Ten minutes. That's how long it takes to walk from most downtown office buildings to Pike Street and the Taft Museum. It's the shortest time-travel trip you'll ever take. Dreary-eyed office workers will tell you that the one-time home of Anna Sinton and Charles Phelps Taft is an oasis of 19th-century gentility. But that's old news.
A banner strung across the Taft Museum's wrought-iron fence announces its recent revision. The Taft Museum is now called the Taft Museum of Art. It's just a name change. Updated letterhead. New logo. The "official" name of the institution remains the same due to legal expenses. Of course, a museum's outside perception is what often matters most.
"This name change helps people understand what the Taft Museum must be," said Phillip Long, the Taft's director. "Adding the word art is a simple thing. It doesn't change who we are."
There have been other changes over the years. Free admission was replaced by a $4 ticket charge, although Wednesdays and Sundays are now free to the public. Through it all, the Taft has essentially stayed the same: an historic 1820 house with an acclaimed art collection.
A 67-year-old museum can suffer from an identity crisis just like some confused adolescent. It raises the question of how the Taft fits into Cincinnati's cultural landscape.
"Ambiguity doesn't serve any of us," Long said. "This clarifies us in the eyes of the public. People who've been here, tourists and visitors to the city, know us. It's the people in our own community that don't know us."
Changing the Taft's public name comes with its own goals for improvement. The problem with the Taft is that improved programming and additional outreach would require a bigger museum. Suddenly, the Taft's changed nameplate takes on a greater significance. Here is the inevitable question: Is the Taft's new name the starting point for a major capital campaign?
Long knows the Taft's physical restraints better than anybody. No separate lecture hall or meeting rooms. A museum cafe would boost the visitor's experience. Extra bathrooms are needed. He's confident the Taft would make use of additional galleries for educational outreach. As it stands now, visitors are prevented from viewing Rembrandt's Portrait of a Man Rising from his Chair whenever a lecture takes place in the Taft's Music Room. More importantly, Long realizes the need for more parking.
"In today's world, to not offer parking is a real liability," Long said. "But remember, the Taft was never built to be a public building, which it is now."
Long won't talk about specifics when it comes to a Taft capital campaign. Such plans exist in a preliminary talking stage. But Long has studied the Taft's physical needs, including the layout of the Pike Street site. Long is also quick to point out that there is no stipulation in the Taft Family Trust that prevents the collection from being moved to a new facility. The only constant is the way one experiences art at the Taft.
"It is important that the art remains in a domestic setting," Long said. "Most art and art collections were for a domestic setting. But most museums are anything but domestic."
You realize after talking to Long that the possibilities regarding a new Taft Museum of Art are greater than previously imagined.
Sitting in Long's elegant museum office, it's difficult to imagine the Taft's hi-tech future. But Long envisions the entire Taft collection on an elaborate Internet site. A Taft Museum of Art CD catalogue will enable visitors to take the collection home.
Long believes passionately in the increased importance of an art museum in the daily lives of people. He also wants to make sure that the Taft Museum of Art plays a key role.
"All of us here at the museum want more people to enjoy the Taft experience. The question is: How do we grow?"
