It is not every day that a newly hired director of a museum immediately changes its name, but that was one of Teri Edelstein`s first decisions upon becoming director of the David and Alfred Smart Gallery at the University of Chicago a little more than a year ago.
”In the memo I wrote to the board of trustees of the university, I outlined every conceivable definition of the word `gallery,` and we didn`t fit any of them,” Edelstein said.
”It was particularly inappropriate because we have such a distinguished permanent collection. So the change of our name to `museum` is probably the single most significant thing that has happened since I have been there. The name now reflects the collection`s importance.”
It was the collection, in fact, that caused Edelstein to act so quickly because the guide to 78 important objects, which has just been published
(Hudson Hills, $50; $22.50 paper), was about to be typeset, and she felt it would best mark the Smart`s 15th anniversary by having ”museum” on the cover.
After all, the institution`s holdings have tripled since its doors opened in 1974, forming a repository of more than 6,000 artworks, from antiquities to contemporary paintings and drawings. This goes beyond the modest ”study collection” originally envisioned, and it has prompted a higher level of ambition.
”I don`t think the goals for a small general museum and a university museum are mutually exclusive,” said Edelstein. ”I think the Smart always really was a general museum, because the collections are extraordinarily diverse. They will never be encyclopediac, but they nonetheless have great range and, in certain aspects, great depth.”
To make those aspects-antiquities, prints, sculpture, decorative arts-more widely known, the Smart has begun organizing exhibitions that will travel; the first, devoted to German print portfolios from 1890 to 1930, will open at the Detroit Institute of Arts in the fall of 1992. Also, a new assistant director, who will act chiefly as a liaison with the university to encourage use of the museum, has just been hired.
Computerization will make works on paper more accessible, as will a gallery established largely for print-and-drawing shows from museum holdings. Rehanging of the permanent exhibition space recently occurred and, of course, there is the new guide (on sale at the Smart and at bookstores).
An earlier administration conceived the project, and a great many people- museum staff, university faculty, graduate students, colleagues from other institutions-worked on it. Edelstein`s contribution, which seems
characteristic, was to insure the book was widely available, bringing the work of scholars to an audience much larger than the one first envisioned.
”I think a strong director plays an important role in being a facilitator for scholars,” Edelstein said. ”And that is chiefly how I view my role: making things happen in a more significant way than they would otherwise have happened.
”A good example is the exhibition on the Celtic Revival that was scheduled for this year. It included a group of fascinating objects from our collection that were made for the Irish pavilion of the World`s Columbian Exposition.
”I suggested we postpone the show for a year. Then we will have a large number of significant loans from public and private collections.
”I also am crossing my fingers that several additional writers will participate. And we now know the catalogue will be distributed by the University of Chicago press.
”So what began as a small project is going to be an incredibly important exhibition that I think everybody will be enthusiastic about. Not that it changed. It was an idea on the books when I came. I just helped to see it through a little bit more.
”Each of the Smart`s directors, from Ed Mazer to John Carswell, had a vision, and I don`t think I would have been hired unless I had one. The museum has done a number of important exhibitions. The permanent collection has shown stunning growth. My predecessors pursued a course I endorse heartily. It is that course I plan to continue.”
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”Cross Sections II,” an exhibition of recent additions to the permanent collection, continues through March at the David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art, 5550 S. Greenwood Ave.
