Rockwell Museum Director Appointed Delegate to Russia
STOCKBRIDGE, Mass. — Norman Rockwell Museum Director Laurie Norton Moffatt has been appointed by the American Association of Museums to serve as a delegate on a cultural diplomacy trip to Russia with the U.S. Department of State and the President's Committee for the Arts and Humanities.Norton Moffatt will join American and Russian officials and several private sector leaders in Moscow from Dec. 7 to 9 to discuss ways to continue fostering positive relations between the United States and Russia, and how various organizations might support the objectives of the commission.
Funding to support Norton Moffatt's trip has been made possible by the Henry Luce Foundation for American Art, the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, and the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation.
"I am honored that the AAM has invited me to represent our country through this unique opportunity," said Norton Moffatt, who is a board member of the national organization. "While I am representing the nation's museum and cultural community, I will also be an ambassador for Norman Rockwell Museum; Norman Rockwell is an American icon, and should serve as a wonderful entry point for the Russian people to learn more about our country's rich cultural tradition."
The trip marks Norton Moffatt's second visit to Russia; in the late 1990s, she traveled to the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg to meet with its Director Mikhail Piotrovskiy. The visit was arranged to help prepare for Rockwell Museum's 2000 exhibition "Distant Shores: The Odyssey of Rockwell Kent," which included seven original paintings by the illustrator that are part of the permanent collection of the Hermitage.
Leadership and support of culture and the arts are driving forces behind the exchanges the two nations continue to enjoy. In July, President Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev announced the creation of the new Bilateral Presidential Commission at their summit meeting in Moscow.
Lead by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Undersecretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Judith A. McHale, the commission aims to deepen cooperation between the United States and Russia in concrete ways and to promote active development of relations in all priority areas. Each delegate attending will serve on working groups on education, sports, cultural exchanges, and mass media. Each subgroup will facilitate information sharing among organizations in the United States and Russia, and work to identify potential partnerships and initiatives between the public and private sectors.
The group's cultural discourse is in preparation for a larger meeting planned for Washington in the spring 2010.
Rockwell himself was interested in deepening cultural relations between the two nations. In July 1963, he corresponded with the U.S. Information Agency on the subject of taking part in its Cultural Exchange Program with what was then the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The agency responded to Rockwell's willingness by sending him to Moscow to present a workshop at the exhibition "Graphic Arts-U.S.A." at the USSR Exhibition of Economic Achievements.
Over the course of four weeks, Rockwell demonstrated his painting technique within a roped-off workspace where, through an interpreter, he invited exhibit bystanders to have their portraits painted. The artist completed no less than 20 such portraits, each of which was done in approximately one hour's time. Rockwell also hosted two Russian exchange students for a day in Stockbridge in 1964. He was sent back to the country for a second visit in 1967 to illustrate a story about the Russian education system ("Russian Schoolroom") for the October 1967 issue of "Look" magazine.
For more information about the Rockwell Museum www.nrm.org.
