Finding 48: Extended Loan Program, Stages of Procedure

February 3, 2011

The Extended Loan Program was established in 1953 to bring contemporary art of the finest quality to locations throughout the country where examples of such work were otherwise not easily available to artists, students, and the public. Venues, often educational institutions such as university art galleries, were each offered approximately a dozen paintings, watercolors and/or drawings for a period of six months “to use as an independent exhibit or as a nucleus around which to arrange an exhibition of broader scope.” The Guggenheim Museum gathered materials for an informative booklet about the program for potential participants. The booklet was to include a sample borrower’s package (the Guggenheim provided wall labels, a bibliography and publicity photographs), sample paperwork, “fan mail” from the borrowers, photographs of conservation work performed on paintings, maps with locations of already distributed loans, and photographs illustrating various stages of program procedure. The contact sheet shows some of the photos considered for inclusion in the booklet; they illustrate the process of shipping, opening, and inspecting crates of paintings. Although a mock-up of the booklet from 1956 was found with these documents, an extant copy of a finished booklet was not found and it is unknown if one was ever published.

–Shirin Khaki, Archives Assistant