Richard F. Bach

Last updated
Richard Franz Bach
Born1888
Died1968
Bronx, New York
Occupation Curator
Spouse(s)Maude Bransford Bach

Richard Franz Bach (1888-1968) was an American curator with the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He was known as a supporter of collaboration between museums and the industrial arts.

Curator content specialist charged with an institutions collections and involved with the interpretation of heritage material

A curator is a manager or overseer. Traditionally, a curator or keeper of a cultural heritage institution is a content specialist charged with an institution's collections and involved with the interpretation of heritage material.

Metropolitan Museum of Art Art museum in New York City, New York

The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the United States. With 6,953,927 visitors to its three locations in 2018, it was the third most visited art museum in the world. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among seventeen curatorial departments. The main building, on the eastern edge of Central Park along Museum Mile in Manhattan's Upper East Side is by area one of the world's largest art galleries. A much smaller second location, The Cloisters at Fort Tryon Park in Upper Manhattan, contains an extensive collection of art, architecture, and artifacts from Medieval Europe. On March 18, 2016, the museum opened the Met Breuer museum at Madison Avenue on the Upper East Side; it extends the museum's modern and contemporary art program.

Industrial arts is an educational program which features fabrication of objects in wood or metal using a variety of hand, power, or machine tools. It may include small engine repair and automobile maintenance, and all programs usually cover technical drawing as part of the curricula. As an educational term, industrial arts dates from 1904 when Charles R. Richards of Teachers College, Columbia University, New York suggested it to replace manual training.

Contents

Career

Richard F. Bach graduated with an A.B. from Columbia University in 1909 and during 1909-1919 was an instructor and curator at the Columbia School of Architecture. He served as the Acting Librarian of Avery Library from 1918 to 1920. [1] In 1918, Bach was appointed Associate in Industrial Arts at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In this position, Bach's main role was to facilitate use of the Museum’s collections as practical resources by manufacturers, designers, artisans, and craftsmen. Bach was also primarily responsible for organizing a series of popular exhibitions devoted to American industrial art. Over the course of his career at the Museum, Bach also served as Director of Industrial Relations (1929-1941), Dean of Education and Extension (1941-1949), and Consultant in Industrial Arts (1949-1952). After World War II, Bach tried unsuccessfully to provide services at the Museum for veterans, attempting to coordinate the efforts of rehabilitation and occupational therapist with the Museum's Education Department. [2]

Columbia University Private Ivy League research university in New York City

Columbia University is a private Ivy League research university in Upper Manhattan, New York City. Established in 1754, Columbia is the oldest institution of higher education in New York and the fifth-oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. It is one of nine colonial colleges founded prior to the Declaration of Independence, seven of which belong to the Ivy League. It has been ranked by numerous major education publications as among the top ten universities in the world.

Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation

The Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation at Columbia University in New York City, also known simply as GSAPP, is regarded as one of the most important and prestigious architecture schools in the world. It is also home to the well-regarded Masters of Science program in Urban Planning, Urban Design, Historic Preservation, and Real Estate Development.

Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library library at Columbia University in New York City

The Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library is a library located in Avery Hall on the Morningside Heights campus of Columbia University in the New York City. It is the largest architecture library in the world. Serving Columbia's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation and the Department of Art History and Archaeology, Avery Library collects books and periodicals in architecture, historic preservation, art history, painting, sculpting, graphic arts, decorative arts, city planning, real estate, and archaeology, as well as archival materials primarily documenting 19th- and 20th-century American architects and architecture. The architectural, fine arts, and archival collections are non-circulating. The Ware Collection, mainly books on urban planning and real estate development, does circulate.

As the Director of Industrial Relations, Bach supervised the Museum’s Neighborhood Exhibitions, a series of thematic shows of Museum objects that traveled to various parts of New York City between 1933 and 1941. The purpose of the program was "to reach people in outlying districts [...] for whom a visit to the Museum seems a journey," "to serve crowded quarters of the city in which facilities for recreation and enjoyment are limited," and "to make available to the high schools of the city original objects of art which may serve as source material for study in relation to regular school subjects." [3] The program included over fifty installations in four boroughs, drawing an attendance of over 1.5 million visitors in the first five years, and was installed in various public locations including "three settlement houses, thirteen high schools, six library branches, four colleges, one museum, two "Y" branches, and one City administration building." Locations which hosted these installations included the Queens Borough Public Library in Elmhurst, Queens, the Hudson Park Library branch of the New York Public Library in Greenwich Village, Manhattan, Washington Irving High School, and Christopher Columbus High School. [4]

