Dreams can take years to come to fruition. Sometimes for more than one reason.
In 2017, donor Alan Peterson connected College of DuPage personnel with Carlos Phillips Olmedo, son of Dolores Olmedo and director of the Delores Olmedo Museum in Mexico. They started talking about the possibility of bringing an exhibit from arguably Mexico’s most famous artist, Frida Kahlo, to the Glen Ellyn campus’ Cleve Carney Museum of Art.
“This is not a traveling show of her work. This collection is a really unique opportunity to see this work outside Mexico City. It was created from the ground up,” said Justin Witte, director and curator of Cleve Carney Museum of Art. The exhibit, “Frida Kahlo: Timeless,” which was originally scheduled for 2020, is now slated to open at the Cleve Carney Museum in June.
Witte noted that there have been other Kahlo exhibitions. The Cleve Carney museum’s will combines a 26-piece collection of art, a multimedia timeline, more than 100 photos from Kahlo’s life, a family-friendly area and a garden, designed by Ball Horticultural Company.
It was, as they say, a big get for the museum.
“When Diana Martinez (director of the McAninch Arts Center) and I found out, our first reaction was excitement and kind of amazement that we would have a show of this caliber. But there was also a little bit of stress because we had a lot to do” before the planned June 2020 opening, Witte said. The museum had to be expanded to accommodate the huge exhibit.
As it turned out, they would have plenty of time, and when the museum expansion was finished in April 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic would be putting the whole shebang on hold.
“Initially we played with the idea of opening in 2019, which in retrospect might have been pretty good,” Witte laughed.
“Last March, we were approaching the final stretch,” Witte said. Then, everything stopped.
Now, preparations are back in motion for the exhibition that is on the calendar to open June 5, 2021. A series of webinars to educate about Kahlo’s extraordinary life, work and influence have already begun. And now, thanks to the virtual environment, these seminars will be available for people who can’t see the exhibit in person, for whatever reason.
“This grouping we pulled together are all curators and academics we had already arranged to come speak (in person). The complexities of the pandemic gave us a wonderful opportunity to put these into an online format, also use them to educate our audience,” Witte said.
“This gives (the webinars) a life span through the exhibilition,” he said. Patrons who attend the exhibit can watch the webinars after they go, or brush up on information about Kahlo’s life beforehand.
Kahlo’s life and work has a timelessness to it that he was drawn to starting in art school, Witte said. “If you look through her exhibits in the 1970s, (shows reflected the) U.S. rise of feminism. Other shows focused on her relationship with (partner) Diego (Rivera) or as fashion icon. She is presented as an icon of the moment but she always outlives it.”
Kahlo’s enduring appeal “really comes to the fact that so much of her work is a struggle to the honest about her own experience — confront complexities of our lives. Her vulnerability and bravery that we can relate to. Many of us who struggle with the same things, we see that voice and it gives us strength,” Witte said.
“She still spoke to our time, even the isolation of our current time, (as) she was plagued by health crises her whole life. We just lived through a divisive political period, which was part of the narrative of her life as well. She manages to speak to the moment,” he said.
In some respects, Witte, who lives in Oak Park, said the COVID-19 mitigations were somewhat of a “blessing for us. It forced us into the future; forced us to put a lot more online.” He added that Martinez had switched a lot of the McAninch’s programming online already, and this allowed “the audience to become more fluent. Long after we’re vaccinated these kinds of offerings are going to continue.
“We had an event not too long ago with close to 200 people from all over the country. I got feedback from colleagues all over the country,” Witte said.
The subject of the webinar was the Fashions of Frida Kahlo, moderated by Art History Professor Kathy Baum. This webinar is available at theccma.org/frida-events.
As for the exhibition itself, the extra time allowed organizers to adapt. “We changed the entire layout of the exhibition (to a) one-direction flow. Never at any point are you are crossing people. They also changed the amount of wall text, to allow for less congregating in spots. The space will have floor markings with safe distance noted. They will require safety measures such as masks and hand sanitizer will be plentiful.
“Right now we will have less people per hour in the space. If necessary, we’re prepared to extend hours,” he said.
The exhibition has sold 14,000 advance tickets although the organizers expect more like 100,000 to go through the event. “Most museum goers buy their tickets the week or day of their visit,” Witte added.
“We’ve had larger performances over several days, but never had an exhibit of that scale,” he said.
Witte hopes the exhibition will bring people who’ve never been to Glen Ellyn to the area. “I think that people in other parts of Chicagoland don’t realize all that DuPage County has to offer,” he said.
Witte hopes “it leads to a deeper appreciation for the college and its commitment to take on something like this. (They said,) ‘Let’s try this, let’s invest in the culture of our community.'” Witte added that Martinez and the whole McAninch staff has “really worked to keep cultural programs going and keep students engaged.
“We’re not slowing down, but pivoting. We still have an obligation (to the students),” he said.
And what if mitigations have not improved by June? “Everything is looking really strong, especially when we consider what we saw this past summer when cultural institutions were able to open safely. The whole museum community has learned to adapt. We benefit from being a museum exhibit instead of a performance. Social distance happens naturally.
“The College and the MAC are closely following all CDC and state regulations. It is our hope that public health officials will deem cultural institutions safe to re-open in time for us to have the Kahlo exhibition in the summer of 2021,” Martinez said.
“We see the light in the horizon,” Witte added.
Go to frida2021.org for information about the exhibit and webinars taking place around it.
Wendy Fox Weber is entertainment editor and columnist for the Lake County News-Sun, the Beacon-News, the Daily Southtown, Naperville Sun, the Post-Tribune, the Courier-News and Pioneer Press. She can be reached at wweber@tribpub.com.
