum in Barnard Castle, Teesdale.

Biography
Born Joséphine Benoite Coffin-Chevalie, Bowes was the daughter of a Parisian clockmaker and an actress. In 1847 she was an actress with the Théâtre des Variétés in Paris, working under the stage name Mlle. Delorme. She met the wealthy landowner John Bowes and, as was common at the time, became his mistress. However after five years he married her and bought her Chateau du Barry near Paris which remained their home. Bowes became an artist, a skill she worked on after giving up the theatre on her marriage. Her work was presented at the exhibitions of both the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris and the Royal Academy in London. She was also gifted in recognising what works would become the next sensation, buying impressionist works before impressionism had made a great name. She was also considered one of the great salon holders and patrons of the arts in Paris at the time. 

The couple did not have children and as an illegitimate son, her husband, John Bowes, did not inherit his father's titles. They visited his family estates in Durham in the United Kingdom regularly and decided to create an art museum both to cater to the local people's need for art and to create a legacy. Having had the idea Bowes dedicated herself to building up a collection worthy of the museum, buying art which even if not to her taste, she felt was necessary to show in such a location.

Bowes laid the foundation stone of the Museum on 27 November 1869. However, having been dogged by ill health for years, she died aged only 48 in 1874. It took 25 years from the foundation stone for the museum to open.

References and sources

1825 births
1874 deaths
19th-century French women artists
Artists from Paris
French salon-holders
French art collectors The Mercian Trail is the name given to a group of museums and historical sites in the West Midlands of England that will be used to display objects from the Staffordshire Hoard. The trail is organised by a partnership of Lichfield District, Tamworth Borough Council, Staffordshire County Council, Stoke-on-Trent City Council and Birmingham City Council, and features the following locations:

 Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery ()
 Potteries Museum & Art Gallery ()
 Lichfield Cathedral ()
 Tamworth Castle ()

Most of the objects from the Staffordshire Hoard will be put on display at these four locations, although other locations may be included in the trail in the future. In addition a touring exhibition will take some objects from the hoard to other parts of the West Midlands, starting with the Shire Hall Gallery in Stafford. This exhibition will tie in with a display in the nearby Ancient High House Museum, entitled: 'Out of the Dark Ages: Stafford's Anglo-Saxon Origins'. The Ancient High House exhibition, which runs from 28 June to 1 October,  examines the coming of the Anglo Saxons and the emergence of the Kingdom of Mercia as well as telling the story of the Saxon burh founded in 913. The display cabinets include a selection of coins and artefacts including a wealth of domestic and personal items, these in contrast to the largely martial artefacts of the Hoard.

Background

The Staffordshire Hoard was discovered in a field in Hammerwich, near Lichfield in July 2009. After the hoard was declared treasure in September 2009, it was valued at £3.285 million, and a public appeal was launched to raise the money in order for Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery and the Potteries Museum & Art Gallery to jointly purchase the hoard. On 23 March 2010 it was announced that the required sum had been raised, and that the hoard would be purchased by these two museums for display in the West Midlands.

Purpose
The Mercian Trail is not only intended to make the Staffordshire Hoard available for display to the public, but it is also intended to highlight the history and archaeology of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia, which was centred on the area corresponding to the modern county of Staffordshire. The exhibits of the treasure will attempt to relate the items to other archaeological objects, and promote a greater understanding of the items in their historical context. The organisers of the trail have stated that the trail will attempt to provide answers to the following questions.

 How were such ornate items made in Anglo-Saxon times?
 What trading links were established in Anglo-Saxon times?
 How did the gold reach Britain's shores, and how was it carried here?
 What links are there to Birmingham's thriving jewellery industry today?
 What role did Staffordshire play in ancient Mercia?
 What was life like in Staffordshire during Anglo-Saxon times?
 What links are there to existing Staffordshire Anglo-Saxon finds?
 Why did the Hoard end up in Staffordshire?
 What are the links between the Hoard and early Christendom?
 What does the biblical inscription tell us?
 What are the links to the Lichfield Angel and St Chad?
 What is the significance of the folded up cross and serpents?
 Are there any links to the St Chad Gospels?
 What are the links to Offa, and key figures of the period?
 What battles took place, and what role did the Hoard play?
 Who were the owners of the Hoard, and what wars did they fight in?
 What role did Tamworth play in ancient Mercia?
 How did the archaeologists extract the Hoard?
 Why did the Hoard get laid down in Staffordshire?
 How can archaeology uncover the secrets of the Hoard?

See also
 Staffordshire Hoard
 Mercian Way

References

External links

 The Mercian Trail: the gateway to the Staffordshire Hoard
 LGA Mercian Trail Presentation

Mercia
Tourist attractions in Staffordshire Sonia Solicari (born 1978, City of London) is a British curator and museum director. She has been the Director of the Museum of the Home, in Hoxton, London, since January 2017.

Biography

Early life and education  
Solicari was born in London to Italian parents and grew up in Enfield, north London.

Solicari did her undergraduate studies in English Literature at Royal Holloway, University of London, followed by postgraduate degrees in Nineteenth-Century Studies at King's College London and Museum Studies at University College London.

Career   
Solicari began her career on the Victoria and Albert Museum's development programme for assistant curators. She worked at the V&A for eight years as a curator of paintings and later ceramics and glass.    

Previously she was head of the Guildhall Art Gallery in the City of London.

Museum of the Home  
In 2017, Solicari became Director of the Museum of the Home (formerly the Geffrye Museum of the Home) in Hoxton, east London. She succeeded David Dewing who had run the Museum for 25 years.   

As Director of the museum, Solicari has overseen an £18.1 million capital development project to expand and transform the site. The restoration of the Grade I Listed museum buildings was overseen by architects Wright & Wright and will create 80% more space for events, collections and exhibitions.

Solicari also oversaw the rebranding of the museum, with the name changed to the Museum of the Home to better reflect the collections and to reflect the changes over time in the museum's focus.

With Alison Blunt, Solicari is co-director of the Centre for Studies of Home, a collaboration with Queen Mary, University of London.

References 

1978 births
Living people
Alumni of King's College London
Directors of museums in the United Kingdom
British curators