New York City Largest city in the United States

The City of New York, usually called either New York City (NYC) or simply New York (NY), is the most populous city in the United States. With an estimated 2017 population of 8,622,698 distributed over a land area of about 302.6 square miles (784 km2), New York is also the most densely populated major city in the United States. Located at the southern tip of the state of New York, the city is the center of the New York metropolitan area, the largest metropolitan area in the world by urban landmass and one of the world's most populous megacities, with an estimated 20,320,876 people in its 2017 Metropolitan Statistical Area and 23,876,155 residents in its Combined Statistical Area. A global power city, New York City has been described as the cultural, financial, and media capital of the world, and exerts a significant impact upon commerce, entertainment, research, technology, education, politics, tourism, art, fashion, and sports. The city's fast pace has inspired the term New York minute. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy.

The settlement movement was a reformist social movement that began in the 1880s and peaked around the 1920s in England and the United States. Its goal was to bring the rich and the poor of society together in both physical proximity and social interconnectedness. Its main object was the establishment of "settlement houses" in poor urban areas, in which volunteer middle-class "settlement workers" would live, hoping to share knowledge and culture with, and alleviate the poverty of, their low-income neighbours. The settlement houses provided services such as daycare, education, and healthcare to improve the lives of the poor in these areas.

YMCA worldwide organization

The Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA), sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries from 120 national associations. It was founded on 6 June 1844 by Sir George Williams in London and aims to put Christian principles into practice by developing a healthy "body, mind, and spirit".

During the late 1940s, Bach corresponded with United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization regarding copyright division, seeking support and guidance for design copyright legislation in the United States. From 1952 to 1961, he served as an educational advisor to the American Institute of Interior Designers. [1] He also served as a member and leader of a number of arts and education organizations including the American Federation of Arts, the Architectural League of New York, and the Advisory Board on Vocational Education of the New York City Board of Education. [2]

Copyright is a legal right, existing in many countries, that grants the creator of an original work exclusive rights to determine whether, and under what conditions, this original work may be used by others. This is usually only for a limited time. Copyright is one of two types of intellectual property rights, the other is industrial property rights. The exclusive rights are not absolute but limited by limitations and exceptions to copyright law, including fair use. A major limitation on copyright on ideas is that copyright protects only the original expression of ideas, and not the underlying ideas themselves.

The first national interior designers association was called the American Institute of Decorators (AID), founded in 1931. It was later named the American Institute of Interior Designers (AID). It is the oldest professional association for interior designers. In 1975 (AID) and the National Society of Interior Designers (NSID) merged to become the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID). Its more than 40,000 members engage in a variety of professional programs and activities through a network of 48 chapters throughout the United States and Canada.

American Federation of Arts nonprofit organization

The American Federation of Arts (AFA) is a nonprofit organization that creates art exhibitions for presentation in museums around the world, publishes exhibition catalogues, and develops education programs. The organization’s founding in 1909 was endorsed by Theodore Roosevelt and spearheaded by Secretary of State Elihu Root and eminent art patrons and artists of the day. The AFA’s mission is to enrich the public’s experience and understanding of the visual arts, and this is accomplished through its exhibitions, catalogues, and public programs. To date, the AFA has organized or circulated approximately 3,000 exhibitions that have been viewed by more than 10 million people in museums in every state, as well as in Canada, Latin America, Europe, Asia, and Africa.

Publications

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References

  1. 1 2 Finding aid for the Richard F. Bach Papers, 1915-1962, Columbia University Libraries, Archival Collections. Retrieved 25 July 2014.
  2. 1 2 Finding aid for the Richard F. Bach Records, 1913-1953, Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved 25 July 2014.
  3. ↑ "Neighborhood Exhibitions: Seventh Year." Richard F. Bach. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, Vol. 35, No. 7 (Jul., 1940), p. 144
  4. ↑ "Neighborhood Exhibitions: Sixth Year." Richard F. Bach. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, Vol. 34, No. 6 (Jun., 1939), pp. 151-152

Curator: The Museum Journal is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the California Academy of Sciences.

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