Philip Verre
“A Night in the Museum,” An Evening with Philip Verre, promises to be an exciting addition to Glynn Art Association’s ongoing program of community enrichment. Mr. Verre is the Chief Operation Officer of Atlanta’s High Museum of Art, the leading art museum in the southeastern United States, with more than 13,000 works of art in its permanent collection. The Museum’s holdings include 19th- and 20th-century American art; noteworthy European paintings and decorative art; African American art; modern and contemporary art and photography. The High also collects works by Southern artists and is the only major museum in North America to have a curatorial department specifically devoted to folk and self-taught artists.
Mr. Verre joined the High in 2000 as Deputy Director, becoming the COO in 2006, when in October of that year, the Museum’s historic partnership with the Musée du Louvre Museum debuted in to critical acclaim. During the 3-year run of “Louvre Atlanta,” curators in Paris and Atlanta collaborated to present hundreds of works of art that plumbed the range and depth of the Louvre’s storied holdings. He has also overseen exhibitions featuring works from other world-renowned collections, including those of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, the Vatican Museums, the British Museum, and the Museo Nazionale del Bargello in Florence.
Holding both masters and bachelor degrees in art history, Mr. Verre’s favorite period of studies were on western art traditions primarily from the 19th century to the present, however that doesn’t prevent him for enthusiastically introducing wide-ranging exhibitions which have included the works of Picasso, the photo collections of Sir Elton John, impressionism masterworks from the Musée d’Orsay, and the public and critically successful “The First Emperor: China’s Terracotta Army” exhibition.
Not an artist himself, Mr. Verre has wide-ranging tastes: the expressionist power of Rembrandt and van Gogh, the tight coherence of an abstract oil by Mondrian, the grand landscapes of Cezanne and the serenity of Greek sculpture from the 5th century BC. When asked if he were to experience his own Night at the Museum movie, what would he most want to experience coming to life, he replied that he would love being present in Florence, Milan and Rome in the late 15th / early 16th centuries on the occasion of the exhibition, Leonardo da Vinci and the Art of Sculpture. “Having the opportunity to meet one of history’s great geniuses would truly be a gift.”
The opportunity to meet the COO of the outstanding High Museum of Atlanta to hear his insights into the process of developing and presenting exhibits for one of the country’s top ten museums takes place January 7, at the A. W. Jones Heritage Center, with a reception at the Glynn Art Visual Arts Center immediately following. The evening begins at 6:00 p.m., and tickets for the event are $50.00 per person, which includes the lecture and reception, plus the opening of the exhibit “Four Painters”, the works of Peggy Everett, Janet Powers, Mary O. Smith and Ken Wallin. The program is a fundraiser for Glynn Art, and raffle tickets will be sold for a trip to Atlanta that includes a private tour of the High Museum, two admissions to the Atlanta Botanical Garden and two nights at the luxurious Four Seasons Hotel Midtown. For tickets and further information, please contact Glynn Art Association at 912-638-8770 or visit glynnart.org
