Smack in the middle of the current debate on the mission of and place for the Terra Museum of American Art stands the museum itself.
In recent weeks, the Terra, not normally a high-profile institution, has been very much in the news because of a heated, continuing battle of board members within the parent Terra Foundation for the Arts, a principal issue being the possibility of taking the museum out of its present Chicago location at 666 N. Michigan Ave. and moving it to Washington, D.C.
Should we care about this?
On a recent Sunday afternoon, acting as a customer of but not an expert on art museums, I walked over to the Terra to try and see if it was worth the fuss.
A little background: The Terra, opened in 1980 as a repository for some 800 American paintings, prints and sculptures gathered by the late millionaire collector Daniel Terra, is the smallest of the three art museums clustered around Michigan Avenue. Housed in what had been two separate adjoining buildings, with a shoe store to the south and a popcorn store to the north of its entrance, it has neither the grand edifice, the marketing power nor the restaurant and other satellite facilities of the Art Institute or Museum of Contemporary Art. It’s open six days a week (closed Mondays, free admission Tuesdays).
In the afternoon I spent there, the museum had a decent, steady flow of visitors, ranging from young students to senior citizens. If they had questions about the art, or anything else about the museum, guards in each of the gallery were friendly, helpful and informative.
After paying admission and browsing through the small first-floor gift store, you navigate the Terra through a series of ramps and staircases leading from one small gallery to the next. Well-posted signs point you to the various exhibition areas, and, at the start, there’s an orientation space that gives history and background for the temporary exhibitions.
There are two such shows in the Terra now, each supplemented by brochures describing the exhibit and listing its works. One, from the Albany Institute of History & Art, is a series of works from the Hudson River School, which is augmented by the museum’s own collection of 19th Century landscape paintings. (A caption for one of the paintings charmingly notes that the artist “specialized in landscapes with cows.”)
The other show, drawn primarily from the museum’s permanent collection, is titled “On Process.”
A segment on “The American Print, Technique Examined” shows a collection of works by such artists as Edward Hopper, Reginald Marsh, John James Audubon, Milton Avery and James Abbott McNeill Whistler, as well as a wonderful bit of Chicagoana from 1936, the woodcut “Randolph Street” by Charles Turzak. Along with the art, there are examples and clear, well-written explanations of the different printmaking techniques.
The other section of “On Process” focuses on “Studio Themes,” such as still life, nudes, family and portraits. On the fourth floor, just to the right of the elevator, is a small gem of the show, a nook devoted to photos and paintings on the “Legacy of Tree Studios.” Better than any news account, it illustrates the beauty of and shows the reasons for wanting to preserve this landmark Chicago structure.
So, at the end of my brief visit, I had been entertained and informed. I had learned a little more about the city in which I live. And I had spent a good time in a viewer-friendly environment.
I did not sample any of the Terra’s lecture programs or tours. And what I did see at the Terra did not make up a blockbuster show. In any major museum, its offerings would be but a small part of a broad canvas.
But the Terra, in my visit, served both its collection and its viewers well, making good use of its resources. It fits its niche.
I would hate to see it leave.
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