Interviewee: Marian Jensen Barford
Date of birth: unknown
Interviewer: Joan Stack (WBUX radio show host)
Interview date: September 17, 1986
Interview location: Conti’s Cross Key Inn, Doylestown
Interview length: 23 minutes
Time span discussed: 1986
Summary: This radio interview is invaluable for the Museum’s researchers as it tells of early acquisitions and donations, the building plan a year before the current old prison site was finished and opened as the museum, and the Council’s programs to record video and oral histories of Bucks County artists.
Time markers:
00:00 – introduction
00:40 – announcement, Mr. and Mrs. Laurent Redfield donated Edward W. Redfield’s painting The Frozen River to the Council and its future museum
03:26 – advertisement
05:08 – James A. Michener Art Museum evolves from walls of old Doylestown prison and warden’s house, preserved much of original space
06:53 – Michener Art Museum opening, forecasted for 1987, collections of Bucks County collectors on loan; local major artists Ranulph Bye, Anita Groenendahl, Katherine Steele Renninger, Ben Solowey, Harry Leith-Ross, Edward Redfield; committee chose show
09:10 – Council conducted video documentaries of artists, Charles Hargens completed; working on videos for a year; discussion of videos of art and artists
12:40 – stories about Edward Redfield’s Burning Bridge
13:50 – promotional discussion about the benefits of Bucks County arts scene; benefits of Michener Art Museum
15:39 – permanent acquisitions, donation of a Walter Baum painting
17:20 – paper work to apply for grants, very worthwhile given results; six artists for videos
18:48 – oral history program of the Arts Council, tapes someday available to public
19:36 – Council helping different people find paintings and artists
20:50 – advertisments and thanks
