There’s a strong new buzz for an old Memphis institution, Dixon Gallery and Gardens.

It stems from new energy, new outreach, and new exhibitions originated at the 34-year-old art museum famous for its impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings.   “Kevin Sharp (director) and his team have taken the museum in a newer, more exciting direction in the past three years,” said Gretchen McLennon, program officer for Hyde Family Foundations.

Sharp took the helm at Dixon Gallery and Gardens in September, 2007, and things have never been the same.  For the first time in many years, the museum is originating exhibits such as American Art in the Civil War, which toured other museums after debuting in Memphis.   

“We’re in the business of celebrating creativity and originality,” said Sharp, explaining that the shows breathe life into the work of the staff and into the museum’s mission.  “We were relying too much on canned exhibitions.  We want to present ourselves as leaders in creating exhibitions.”

The depth of this commitment will be obvious next year as the museum launches the largest exhibit in its recent history – a retrospective of the French artist Jean-Louis Forain, late 19th and early 20th century Impressionist painter and friend of Edgar Degas.   The exhibition is undertaken with the Petit Palais in Paris.

The exhibition is built around the 1993 purchase of 55 works by Forain, including drawings, watercolors, prints, pastels and paintings created between 1875 to 1895, a time described by scholars as his best and rarest period.  “Right now, we are laser-focused on Jean-Louis Forain, and the only reason that we have the resources to be involved is because of a very generous donation by Pitt and Barbara Hyde to purchase the collection,” said Sharp, adding that the continuing support of the Hyde Family Foundations is a “difference maker at Dixon.”

The exhibition will be a game changer for Dixon Gallery and Gardens, producing popular and academic results as well as anchor new fund-raising.  Already, in Sharp’s three years as director, attendance is up 85% and membership is up 40%.  His staff is younger “and there’s nothing they wouldn’t do for the Dixon.”  

“We’ve knocked down a lot of barriers between the Dixon and the community,” he said.  “We partner with great people like Ballet Memphis and the Symphony.  The two standing education programs at the Dixon have grown to 17.  We are never satisfied.”

Dixon Gallery and Gardens was founded in 1976 as a result of a bequest of the house, the collection of art, and the 17-acre estate from cotton man Hugo Dixon and his wife, Margaret Oates Dixon.  The magnificent house was supposed to be built in Houston but after taking a job in Memphis, Dixon built it here in 1941, said Sharp.  “It was a really fortunate day for Memphis,” he said.  “They left an incredible jewel to us.”

Despite his background in the visual arts, Sharp said “we’re all searching for creative enrichment, whether it’s in a garage band or as making Sunday pottery.  When people have access to great works for art, it raises the horizons of expectations and makes them see the art of the possible.”

Looking to the future, Sharp said Dixon Gallery and Gardens will never take its Memphis audience for granted. 

“There was a time when I started that people got a blockbuster exhibition, they’d hang out a shingle and wait for people to come,” he said.  “Now people have lots of options so that’s not enough.”

These days, there are few options better than Dixon Gallery and Gardens.