Dear Friends:
As my tenure as Paul Mellon Director of the Yale Center for British Art (YCBA) draws to a close, I look back on the last five years with gratitude for all that we have accomplished together. The YCBA has flourished as a museum attuned to artists, students, Yale University, the city of New Haven, and the world.
Our conservation project is steadily progressing, a testament to our commitment to preserving our iconic Louis I. Kahn building for future generations. The 224 original skylights have been replaced with new, more resilient polycarbonate domes that maintain the original design. The roof was replaced with a liquid system that offers improved abrasion resistance and aging stability, further fortifying the building’s envelope. We recently began the second phase of work, in which we will replace the original halogen lighting with an energy-efficient LED system throughout the building. These improvements reflect our continued responsibility for the building and the environment.
Our curatorial team is hard at work on a reimagined installation of our collection. It will feature many beloved paintings, as well as new acquisitions and some fascinating compositions that were recently treated by our conservators. I am eager to see the reconfigured galleries when the museum reopens in spring 2025, and I look forward to joining in the reopening celebrations!
During the past year, we co-organized an immersive film installation with the School of Architecture and published a stunning book on J. M. W. Turner; added remarkable new acquisitions to our collection, including some by important contemporary artists not previously represented; loaned objects to museums and institutions across the United States and in Europe; hosted classes, conversations, lectures, symposia, tours, and workshops; and shared our resources with families, scholars, students, and visitors from around the world.
New and ongoing collaborations have allowed us to continue our programming across campus and beyond. In September, we partnered with the Yale Schwarzman Center to present a performance by Corinne Bailey Rae celebrating her fourth studio album, Black Rainbows. In the spring, we collaborated with this innovative campus hub again on a display of works by local student-photographers who participated in “The View from Here: Accessing Art through Photography.” Now in its third year, the program is offered by the YCBA and the Lens Media Lab at Yale’s Institute for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage. An exhibition of work by all three cohorts of students is on view at the Schwarzman Center through November 2024.
In fall 2023, we presented Isaac Julien’s multichannel film installation Lina Bo Bardi—A Marvellous Entanglement with the Yale School of Architecture. We were delighted to welcome Julien to New Haven in October, when he spoke about Bo Bardi’s groundbreaking designs and how they resonate with Rudolph Hall and the other modernist buildings on Yale’s campus.
Throughout our building’s closure, we have continued to offer residency awards, welcoming artists as well as visiting scholars to access our collections and resources. Visiting artists included Shezad Dawood, Ken Gonzales-Day, Joy Gregory, and Sue Williamson. We look forward to a public art project by Gonzales-Day, to be installed this summer, that was inspired by his research at the YCBA and the Yale Peabody Museum.
Our senior staff grew this year with the appointments of Tim Young as Curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts, Elizabeth Wyckoff as Curator of Prints and Drawings, and Don McMahon as Head of Publications. Tim, who started in July 2023, and Elizabeth, who joined us in October 2023, are already working on a monographic exhibition of work by William Blake, which will be on view in fall 2025. Don, who started in February 2024, will steer the YCBA publications program into the future.
I thank all of the museum’s dedicated staff and many other individuals and organizations whose support made possible the activities, initiatives, and programs outlined in this report. I am also grateful to the museum’s Advisory Committee members for their guidance and good counsel.
With the appointment of Richard Brodhead (Yale BA 1968 and PhD 1972) as interim director, I am confident that the YCBA will be well stewarded through this period of transition. Dick is a former dean of Yale College and served as the ninth president of Duke University from 2004 to 2017.
Yale president Peter Salovey has appointed a distinguished Search Advisory Committee that will solicit broad input from the Yale community about the museum’s next director. The incoming president, Maurie McInnis (Yale PhD 1996), a Yale-trained art historian, will bring great energy to the campus and will finalize the search.
I trust that the Yale Center for British Art will continue to sustain the vision of its founder, Paul Mellon (Yale College, Class of 1929), while advancing British art and inspiring global audiences.
—Courtney J. Martin (Yale PhD 2009), Paul Mellon Director, 2019–2024
