Museum Reads: An Art Themed Book Group

Welcome to Museum Reads, the Newport Art Museum’s Art-Themed book group for adults. It’s the same beloved Read/Eat/Chat book group format, with a fresh name. Join us!

This fascinating book explores the life of (Art Association of Newport member) Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney and her family in their remarkable effort to change the way art was cultivated in America. It is a tale of high ideals, extraordinary altruism, and great dedication that stood steadfast against inflated egos, big businesses, intrigue and greed.

We are pleased to announce that author Flora Miller Biddle and her daughter Fiona Donovan will join our conversation.

Note: Limited copies of this book are for sale at the Museum.

Book group this month will be delivered virtually on Zoom. 

Zoom link will be sent directly to registrants, so be sure to register in advance!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Flora Miller Biddle has been involved with the Whitney Museum her entire adult life. She received her B.A. in American Studies from Manhattanville College, and served on the New York City Art Commission in the 1980s. In addition to The Whitney Women and the Museum They Made, she is also the author of the book Embers.

Fiona Donovan is a teacher and writer based in New York, currently working on a book on the American artist and patron, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney. She received her B.A. in art history from Barnard College, and a Ph.D. in art history from Columbia University and has worked at the Leo Castelli Gallery, the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, the Minneapolis Institute of Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Donovan is the author of Jasper Johns: Pictures within Pictures, 1980-2015 (Thames & Hudson, 2017; a New York Times Best Art Book of 2017) and Rubens and England (Yale University Press, 2004), as well as numerous essays and articles, including “The Whitney’s Founder and Her Spanish Statue,” New York Times, Oct 13, 2019. She serves on the board of the Whitney Museum of American Art.