UMD Announces Partnership with Phillips Collection

October 08, 2015

The University of Maryland will launch a new partnership with The Phillips Collection, further enriching UMD's arts curriculum. In an announcement to the University community, UMD President Wallace D. Loh wrote:

I am pleased to announce an exclusive, six-year (renewable) partnership with The Phillips Collection, a museum distinguished for impressionist, modern, and contemporary art. From its home near Dupont Circle, it reaches deeply into the cultural life of Washington, D.C.

This is a unique opportunity for the entire campus. It will enhance education and scholarship in art, art history, and humanities, as well as in interdisciplinary study. It will provide a new platform for UMD's presence in the nation’s capital.

The Phillips Collection uses original and experimental approaches, combining works of modern artists of different nationalities and periods. It produces award-winning education and outreach programs for K-12 teachers, students, and the general public. Its Center for the Study of Modern Art (CSMA) explores new ways of thinking about art and creativity. For 75 years, its Sunday Concerts have featured renowned performers.

This partnership will:

(1) enrich UMD's arts curriculum through new courses and joint teaching;
(2) offer internships and fellowships for UMD students;
(3) provide educational and scholarly access to the Collection;
(4) co-publish scholarly work;
(5) co-present the Sunday Concert series with UMD's School of Music;
(6) engage UMD in The Phillips' International Forum, which convenes leading artists, collectors, philanthropists, and public leaders worldwide;
(7) enable The Phillips to digitize its archives and library;
(8) re-name and co-sponsor CSMA as the "UMD Center for Art and Knowledge at The Phillips Collection" for interdisciplinary collaborations;
(9) support joint arts outreach to communities in the District and in Prince George's County;
(10) undertake joint fundraising for a new, art storage/display facility to be named "The Phillips Collection at the University of Maryland"; and
(11) provide free admission for UMD students, faculty, and staff to The Phillips (including to its blockbuster exhibit opening on October 10, "Gaugin to Picasso," with 60 celebrated masterworks.)

This is just the beginning. The partnership agreement commits us to a "cooperative, forward-looking, risk-supportive and entrepreneurial spirit." Enormous potential lies at the intersections of art with science, design, technology, management, journalism, and cultural diplomacy. UMD and The Phillips embrace convergence as a way to reach new audiences, disrupt conventional thinking, and inspire new heights of creativity and impact.

The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center. UMD's Art Gallery. The Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities. The David C. Driskell Center [of African American Art]. The Honors program in Design, Cultures, & Creativity. The DeVos Institute of Arts Management, recently relocated to UMD from the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Today, UMD is more than ever a STEAM university: science-technology-engineering-ARTS-mathematics.

The passion, labor, and support of many people made this strategic partnership possible: The Provost and other UMD administrators; the Dean and many faculty and staff members of ARHU; Deans of other colleges; the Director of The Clarice; the UMD Foundation Board of Trustees; and The Phillips Collection's Director and Board of Trustees. To all, thank you!

Sincerely,

Wallace D. Loh
President

University of Maryland, College Park