Established in 2022, this program enables the Terra Foundation to grant long-term loans from our collection to invited academic museums in the United States and international museums with strong connections to universities. We collaborate with partners to identify objects for loan that amplify an institution’s permanent collection and initiate new contexts, voices, and practices. The program helps museums expand the stories they can tell with their permanent collections and provides opportunities for interdisciplinary research and teaching with American art.
The inaugural Terra Collection-in-Residence cohort included the following seven institutions, listed in order of their entry into the program: Tougaloo College, Tougaloo, Mississippi; Georgia Museum of Art, Athens, Georgia; Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine; Museum der bildenden Künste Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany; Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, England; Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, Massachusetts; and the Ackland Art Museum, Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The Museu de Arte Contemporânea, University of São Paulo (MAC USP), Brazil, joined the program in 2023.
Also in 2023, the Terra Foundation partnered with the Harvard Art Museums to co-organize a convening of representatives from the cohort. This gathering (April 3–4, 2024, at the Harvard Art Museums) brought together key staff from the Terra Collection-in-Residence institutions, providing a unique opportunity to share learning, facilitate network building and collaboration, and explore ideas for engagement.
Presentations by the cohort members addressed approaches to the display and interpretation of American art; object-based teaching methodologies; and ways of reaching students and local communities alike. The foundation learned about the loaned artworks, gathering insights into collection-based research and how collections can serve as conduits for dialogue between institutions. In addition to filling gaps, the loans have helped the participating museums tell their histories. And they have sparked new conversations with unexpected “tentacles,” offering opportunities for programmatic experimentation. As part of the program, Horace Ballard, Theodore E. Stebbins, Jr., Curator of American Art, Harvard Art Museums, led a tour of the Terra Foundation works in the galleries, and there was also time in the Art Study Center to view Mary Cassatt prints on loan alongside selected works in the Harvard collections.
The convening’s first day, “Understanding and Sharing Experiences: Case Study Presentations,” allowed curators to share their experiences, successes, and challenges related to the long-term loans. The second day included the session, “Learning from Each Other; Looking to the Future,” which generated exploratory discussions on future uses of the loans and ways to collaborate. The cohort’s attendees also considered various processes for documenting and communicating key learnings with the American art field.
