Five Colleges, Incorporated: Museums10 GoDutch! Receives Grant

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Museums10's GoDutch! Receives Grant of $50,000 from the Massachusetts Cultural Council

"Stare at Miffy head on, and (Dick) Bruna's sculptural training becomes evident as the figure's straightforward unshaded body, outlined in firm ink strokes, assumes rounded proportions, colored in the primary hues favored by Mondrian and Matisse, two of his inspirations."

--Kathryn Shattuck, New York Times (Dec 26, 2005)

Miffy, the Dick Bruna bunny beloved by children the world over, is coming to The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst in late March, along with some 80 other original drawings by 14 award-winning children's book illustrators, all of them Dutch. "Dutch Treats: Contemporary Illustration From the Netherlands" is currently on view at the UBS Art Gallery in New York City through February 24. It moves to "the Carle" on March 28 where it will be one of the many highlights of GoDutch! a region-wide celebration of Dutch art, culture, and horticulture that will run from March through August.

The festival is being organized by a new collaboration calling itself Museums10, a collective made up of seven college and university museums and galleries and three neighboring museums: The Emily Dickinson Museum; The Eric Carle Museum Of Picture Book Art; Hampshire College Art Gallery; Historic Deerfield; Mead Art Museum At Amherst College; Mount Holyoke College Art Museum; National Yiddish Book Center; The Amherst College Natural History Museum; Smith College Museum of Art; and University Gallery of UMass Amherst.

The museums have just received their second grant in two consecutive years from the Massachusetts Cultural Council's John and Abigail Adams Arts Program to promote their collective identity as Museums10. This year's award, a matching grant of $50,000, will largely be used to support the region wide festival called GoDutch! which will feature dazzling displays of tulips as a backdrop for exhibitions of Dutch paintings, prints and drawings as well as Delft porcelain. One of the goals of the funding program, according to MCC's program director Meri Jenkins, is to encourage mutually beneficial collaborations between the arts and the business sector. "With GoDutch! this collaboration promises to establish itself and the area as an exciting new destination with something for every age group and taste. We're equally impressed by the model of collaboration it represents between academic and cultural institutions and community interests."

The centerpiece of GoDutch! is a six-month long series of exhibitions framed by related botanical, theatrical, and music events being offered Valley wide. "This is a remarkable opportunity for visitors to sample a rich mix of work from the golden age of Dutch art to some of the most exciting contemporary artists and illustrators working in the Netherlands today," said Jessica Nicoll, director of the Smith College Museum of Art. "For our museums, it's a chance to get out the message about all that's here in one of the loveliest areas of western Massachusetts."

A sampling of what's here for GoDutch!

Dutch Masters of the 17th Century, Collins Gallery, Amherst College: prints by Rembrandt and other Dutch artists will be featured in this exhibition that coincides with the 400th annniversary of Rembrandt's birth (January 28-August 20, 2006)

"At Home in Holland: Dutch Decorative arts from the Historic Deerfield collections;"

Van Gogh's Ear, a new music/theater work based on the painter's letters, presented by the Massachusetts International Festival of the Arts (MIFA). (May performance)

"The Dutch as Viewed in Early American School Books" at the Memorial Hall Museum of Deerfield;

Programs exploring and celebrating the culture and spirit of Dutch Jews, at the National Yiddish Book Center;

A concert of Dutch Baroque music presented by the Arcadia Players;

Tulipmania! the theme of this spring's Paradise City Arts Festival;

"The Golden Age: Dutch Prints and Drawings," 40 outstanding 17th-century prints and drawings from the collection of The Springfield Museums.

Area communities and businesses are joining in the spirit of GoDutch! by offering special menus and "package deals" for a day or a weekend sojourn. Visitors will also be able to take advantage of a special "passport" that entitles them to be entered into a raffle for an all expenses paid trip to Holland for two in the spring of 2007, courtesy of Cross Cultural Tours of Amherst.

More information about GoDutch! is available on the Museums10 Web site and in a brochure available from the museums, from area chambers of commerce, and from the Greater Springfield Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Posted 2/14/06

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