It's been almost 100 years since Isabella Stewart Gardner's death, and she's still managing to impact the dance community in her adopted hometown of Boston. Who is she, and how is she doing that? Gardner was an art lover, philanthropist, patron, and founder of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Massachusetts. The array of works of art that she spent her life collecting has long been one of the most beloved in Boston; now the museum is about to feature several dancers as a part of their collection.
The museum has announced that their first choreographer-in-residence, Peter DiMuro, will be introducing a series of new programs. One of these new initiatives will be dancer-led tours through the museum. DiMuro began his dance career in Boston, eventually joining Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, where he became Artistic Director. He also has his own company, Peter DiMuro/Public Displays of Motion. The tour will be called "The House of Accumulated Beauties," and was created in collaboration with his dancers' movements as they moved and interacted with the works of art throughout the creative process. The tours are free, and will take place throughout the month of October.
The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum joins a growing list of galleries that are interspersing dance along with their visual art collection. The most well known is, of course, New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, where Gallim Dance's artistic director (and the Met's first choreographer-in-residence) Andrea Miller is preparing to showcase her work, Stone Skipping, at the famed Temple of Dendur exhibit later this year.
The Smithsonian Museum in Washington D.C. named their first choreographer-in-residence, Dana Tai Soon Burgess, back in 2016. He was given a three-year grant to create original works that took place around the different exhibitions and locations, including the National Portrait Gallery. The New Museum in New York has a similar program, and has collaborated in the past with dance companies such as NYC-based collective AUNTS, to incorporate movement into their galleries.
Is there an interesting inter-disciplinary collaboration happening at a space in your city? We want to hear about it! Leave us a comment below.