Feature
Morris Museum: Stepping
Into the Future
The Morris Museum is in the middle of a makeover you won’t want to miss.
By Christine Bockelman
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Recently, dozens of people gathered at the Morris Museum for a members-only sneak peek at a thought-provoking new exhibit. “Perennial Land,” running through April 5, is an immersive video installation created by two Jersey City-based artists— Laia Cabrera and Isabelle Duverger—that pushes visitors to examine their own role in climate change. It’s an experiential, modern-leaning exhibit that makes one thing very clear: This isn’t the colonial-portrait-filled Morris Museum you remember.
Driving the change is President and CEO Tom Loughman, a Delbarton grad and global arts professional who returned to Morris County in 2023 to transform the museum he visited as a kid.
“We are pushing the boundaries a little bit,” Loughman says. “The people who work and live in Morris County are super sophisticated, extremely well educated, and culturally ambitious.”
The museum’s reach is growing, too. In the past year, about 50% of the people who walked through the doors lived outside Morris County, including visitors from 49 states and 20 countries. “We’re really serving a global public,” Loughman says.
One-of-a-Kind Exhibits
Most of the exhibits are one-of-a-kind, curated especially for the museum, and often have a purposeful local connection. For example, “Perennial Land” features video of Frelinghuysen Arboretum and text that refers specifically to environmental concerns in Morristown and Morris County. Recently, the museum showcased some of its collection of African ritual masks alongside pieces from Jersey City-based painter Troy Jones, who uses African ritual masks as inspiration in some of his portraits. Another recent installation, “Take 5,” showcased and interpreted five pieces of Japanese art selected by Midori Yoshimoto, a postwar Japanese art expert, from the museum’s vast collection of more than 45,000 art and material cultural objects.
“We’re connecting the art of our time to our historical collections from around the world,” says Loughman. “It’s really opened up some new conversations for people.”
In addition to new exhibits, there also has been increased focus on live cultural performances and community connection, including participation in the greater-Morristown Día de los Muertos celebration. Last year, the museum even had its first float in the Morris County St. Patrick’s Day Parade.
Old Building, New Plans
In October, the museum was honored for innovation in the arts at a breakfast hosted by the Morris County Tourism Bureau. “The award showed that the public can rely on us to consistently provide world-class art and science experiences,” Loughman says. “They don’t need to take the train to New York or Philadelphia.”
Juxtaposing all this innovation, though, is a building that dates to the turn of the century. Called Twin Oaks, the red brick, classical revival-style mansion was built for the Frelinghuysen Family in 1913 and later acquired by the museum. “When we moved into this site 60 years ago, the issue was trying to turn a gentleman’s country house into everything a museum needed,” Loughman says. “We’re a far cry from that now.”
Over the years there have been major additions, including a theater, that increased the overall footprint, but the building has never functioned quite right. For instance, there have been issues with climate control that limit where art can be stored or displayed.
As a result, “only about half of the museum building is publicly accessible right now,” Loughman says. That’s about to change.
Tripling Exhibition Space
The museum is in the midst of ambitious strategic and historic preservation plans, which should triple the amount of exhibition space and create five times the amount of space available for educational programs.
There’s no plan to expand the footprint, though. The focus instead is on putting what the museum has—such as 8 acres of park-like grounds—to better use. Loughman envisions paths and trails that wander past outdoor sculptures, an improved outdoor concert pavilion for live music, and maybe even an orchard or edible garden.
For the historical restoration, a three-phase project includes replacing the mansion’s original slate roof, returning the porch to a porte cochere, and installing new windows and new HVAC and air filtration systems.
According to Loughman, when it’s all done, the museum will be a model for what a regional museum can do in America. “It’s really about getting the campus to level up to meet global standards of cultural centers like ours,” he says. “We’re thinking about the project in terms of what’s best for the next few generations.”
This summer should offer a glimpse of what else is in store. The museum’s grounds will host “Common Ground: NJ Artists Think Monumental,” a juried exhibition of sculpture, installations, and murals. Exhibited works will spark curiosity and examine how art lives in shared environments.
