Goals

 

Exhibition

Currently, the DBAF maintains a broad range of Bongé’s work in a variety of mediums. One of our goals. in promoting public awareness about the artist's life and work, is to continue presenting exhibitions celebrating her oeuvre. As part of our mission, we make works from our collection and the Paul Bongé Collection available to the public, facilitating loans to museums and exhibitions in U.S. and international venues.

At the gallery in Biloxi, there is always a selection of Bongé’s works on display, so that the public has continual access to her art. Exhibits are rotated several times a year to share arange of the work in the collection.

 

Conservation

A necessary aspect of achieving our exhibition goal is conserving Dusti Bongé’s work. The Foundation has been working on getting important paintings and works on paper conserved, ensuring that they are in stable condition, cleaned, and restored. To date we have conserved over 40 paintings. Our conservation efforts are an essential and ongoing project and have allowed us to exhibit Dusti Bongé’s work at various important venues in recent years.

 

Scholarship

The Foundation places a high priority on scholarship. In addition to the scholarly monograph, Dusti Bongé, Art and Life: Biloxi, New Orleans, New York, we have cooperated on the publication of several exhibition catalogs, art books, and online outlets, all offering an ever-deepening look at Bongé’s life and art. Meanwhile, the DBAF continues with the ongoing research of compiling detailed records for a future catalogue raisonné.

 

Education

The DBAF welcomes all patrons the gallery. Alternating exhibits in our space show the range of Bongé’s oeuvre over the course of her fifty-plus year career as an artist, allowing patrons to discover her path, from her early, figurative works, to her abstract masterpieces.

The Foundation offers an annual scholarship program for deserving high school seniors from the Gulf Coast, who intend to pursue a degree in the arts or art-related fields.

 

Vision

We strive to continue sharing Dusti Bongé’s extraordinary artwork with an ever-larger audience. As such, our long-term vision includes several elements:

- To establish relationships with other institutions involved in promoting the legacies of important but often lesser-known artists and/or artist organizations.

- To position the Foundation as a resource of information, continued research, and future scholarship about Dusti Bongé.

- To search for long lost works.

- To publish a digital catalogue raisonné of Dusti Bongé’s entire oeuvre.