This week I have been reading a novel by Richard Russo entitled Empire Falls. The story takes place in a fictional mill town in central Maine, once prosperous but now shuttered and impoverished like so many others throughout New England. Still, the town’s founding family, the Whitings, live on in detached grandeur and ghostliness. Here, for example, is a reference to Mrs. C.B. Whiting, the aging matriarch of the family, who retains a puppeteer’s power over the fate of Empire Falls:
In truth, no one in Dexter County knew much about Mrs. Whiting’s actual wealth or her plans for it. She never dealt with local lawyers or accountants, preferring to employ a Boston firm that the Whitings had used for nearly a century. She did little to discourage the notion that a significant legacy would one day go to the town itself, but neither did she offer any concrete assurances. Mrs. Whiting was not known for philanthropy.
Apart from the slice of Americana that Empire Falls so richly presents, I was struck in particular by its themes of wealth and legacy, for they pertain so enduringly to the art market.
Surely the museums of America owe their very existence to the generosity and vision of individuals and families known for their philanthropy. And apart from the Met, MoMA and other great institutions, there are countless smaller museums far and wide that have been founded by bold, generous benefactors.
In this regard I am reminded of a holiday my daughter Gillian and I took two years ago in the Adirondack region of upstate New York when we visited the town of Glens Falls. We specifically wanted to see the jewel-like Hyde Museum, with its wondrous collection of Old Masters and Impressionist works. The museum was established in a 1952 trust by the Hyde family, which had made its fortune—like the fictional Whitings of Empire Falls—in paper mills. The old Hyde mansion in the middle of town now houses the museum, with a lively slate of year-round activities enriching the Glens Falls community.
Despite the crushing losses being visited far and wide by the coronavirus, I sense that more families like the Hydes of Glens Falls are revisiting their plans for charitable gifts. Perhaps the current crisis will thus herald a new age of philanthropy. And while art is but one form of giving, it remains an alluring one.
For as the cliché goes, art is the gift that keeps on giving.