Barnes Foundation

Happy first day of AAM! This year at the American Alliance of Museums Annual Meeting, the Barnes Foundation and Calder Gardens will be represented across conversations on audience research, digital infrastructure, operations, governance, retail strategy, public programs, evaluation, accessibility, and institutional partnership. Across the conference, Barnes and Calder Gardens staff will contribute to sessions exploring what it takes to build and sustain ambitious cultural work today—from creating new museum models and shared operational systems to advancing visitor-centered experiences across physical and digital spaces. Topics include: • The creation and operational launch of Calder Gardens • Audience research, creativity, and well-being • Retail and admissions strategy • Institutional infrastructure and operational partnerships • Career pathways and leadership development • Mission-centered collaboration across the Barnes, Calder Gardens, and The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage This moment reflects the depth of expertise across our teams and the growing role the Barnes plays not only as a cultural institution, but as an operational, educational, and strategic partner across the field. We’re proud to see 20+ colleagues contributing their work, research, and leadership to conversations shaping the future of museums. AAM attendees, we hope you have a chance to experience both the Barnes and Calder Gardens while you’re in Philadelphia for the conference. Show your museum credentials at the Barnes box office or the Calder Gardens admission desk to receive complimentary admission.

When Dr. Barnes purchased “The Henriot Family” in 1935, it was described as a “study in gray and blue.” Over time, the appearance of that palette began to shift. Layers of varnish aged and discolored, casting a dull, yellow tone across the surface and making the painting’s blues look green. Through #conservation work supported by the Bank of America Art Conservation Project, those layers were carefully removed. In doing so, our conservators were able to restore the painting’s original tonal harmony and bring its color relationships back into view. Now, the painting returns to how it was meant to be seen. “The Henriot Family” will return to the Main Gallery very soon!

What does it take to operate two cultural institutions through a shared digital ecosystem while preserving distinct visitor experiences for each? In the third post of our Digital Product Strategy series, Olivia Steinmetz writes about the systems architecture behind the Barnes Foundation's operational partnership with Calder Gardens: one codebase, one ticketing tenant, one membership program, one customer database, with brand-specific configuration layered on top. Two front doors, one back office. Read the full post ➡️ https://bit.ly/497mjgC

This International Museum Day, we recognize the role museums play as spaces for education, dialogue, preservation, and community engagement. At the Barnes, that mission extends across the collection, exhibitions, public programs, conservation work, and partnerships that connect people with art and with one another. Rooted in Dr. Albert Barnes’s educational vision, the institution continues to foster close looking, critical thinking, and interdisciplinary learning through experiences that invite participation and reflection. We are grateful to the educators, artists, staff, visitors, and community partners who help shape the Barnes as a place of ongoing discovery and exchange. Plan your visit ➡️ https://bit.ly/43NYRD1

Join us for Barnes Cinema: Arthur Jafa Retrospective, a screening program featuring works by artist and filmmaker Arthur Jafa, whose multidisciplinary practice examines the histories, emotional textures, and visual languages of Black life in America. The program includes: 🎬 “Deshotten 1.0” (2013), directed by Arthur Jafa and Malik Hassan Sayeed 🎬 “Dreams Are Colder than Death” (2013), directed by Arthur Jafa 🎬 “4:44” (2017), directed by Arthur Jafa, Elissa Blount Moorhead, and Malik Hassan Sayeed Together, these works span narrative fiction, experimental documentary, and music video, demonstrating Jafa’s influential approach to montage, sound, and image. Following the screening, artist, curator, and producer Elissa Blount Moorhead and filmmaker Darol Olu Kae will participate in a lecture and conversation reflecting on Jafa’s practice and legacy. This program is part of a three-part film series curated by Maori Karmael Holmes of BlackStar Projects in conjunction with the exhibition “Freedom Dreams.” Tickets include admission to both the exhibition and the Barnes collection. Barnes Cinema: Arthur Jafa Retrospective 📆 Saturday, June 13 🕒 1–4pm ET 📍 the Barnes 🎟 FREE! Register ➡ https://bit.ly/4wqldXo 📷: Still from Arthur Jafa’s Dreams Are Colder than Death (2013)

Join us for Being Present with Art: Practicing Openness, an on-site workshop exploring the intersection of mindfulness and art engagement. This program integrates mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) techniques with guided close looking, drawing, and collaborative exercises in the galleries. Developed by Roksana Filipowska, PhD, the approach has been shown to reduce stress while enhancing awareness and fostering a sense of connection. Participants will engage in guided meditation alongside interactive art experiences, with no prior background in art or meditation required. The session also offers returning participants an opportunity to deepen their practice. Being Present with Art: Practicing Openness 📆 Wednesday, June 17 🕒 1–3pm ET 📍 On-site 🎟 Register ➡ https://bit.ly/4utqZWe 🎨 Paul Cézanne. Gardener (detail), c. 1885 (possibly later). Barnes Foundation.

