Message from Emily Talbot, Chief Curator
Chief Curator Emily Talbot, photo by Ramona Trent
Dear Members and Friends,
In 2025, the Norton Simon Museum celebrates its 50th anniversary, a momentous occasion that we will mark with exhibitions, a publication and special programming throughout the year.
To provide context for the Museum’s achievements over the past five decades, a commemorative anniversary exhibition entitled Retrospect: 50 Years at the Norton Simon Museum will be on view in the Focus Gallery off of the Main Entrance Gallery beginning February 14. Organized by Kate Austin, rights and reproductions coordinator, and Dane Reeb, curatorial assistant, Retrospect features rarely seen archival photographs, documents and works of art. A behind-the-scenes view of the Museum and its operations offers insights into activities across a range of areas, from collections and conservation to the Museum’s facility and community outreach efforts. The exhibition is complemented by 50 Objects, a gallery-wide initiative that highlights research discoveries, digital content and more on 50 exceptional works of art. Look for special labels throughout the galleries or find the initiative on our anniversary microsite, accessed via nortonsimon.org.
In the summer, we’ll debut a new publication, Recollections: Stories from the Norton Simon Museum. Authored by current and recent staff, the book includes 13 short essays, each of which elucidates an aspect of Museum’s history through a particular work of art. On October 24, to the day, we will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Norton Simon Museum of Art at Pasadena with the opening of Gold, an exhibition curated by Associate Curator Maggie Bell and Assistant Curator Lakshika Senarath Gamage. Taking the precious material associated with 50th anniversaries as a jumping-off point, Gold explores the visual cultures of South and Southeast Asia, Europe, North Africa and North America through a diverse group of objects from the Norton Simon Museum’s collections. From religious sculpture and paintings to illuminated manuscripts, finely woven tapestries and exquisite jewelry, Gold enables us to have new conversations about the collections and their possibilities for interpretation and reinterpretation across a shared material category.
Throughout the anniversary year, we’ll be undertaking an Exterior Improvement Project that promises to greatly enhance the visitor experience across our campus. Beginning in January, the Museum’s Sculpture Garden will close as we embark on a major renovation of the Café seating area, pond and pathways. Around the perimeter of the building, you’ll see landscaping improvements, new driveways and pedestrian entry points and street banners that alert passersby to the riches of the galleries indoors. The construction project will affect access to certain services at the Museum, including the Café, so we encourage you to subscribe to our monthly e-newsletter for updates on the work’s progress and the changes that you can expect to encounter during your visit.
In the meantime, don’t miss the opportunity to see our current exhibition, Plugged In: Art and Electric Light, organized in conjunction with the Getty-led initiative PST ART: Art & Science Collide, which remains on view in our lower-level galleries through February 17. Upstairs, Diego Velázquez’s Queen Mariana of Austria will continue to hold court in our early modern European galleries, where this special loan from the Museo Nacional del Prado can be seen alongside highlights from the Museum’s 17th-century collections until March 24. We have an exceptional slate of lectures and programming organized in conjunction with this loan, all of which take place during the first few months of the new year. On January 25, Amanda Wunder, professor of history and art history at the Graduate Center, City University of New York, will speak about the element of costume in Mariana’s portrait, drawing from her recent book, Spanish Fashion in the Age of Velázquez: A Tailor at the Court of Philip IV (2024). On February 8, we welcome Guillaume Kientz, Director of the Hispanic Society Museum & Library in New York, to discuss Velázquez’s career more broadly. On February 22, we host Professor Silvia Mitchell of Purdue University, the author of Queen, Mother, and Stateswoman: Mariana of Austria and the Government of Spain, a revisionist biography of Mariana of Austria that sheds light on her regency period. Finally, on March 22 we mark the end of the exhibition with an original performance for viola and harp composed by Martí Noguer that was inspired by Velázquez’s portrait and will be co-presented with SPAIN Arts & Culture.
Although a 50th anniversary naturally involves reflection on the past, our dynamic programming, energetic staff and robust renovation projects orient the Norton Simon Museum with optimism toward its future. On behalf of the president, our board members and my colleagues, we thank you for being part of our story, and for helping us to chart the next 50 years in Pasadena. Cheers to the New Year!
–Emily Talbot, Chief Curator
This article first appeared in the Museum’s Winter 2025 Newsletter.