William Banfield examines works in storage at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. (Photo courtesy of the Museum Loan Network)

(Sounding Board, November 2002) Last year, the Forum and the Museum Loan Network (MLN) joined forces for Museums, Composers and Communities. The program includes composers in the planning of museum exhibits and places them in residencies with museums and their communities.

The MLN facilitates the long-term loan of art and objects of cultural heritage among museums, allowing them to better serve their communities. Typically, the organization has made exhibits possible through two types of grants: travel grants that have allowed teams of curators, educators, and community members to visit other museums, examine their collections, and negotiate loans; and implementation grants that have funded the actual loan of materials and the installation of exhibits. Survey grants are also available to institutions interested in identifying objects from their collection for future loan.

Through Museums, Composers and Communities, composers join teams from visiting museums as part of the travel grants. Implementation grants include composer residencies similar to those of the Forum's Continental Harmony program.

Since its inception, the program has awarded two travel grants and four implementation grants. Composers Jim Cockey and William C. Banfield have already traveled with curatorial teams from the Western Heritage Center of Billings, Mont., and the Mobile (Ala.) Museum of Art, respectively. Both museums discovered that the inclusion of a composer in the ground-level planning of an exhibit not only opens the door to better integration of music into their programming, but also provides a unique perspective, which can help curatorial teams better select artworks and cultural artifacts.

Following the completion of the travel grants, both museums were approved for implementation grants, placing the composers in residence with the museums to create new music. Implementation grants were also awarded to The Spencer Museum of Art at the University of Kansas, bringing composer Gabriela Lena Frank into the community as part of an exhibit of Latin American art; and the Cedar Rapids (Iowa) Museum of Art, facilitating a composer residency in conjunction with its exhibit on Roman life. (A composer is currently being sought for the Cedar Rapids project.)

Banfield is composing two pieces of music inspired by the artworks in Mobile's exhibition of American sculpture, "The American Way." One of those compositions, a chamber piece to celebrate the opening of the museum's new building, and will later be expanded for the Mobile Symphony.

Cockey has been working on the "Life By Comparison" exhibition - an exploration of the lives of Frederick and Parmly Billings. Based on artifacts in the exhibit and his recordings of music that was significant to the Billings family, Cockey created an original piece of music for the Billings Symphony.

After workshops and conversations with members of the local community, composer Gabriela Lena Frank will be composing three pieces of music inspired by the Latin American works on loan at the Spencer Museum of Art in Lawrence, Kan.

In the following pages, we excerpt a conversation between Museum Loan Network Director Lori Gross and the composers, along with an article on "Life By Comparison" by Kevin Kooistra-Manning, deputy director and community historian for Western Heritage Center. Both articles were originally published in the Museum Loan Network News 2001-2002, and excerpts are reprinted with permission.

Read Lori Gross' discussion with Banfield, Cockey, and Frank.

Read Kevin Kooistra-Manning's story on "Life By Comparison"

Download all three stories in one PDF file.
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