Vision & Goals
The Foundation's goals and longterm vision.
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 a range 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 to 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
The long-term vision of the DBAF is:
Continue updating the catalog of Dusti Bongé’s work.
Conserving an increasing number of works in the collection, especially works on paper.
Expanding public awareness about the artist's life & work through different outlets.
Continuing research focused toward a catalogue raisonné.
Cataloguing the artist's archive of papers and other documentation of historical value.
Forging relationships with institutions with similar missions and facing similar challenges.