Photo of Norman Rockwell holding a Russian abacus in Russia, 1964. Photo by Mollie Rockwell. Licensed by Norman Rockwell Licensing, Niles, IL. From the permanent collection of Norman Rockwell Museum.
Norman Rockwell Museum Director/CEO Laurie Norton Moffatt has been appointed by the American Association of Museums (AAM) to serve as an official delegate on a cultural diplomacy trip to Russia with the United States Department of State and the President’s Committee for the Arts and Humanities. Ms. Norton Moffatt will be joining a delegation of American and Russian officials and several private sector leaders in Moscow from December 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 Ms. Norton Moffatt’s cultural diplomacy trip has been made possible by The Henry Luce Foundation for American Art, The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, and The Berkshire Taconic Foundation.
“I am honored that the AAM has invited me to represent our country through this unique opportunity,” says Norton Moffatt, who serves as 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 diplomacy trip marks Ms. Norton Moffatt’s second visit to Russia; in the late 1990s, the Museum Director traveled to the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg to meet with Hermitage Director Mikhail Piotrovskiy. The visit was arranged in order to help prepare for Norman Rockwell Museum’s 2000 exhibition Distant Shores: The Odyssey of Rockwell Kent, which included seven original paintings by the noted illustrator, which are part of the permanent collection of the Hermitage.
Leadership and support of culture and the arts are driving forces behind the success Russia and the exchanges between the two nations continue to enjoy. In July, United States President Barack Obama and President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev announced the creation of the new United States – Russia Bilateral Presidential Commission at their summit meeting in Moscow. Lead by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Under Secretary 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 a United States – Russia Bilateral Presidential Commission Working Group on Education, Sports, Cultural Exchanges, and Mass Media. Each sub group 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, DC, in the spring of 2010.
Norman Rockwell: To Russia with Love
In July of 1963, Norman Rockwell corresponded with the United States Information Agency on the subject of taking part in their Cultural Exchange Program with Russia. The agency graciously responded to Rockwell’s willingness by sending him to Moscow to present a workshop at the exhibition, Graphic Arts—U.S.A., at the U.S.S.R. 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 twenty such portraits, each of which was done in approximately one hour’s time. After returning from Russia, Rockwell 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.
About The American Association of Museums
The American Association of Museums (AAM) has been bringing museums together since 1906, helping to develop standards and best practices, gathering and sharing knowledge, and providing advocacy on issues of concern to the entire museum community. AAM is dedicated to ensuring that museums remain a vital part of the American landscape, connecting people with the greatest achievements of the human experience, past, present and future. For more information, visit: www.aam-us.org.
Dear Ms. Moffatt,
During your stay in Russia could you perhaps consider raising the possibility of organizing a joint U.S.-Russian exhibit comparing the works of Norman Rockwell with those of Socialist Realist artists. I found great interest for such a project among my Russian friends and contacts (I served as Cultural Affairs Officer at US Embassy Moscow from 1998 to 2001), as well as among Americans interested in Russia.
For an interesting account of the Rockwell/Socialist Realism issue, see Tomas Pospiszyl, “Socialist Evening Realistic Post” at
http://www.artmargins.com/index.php/archive/242-socialist-evening-realistic-post. The author writes: “It does not take an experienced connoisseur to notice the uncanny similarity between the widely popular art of Norman Rockwell and certain artworks of Socialist realism.” The contentiousness of such a viewpoint is what would make a Rockwell/Socialist Realism exhibit so fascinating.
May I note that my preferred venue for the exhibit would be Las Vegas.
Sincerely,
John Brown
Georgetown University
PS: My blog on public diplomacy is at
http://publicdiplomacypressandblogreview.blogspot.com/
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[...] I am feeling utterly privileged and thrilled to share with you the inspiring experience of serving as a delegate on behalf of America's museums as a board member of the American Association of Museums on a United States State Department cultural exchange mission to advance the vision of US and Russian Presidents Obama and Medvedev to create cultural exchange between the people of Russia and the United States. http://www.nrm.org/2009/12/museum-director-laurie-norton-moffatt-cultural-delegate-to-russia/ [...]
Dear Ms. Moffatt,
Thank you for your prompt reply.
I will be as brief as possible, given your busy schedule in Moscow.
To reinvigorate U.S.- Russian cultural relations, we — Americans and Russians — need something “controversial,” that will lead to disagreements, discussions, to “hot potatoes.” (Not to speak of real press coverage).
A Rockwell/Socialist Realism exhibit in Las Vegas, in my modest opinion, can do this.
Best,
John
PS. Give my best to Mr. Svydkoi, whom I had the pleasure to meet on several occasions in Moscow and whose command of the American language I much admired. I mention him in my lecture, “Re-Inventing Onself in America,” where I talk about the Hermitage show in Las Vegas that he had much to do with — he was instrumental, in his own way, of bringing old-world “high culture” to America’s “sin city.”
PSS. As it seems that in answering your kind note I cannot provide you in this format with links re my efforts to understand propaganda, just Google my name and propaganda. Also, my course at GU is “Propaganda and US Foreign Policy: A Historical Overview.”