ANNUAL REPORT
Mullet School by Malcolm Morley
JULY, 2012 - JUNE 30, 2013
Highlights of the Year
This past fiscal year, the Columbia Museum
of Art had many exhilarating exhibitions,
dynamic programs and exciting events
that attracted children, families, tourists,
and valued patrons to Columbia. As one
of Columbia’s most prominent tourist
destinations, the Museum has gained
momentum over the past few years and
brought three terriffic exhibitions to the
Midlands in FY13.
The Museum was the opening venue of a
national tour for Mark Rothko: The Decisive
Decade 1940-1950, the most important
exhibition the Columbi a Museum of Art has
ever organized. The majority of the work came
from the collection of the National Gallery
of Art in Washington, D.C. – the most works
by Rothko the Gallery has ever loaned to any
museum. Mark Rothko is considered to be
one of the greatest American painters of the
20th century, and we are honored to have
co-organized this exhibition to travel to three
other national venues.
In January 2013 we opened our second
exhibition, Impressionism from Monet to
Matisse. This exhibition gathered together
approximately 50 works by some of the most
famous names of French Impressionism,
including Claude Monet, Henri Matisse, PierreAuguste Renoir, Paul Cézanne, and American
Mary Cassatt to name but a few. Seldom has
such a collection of fine masterworks by some
of the world’s most beloved artists been on
view in our community. The popularity of this
show proved to be very successful attracting
visitors from around the region, country and
world.
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We opened Found in Translation: The Art
of Steven Naifeh in May to end the fiscal
year. The 26 large-scale works reflect South
Carolina artist Steven Naifeh’s personal taste,
preferences and attitudes about geometric
abstraction that developed over the span of
40 years. Found in Translation is a collection
of abstract art that is capable of expressing
complex ideas like unity and continuity.
The Columbia Museum of Art provides many
excellent and accessible opportunities for
art education in South Carolina. It takes its
community art education programs into
the city, county and state to provide greater
access and exposure to art to those who
might not otherwise have the opportunity. In
addition, through a generous grant provided
annually from BlueCross BlueShield of South
Carolina, the CMA is free every Sunday. In the
last year, the CMA offered over 33% of all of
our programs for free or at greatly reduced
prices to create greater accessibility for our
community.
Currently, the CMA offers a variety of free
programs in Richland County, such as Linking
Ecology and Art of Floodplains (LEAF), Hands
On with the CMA and Gladys’ Gang. The LEAF
program engages students in connecting
science, art and the ecological experience of
the old-growth forest at Congaree with the
goal of promoting arts education, science
literacy and resource stewardship through
outdoor, standards-based learning activities.
Hands On with the CMA is an arts and literacy
program developed specifically for preschoolers and their adult companions, and
also provides educational opportunities for
older children particularly in the summer
months. This initiative was developed in
partnership with Richland Library in response
to a growing need for arts literacy programs.
This free program is offered at Richland Library
branches across the county.
Gladys’ Gang is an exciting new series in
which participants, ages 2 - 5, and their
adult companions explore art through the
introduction of elementary art terms such
as color, line, shape and texture. This free
program includes story time and a creative
studio activity related to the theme.
The CMA attracted more than 144,000 visitors
to the Museum and its programs this past
year, of which 53% traveled from outside of
Richland County. This year, the CMA received
media coverage from all over the state, region
and nation for our outstanding blockbuster
exhibition schedule.
The CMA’s stellar achievements this year are
due in part to your support and continued
investment in the arts at the Columbia
Museum of Art. We could not do any of this
without the support from our donors and we
thank you!
For a complete list of donors that contributed
to the CMA in fiscal year 2013, please visit our
website at columbiamuseum.org. Please feel
free to contact Lowndes Macdonald with any
questions at 803.343.2172.