The Gross Party

The Gross Party, originally uploaded by libbyrosof.

Speaking of fundraising parties, this poster via Artblog, The art of the invitation, has a great suggestion as a way to Save the Eakins:

The annual Christmas party invitations are rolling in, but this one . . . not only has the image above of the Gross Clinic with cartoon speech bubbles. But the party is a fundraiser.

"Great Art requires Great Friends," my invitation says. "We are inviting 6,800,000* of our nearest and dearest friends to this year's holiday open house. Bring 10 bucks. Together we'll save Thomas Eakins' 'Gross Clinic' for the City of Philadelphia.
...
*If just 68 of you would bring $1 million each, that would cut down on the canapes."

I have written several posts on the sale of The Gross Clinic by Jefferson, see Gross Mistake and The Clinic Sale is Gross, and have been following Philly's attempts to save the painting. Until the other day, there had been no word on how much has been raised so far through fundraising efforts.

However, I see from the NY Times, A Countdown For Eakins Painting, that:

The Philadelphia Museum of Art has 26 more days to raise $68 million if it wants to prevent Thomas Eakins’s 1875 masterpiece, “The Gross Clinic,” from going to the National Gallery of Art in Washington and the new Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Ark. With the clock ticking, Anne d’Harnoncourt, director of the Philadelphia Museum, announced yesterday that $23 million of that amount had been raised locally, but refused to say from where. “It’s a community effort,” Ms. d’Harnoncourt said. “We’ve had hundreds of gifts large and small, from $10 to millions.” The painting is owned by Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, where Dr. Samuel D. Gross taught surgery in the 1800s. In agreeing to sell the painting this month to the National Gallery and Crystal Bridges, the university gave local institutions 45 days to match the $68 million price. Philadelphia was Eakins’s lifelong home. “ ‘The Gross Clinic’ is “an icon for this city, a masterpiece that sums up all of Philadelphia’s strengths then and now,” Ms. d’Harnoncourt said yesterday.

I'm impressed. 20 Million in 20 days.

And I see from the Inquirer, 'The Gross Clinic' campaign reaches one-third of goal, that the local pols have added their fundraising muscle:

The effort has now gathered strong support in Washington and Harrisburg.

Sen. Arlen Specter and Gov. Rendell, Republican and Democrat respectively, have actively joined the fund-raising push, officials said yesterday, contacting possible donors, working the phones, and helping broaden the efforts to raise what is believed to be the largest amount ever paid for a pre-World War II American painting.

Rendell and Specter are both prodigious fund-raisers.

Of course, let's not forget why this monumental fundraising effort is necessary: the philistine Administrators and officials at TJU by deciding to mistreat their Alumni (who originally donated the painting to the University) and to hold the city of Philadelphia & its citizens hostage (by trying to extract the $68 Million from the City to keep it). I hope both scorn TJU for a long time when asked for anything from them (donations and city zoning waivers, for example) in the future.

Substantial progress has been made, but there is a lot left to be raised in a little time. In Cultural Hijacking Alert Upgraded to SEVERE, Philebrity notes:

This may just be our kharmic kick for letting that Rocky statue back up there, but with the loud public outcry, immediate fundraising appeal and the shaming campaign of Thomas Jefferson University Trustees all well underway the countdown to preventing our Eakins masterpiece, The Gross Clinic, from leaving our city is ticking, fast. WHYY’s cultural blog coverage has provided invaluable insights into an iconic work that is indelibly integrated not only into the psyche of the learning institution whose Board secretly sold it down the Schuylkill but also forever burnished into the collective psyche of Philadelphia’s cultural heritage. . . . Viewing the painting in situ is free, do it soon, and while viewing it consider this fact: cultural institutions, museums, universities and libraries all face the same periodic financial dilemma in proposing to de-accession collection works to support their own financial needs. As an unspoken rule they don’t do it and the reason is simple. It is unethical, and it is that difference between right and wrong that should be enough. For a hospital and a medical college that question of ethics is thrown into an expensive grey area, and knowing that an incomprehensibly large pile of money is needed to keep this work in our city, for our city (some say the same amount would cover the school districts deficit) and that the ransom note’s clock times out on December 26, well, to save it may be nothing short of a Christmas miracle.

24 days and counting . . .

Tags: Philadelphia, Philly, Eakins, Gross Clinic, Art