“There’s just no other institution at our scale that offers the array of things that we offer,” Loughman says. “We’re very excited about the future.”
Recently, dozens of people gathered at the Morris Museum for a members-only sneak peek at a thought-provoking new exhibit. “Perennial Land,” running through April 5, is an immersive video installation created by two Jersey City-based artists— Laia Cabrera and Isabelle Duverger—that pushes visitors to examine their own role in climate change. It’s an experiential, modern-leaning exhibit that makes one thing very clear: This isn’t the colonial-portrait-filled Morris Museum you remember.
Driving the change is President and CEO Tom Loughman, a Delbarton grad and global arts professional who returned to Morris County in 2023 to transform the museum he visited as a kid.
“We are pushing the boundaries a little bit,” Loughman says. “The people who work and live in Morris County are super sophisticated, extremely well educated, and culturally ambitious.”
The museum’s reach is growing, too. In the past year, about 50% of the people who walked through the doors lived outside Morris County, including visitors from 49 states and 20 countries. “We’re really serving a global public,” Loughman says.
One-of-a-Kind Exhibits
Most of the exhibits are one-of-a-kind, curated especially for the museum, and often have a purposeful local connection. For example, “Perennial Land” features video of Frelinghuysen Arboretum and text that refers specifically to environmental concerns in Morristown and Morris County. Recently, the museum showcased some of its collection of African ritual masks alongside pieces from Jersey City-based painter Troy Jones, who uses African ritual masks as inspiration in some of his portraits. Another recent installation, “Take 5,” showcased and interpreted five pieces of Japanese art selected by Midori Yoshimoto, a postwar Japanese art expert, from the museum’s vast collection of more than 45,000 art and material cultural objects.
“We’re connecting the art of our time to our historical collections from around the world,” says Loughman. “It’s really opened up some new conversations for people.”
In addition to new exhibits, there also has been increased focus on live cultural performances and community connection, including participation in the greater-Morristown Día de los Muertos celebration. Last year, the museum even had its first float in the Morris County St. Patrick’s Day Parade.
Old Building, New Plans
In October, the museum was honored for innovation in the arts at a breakfast hosted by the Morris County Tourism Bureau. “The award showed that the public can rely on us to consistently provide world-class art and science experiences,” Loughman says. “They don’t need to take the train to New York or Philadelphia.”
Juxtaposing all this innovation, though, is a building that dates to the turn of the century. Called Twin Oaks, the red brick, classical revival-style mansion was built for the Frelinghuysen Family in 1913 and later acquired by the museum. “When we moved into this site 60 years ago, the issue was trying to turn a gentleman’s country house into everything a museum needed,” Loughman says. “We’re a far cry from that now.”
Over the years there have been major additions, including a theater, that increased the overall footprint, but the building has never functioned quite right. For instance, there have been issues with climate control that limit where art can be stored or displayed.
As a result, “only about half of the museum building is publicly accessible right now,” Loughman says. That’s about to change.
Tripling Exhibition Space
The museum is in the midst of ambitious strategic and historic preservation plans, which should triple the amount of exhibition space and create five times the amount of space available for educational programs.
There’s no plan to expand the footprint, though. The focus instead is on putting what the museum has—such as 8 acres of park-like grounds—to better use. Loughman envisions paths and trails that wander past outdoor sculptures, an improved outdoor concert pavilion for live music, and maybe even an orchard or edible garden.
For the historical restoration, a three-phase project includes replacing the mansion’s original slate roof, returning the porch to a porte cochere, and installing new windows and new HVAC and air filtration systems.
According to Loughman, when it’s all done, the museum will be a model for what a regional museum can do in America. “It’s really about getting the campus to level up to meet global standards of cultural centers like ours,” he says. “We’re thinking about the project in terms of what’s best for the next few generations.”
This summer should offer a glimpse of what else is in store. The museum’s grounds will host “Common Ground: NJ Artists Think Monumental,” a juried exhibition of sculpture, installations, and murals. Exhibited works will spark curiosity and examine how art lives in shared environments.
“There’s just no other institution at our scale that offers the array of things that we offer,” Loughman says. “We’re very excited about the future.”