Deere & Co. Lends Its Collection To The Figge Art Museum

I think this is good news, but I’m not entirely sure: Deere & Co., the tractor maker in Moline, Il., has agreed to show its large corporate art collection at the Figge Art Museum in Davenport, begining in April and lasting indefinitely. The works will be shown in their own gallery.

The news came in yesterday’s Quad City Times (here), which said the official announcement would be made today — but there’s nothing on the museum’s or the company’s website yet.

Deere has been collecting art since the 1960s, and has amassed nearly 1,000 works — including Grant Woods’ Fall Plowing — nearly all of which have been unseen by the public, according to the article. The collection is broad and ecletic, ranging from American Regionalism to French Impressionism to African and Asian art.

A 1994 article in Financial Executive magazine quoted the corporate curator as saying it contains everything from primitive New Guinea artifacts to a 17th century English crewelwork piece. Here’s the explanation:

Back in 1965, then chairman William Hewitt decided to start a collection that would harmonize with the architecture of the company’s Moline, Ill., headquarters and that would enrich the employees’ environment. But his aim wasn’t just esthetics. If employees were exposed to different cultures through art, he reasoned, they might get a better handle on how cultural factors affect John Deere‘s businesses. With that in mind, Hewitt decided to buy pieces for the fledgling collection from countries in which the company did business.

 

Why wouldn’t this all be good news? The Quad City Times article doesn’t address who is in charge of what’s shown — the museum or the corporation. Those calls are always gives-and-takes, but in recent months we’ve seen far too many examples of museums’ abdicating the choses to others. (See here and here, for example.) If the Figge and Deere were able to work out the right deal, leaving the museum in charge at the end of the day, bravo.