Museum of Russian Icons Annual Report 2016 V2 Annual Report 2017 | Page 5

2016 MUSEUM HIGHLIGHTS
Sue Lankton speaks at the American Alliance of
Museums accreditation celebration.
Administration Collections
In January, Curator/CEO Kent
Russell and the Board of Trustees
attended the Russian Christmas
celebration at the Russian
Federation Consulate in New York. The Museum acquired a very fine
17th century Nativity of the Mother
of God (2016.4) from the Morsink
Gallery in Amsterdam. This
acquisition was made possible
through a gift of Karen Lankton-
Schmidt, Susan Lankton-Rivas, and
Lauren Weisshaar in celebration
of their father, Museum Founder
Gordon B. Lankton. The small and
finely detailed icon was exhibited
to great acclaim at the Maastricht
Art Fair in March 2016.
In March, the Museum officially
celebrated its 2015 American
Alliance of Museums accreditation
with an evening celebration. The
event included live music,
spotlight tours, a champagne
toast, and a drop-in painting
workshop with artist Marina
Forbes.
In June, the Museum welcomed
Mary Delaney to the staff as the
Director of Marketing. Mary’s
previous position was the Manag-
er of Marketing at Fruitlands
Museum in Harvard, MA. In her first
six months, Mary has already
made a significant impact,
refreshing the Museum’s branding,
and launching an elegant and
easy-to-use new website, de-
signed by Gitu Jain.
In June, the Museum returned
a group of 16 icons from the
collection to Russia, as the result
of a misunderstanding about the
terms of the icons’ export. While
the Museum’s ownership of the
icons is not in dispute, because
the icons are more than 100 years
old, they cannot be permanently
brought out of Russia due to
cultural patrimony laws. Hence,
the icons were allowed out of
the country only for a temporary
loan, the end date of which was
in question. In July, The Museum
returned the icons to Russia for
inspection as required, and hopes
to pursue another temporary
export. The story was reported
by a number of national and
international news outlets.
This year saw the establishment
of a new Collections Committee.
Co-chaired by Trustee Ruah
Donnelly, the committee is
charged with reviewing and
establishing all collections policies
and overseeing the development
of the collection. The Committee
also includes Trustee Peter Rand
and Nicholas Nicholson, senior
executive at Freeman Auctions
Philadelphia. CEO/Curator Kent
Russell and Registrar Laura
Garrity-Arquitt are ex-officio
members. The Committee is off
to an excellent start as we look at
the entire collection of close to
1,000 objects and identify a core,
essential collection. The next step
will be to establish protocols for
deaccessioning, and to determine
if any gaps can be filled by
acquisition through donations or
purchases.
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