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to the BAC
The latest steward of Paul Mellon's artistic legacy on Chapel Street
is a scholar of natural history illustration who was first lured
to Yale by the Center for British Art.
February 2003
by Jennifer Kaylin
Jennifer
Kaylin is a freelance writer based in New Haven. Her story about
Charles Lindbergh and his Yale connections appeared in the Yale
Alumni Magazine last May.
When
Amy Meyers graduated from the University of Chicago in 1977, she fully expected to stay on to do her graduate work there. But
her father and husband urged her to look at Yale before making a
decision. So, one weekend in April of 1977, Meyers made the trip
to New Haven. After tea at the Elizabethan Club, a friend suggested
they check out the new Center
for British Art on Chapel Street, the latest bequest of Paul
Mellon '29.
"When we walked in,
I was completely bowled over," Meyers recalls. "Mrs. Mellon's spectacular
flower arrangements were still in the center hall, and I turned
to my husband and said, 'I have to come to Yale.'"
And so she did. Not
only did Meyers get her masters and doctoral degrees in American
studies from Yale in 1981 and 1985, but she is now the new director
of the very institution that won her heart 25 years ago.
Sitting in her sunny,
painting-bedecked office at the BAC (a place so steeped in the love
of art that posters of past exhibitions adorn the loading dock),
Meyers stops short of saying she feels fated to become the center's
new director. But she does allow that, "I feel like I've come home
in the most amazing way. I was one of the first students to use
this building."
Which may be one reason
why the center's role as a research institution, and not just a
museum, is so important to Meyers, and why strengthening this facet
of the facility's function is one of her top priorities.
Make no mistake, since
arriving in New Haven with her husband and daughter in August, Meyers
says she's found the BAC to be "in wonderful shape." This is largely
due to the efforts of past directors, including Patrick
McCaughey, who stepped down last June after a five-year tenure
that saw an invigoration of the BAC's once-staid image. Still, Meyers
says the institution's role as a research center "needs fuller amplification."
To that end, Meyers
has already taken steps to expand the fellowship program so visiting
scholars can stay for longer than one month. She also wants to strengthen
the Center's ties to the rest of the University and to other institutions,
including the Mellon
Centre in England and her former professional home, the Henry
E. Huntington
Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens in California,
where she was the curator of American art.
"Paul Mellon chose
to place his collection [which includes rare books and manuscripts,
drawings, prints, and photographs as well as paintings] at a university
because he wanted young people to be exposed to it, to study art,
and to use it as a scholarly resource," Meyers explains.
Until his death in
February 1999, Mellon was intimately involved in all aspects of
the BAC. From his first art acquisition, George Stubbs's Pumpkin
with a Stable-Lad, which enjoys prominent display in the
museum, to the Founder's Room, an intimate meeting room off Meyers's
office that is furnished with Mellon's domestic artifacts, it is
impossible to escape the benefactor's long shadow.
Far
from seeing this as a burden or a hindrance, Meyers views
it as "one of the great pleasures of my job." But it's not just
the ghost of Mellon -- his taste, goals, and vision -- that Meyers
now lives with. There is also the manifestation of these forces.
"Mr. Mellon came to think that the healthiest way to create depth
was probably to use his funds in areas in which he was most interested,"
Meyers says. Since his interests centered around paintings that
depict the British sporting life of the 18th and early 19th centuries,
Mellon barred the use of his money for the purchase of artwork created
after 1850.
But Meyers says this
restriction is not a problem. Contemporary art bought with other
funding sources may still hang in the museum, and there is no restriction
on the BAC's scholarly pursuits. Besides, "the social history of
Britain is already beautifully encompassed by this collection,"
says Meyers. "It speaks to the social historical concerns that drive
so much of today's scholarship."
Known in academic circles
for her expertise in the relation of art and natural science, Meyers
has taught at six colleges and universities, written more than a
dozen papers, and worked at the Corcoran
Gallery of Art and the National
Gallery of Art, both in Washington.
Although her conversation
is laced with talk of "cross-institutional dialogue," "triangulation,"
"cultivating communities of interchange," and "creating multiple
layers of conversation," once Meyers gets out of her office and
into the exhibition hall, the cool-headed administrator is replaced
by an unabashed arts enthusiast. She can't resist spending a few
moments in front of John Constable's cloud
studies. "It's the most nuanced face of nature," she says. "They're
some of the most precious works we have."
Asked if she has a
favorite painting in the collection, Meyers at first looks as though
she'd been asked to name her favorite child. But then she smiles,
and with conspiratorial delight whispers, "Stubbs's Zebra, I have to admit."
It is this genuine enthusiasm for art that has won Meyers so many admirers. "Her passion
and her ability to articulate her vision are what will make Amy
such an effective director," says Shelley Bennett, who worked with
Meyers for 13 years at the Huntington. Bennett, who is the curator
of British and European Art, says the strongest asset Meyers brings
to Yale is her ability to build bridges between the Center's scholarly
mission and its role as a public museum.
Constance Clement,
who has been at the BAC since 1979 and served as acting director
after McCaughey's departure, says she's looking forward to continuing
the momentum begun by Meyers's predecessors. "This is an exciting
time for the Center," she says. "Every director brings his or her
own interests and perspectives. Our job is to constantly figure
out new ways to advance the Center's many missions."
That process had already
begun by October 31, when the BAC, under Meyers's direction, hosted
a major international symposium -- "Histories of British Art: Where
Next?" -- to celebrate the Center's 25th anniversary.
Not a bad debut for
somebody who had only been on the job for two months. But despite
her quick start out of the gate and her long history with the Center,
there was early evidence that Meyers was still settling in. After
returning from a tour of the museum, she stood before her office
door and knocked. It took a moment for her to realize what she'd
done. Then, slightly flustered, Meyers spun around and laughed.
"I'm still not used to this," she said. "I don't have to knock --
this is my office."
Now, five months later,
with a full calendar of programs, including major watercolor and
landscape print exhibits under her belt, such a slip seems unlikely
to happen again.  |