In the second post of our digital infrastructure series, Olivia Steinmetz traces the origin and evolution of the Barnes Foundation’s Visual Experience Platform (VXP)—a teaching environment designed and built in house to support sustained engagement with works of art in a digital space. The post begins with a core institutional challenge: traditional online platforms flattened art education into screenshare lectures, limiting how students could engage with visual material. The Barnes Method depends on close looking, instructor-led dialogue, and the ability to move fluidly between overview and detail—something existing platforms like Zoom or Teams could not support. The piece follows the research, design, and in-house development process that led to the VXP’s launch in 2023, including audience strategy work, UX validation, cross-departmental collaboration, and continuous testing with instructors and students. It also shares the platform’s early impact across dozens of online courses and more than 1,200 students in its first year. A major focus of the post is the development of Replay, the VXP’s asynchronous learning mode launched in March 2024. Through structured user research, A/B testing, and persona development, the team reimagined recorded classes as interactive experiences rather than static videos—allowing students to navigate high-resolution artworks at their own pace while remaining connected to the instructor’s teaching flow. Opportunity to add a link to our async classes here The post offers a detailed look at how accessibility, pedagogy, user research, and operational thinking shaped the platform from the ground up—and how those systems are informing future institutional partnerships and self-serve infrastructure. Read the full post ➡️ https://bit.ly/4wNkoIv

What does it look like when digital work stops being an experiment and becomes institutional infrastructure? We’re restarting the Barnes Foundation’s digital publication practice with a new series focused on building digital product, infrastructure, and operational systems inside a museum context. Written by Olivia Steinmetz, Product Manager and Front-end Web Developer at the Barnes, the series examines how the institution’s digital systems have evolved over the past decade—from early experimentation to durable infrastructure supporting education, interpretation, partnerships, and audience engagement. Across the series, each post follows the same arc: identifying an institutional problem, building iteratively, reducing operational overhead over time, and designing systems that can support reuse, partnership, and long-term sustainability. Future posts will explore the origins of the Visual Experience Platform (VXP), the research and architecture behind Replay, the evolution of self-serve infrastructure and institutional partnerships, the complexities of operating a dual-brand digital ecosystem for the Barnes and Calder Gardens, and the platform layer that connects it all. The first post, “Digital Product as Institutional Practice at the Barnes Foundation” reflects on the institution’s digital evolution since 2017: the development of an in-house engineering team, the launch of Barnes Focus and the Visual Experience Platform, operational partnerships with Calder Gardens and the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, and the growing role digital systems play in sustaining educational mission, accessibility, and institutional capacity. The post also explores how the Barnes approaches product development through long-term, mission-aligned design, where accessibility, governance, and visitor experience function as core constraints rather than afterthoughts. Read the full post ➡️ https://bit.ly/4fjbuvI

Join us for the May Spotlight Tour, Wicked Paris: The Lure of Montmartre, an exploration of the artistic community that helped shape modern art. At the turn of the 20th century, Montmartre emerged as a center of bohemian culture and creative experimentation. This tour examines the artists who lived and worked there—including Degas, Picasso, Renoir, Van Gogh, and Toulouse-Lautrec—and considers how their work transformed both the neighborhood and the trajectory of modern art. May Spotlight Tour: Wicked Paris: The Lure of Montmartre 📆 Thursday–Monday 🕒 1pm 📍 On-site 🎟 Register ➡ https://bit.ly/4cTGocJ 🎨 Amedeo Modigliani. Beatrice, 1916. The Barnes Foundation.

Join us for Close-Looking Immersion: Pissarro’s “Garden in Full Sunlight,” an online session focused on sustained observation and visual analysis. This program invites participants to spend an hour engaging deeply with Camille Pissarro’s painting, the artist’s only work in the Barnes collection. Through guided discussion and high-resolution digital tools, attendees will examine brushwork, color, and composition to better understand how the artist constructed a light-filled garden scene. Using our visual experience platform (VXP), you’ll zoom in, linger, and notice what reveals itself over time. Led by William Perthes, the Barnes’s Bernard C. Watson Director of Adult Education. Close-Looking Immersion: Pissarro’s Garden in Full Sunlight 📆 Monday, June 8 🕒 1–2pm ET 📍 Online 🎟 Register ➡ https://bit.ly/42c5NZ1 🎨 Camille Pissarro. Garden in Full Sunlight (detail), 1876. Barnes Foundation.