Issue date: 7/18/08 Section: Off the hill

A young man wandered into
an art museum on a hot day to
get away from work and the summer
sun. He had no real plan; he
lacked a preconceived list of works
to see or study. Within minutes
of entering and talking to a kind
young woman at the information
desk, however, he was unexpectedly
handed a free ticket to see one
of the world's most famous painting
- Van Gogh's "Starry Night."
He scrutinized the masterpiece
and feeling somewhat better for
the experience, he left the gallery.
Where was the young man?
If you're an art lover
who knows where
to find high-profile
artwork, your answer
to the question is probably
the Met in New
York City - the gallery
where "Starry Night"
is usually found.
Strangely enough,
though, the painting
isn't at the Met right
now; nor is it at the
Louvre in Paris or the
Van Gogh Museum
in Amsterdam. It's in
the Yale University Art
Gallery.
"Yale?" you say.
"But isn't that an Ivy
League institution just
like Brown?" Of course
it is. Then how did
Yale procure a work like "Starry
Night" to hang in its gallery for the
summer? The answer, quite simply,
is that Yale made it a university
priority to maintain its gallery as a
place for the New Haven community
and beyond to gather and observe,
study and discuss great art.
As much as their acquisition of the
Van Gogh painting involved money,
it also involved priorities and a
clarified position in the relationship
between the institution and art.
This, of course, leads to the
more important discussion of how
Brown does and should orient itself
to the arts and the greater Providence
community. Unfortunately,
determining just how the university
currently views art is somewhat
difficult. Though the theater scene
on College Hill appears to be as
vibrant as ever and new a capella
groups appear almost daily, there
does seem to be greater potential

Continued...

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