Changing of the Guard

Word cloud generated via jasondavies.com. It was created by importing quotations from the museum directors in this article, and shows the 40 most-used catchwords.

COLLABORATORS

Susan Rand Brown

Today’s youthful museum directors are, by background and temperament, seasoned collaborators, comfortable with the big picture as well as overseeing operational management and describing the provenance of objects within their domain.

Enter Min Jung Kim, director of the New Britain Museum of American Art (NBMAA). Like many of New England’s museum directors, Kim began as an art historian, mastering curatorial and increasingly complex organizational skills. Her substantial background includes developing national and international alliances, in particular establishing partnerships between the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and museums in St. Petersburg and Vienna, experiences that enhance her global perspective. She holds a BA in Art History from Wheaton College in Norton, MA; a Master’s in Art History from the Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London; and attended the Getty Leadership Institute in Claremont, CA.

For Kim as for her peers, a collaborative attitude extends to a broad appreciation for Connecticut’s cultural resources, including theater, music and literary history. “As I familiarize myself with the region, I anticipate, through a series of conversations, being able to identify wonderful collaborative opportunities that would benefit us all,” Kim says.

Kim is the sixth director in NBMAA history. Founded in 1903, NBMAA predates the Whitney Museum of American Art by 27 years. Its deftly organized collections span three centuries of American art history.

Kim speaks of emerging opportunities to engage New Britain’s diverse population, including Polish and Spanish-speaking communities, in connecting the immigrant experience to the NBMAA. The museum traces its beginnings to the New Britain Institute, chartered in 1853 to foster learning by a community of newly arrived immigrants who worked in the city’s numerous factories. “Through a series of exhibitions, I’m hoping to expand the notion of what American art is,” Kim says. “The city of New Britain tells a quintessentially American story, not unlike many towns across the country. With this in mind, my goal is to have the entire community better represented in exhibition programs.”

“American art is multicultural, multifaceted and very complex,” Kim continues. “Just as with Thomas Cole, born in Lancashire, England, many of the American masters that we have on view could have immigrated from elsewhere. There is no one exhibition that will capture or define, ‘this is American art.’ Rather, through a series of exhibitions, there is an opportunity for different perspectives, creating certain rhythms throughout the year.”

Gray Court, entrance to the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, pictured during its public grand reopening, September 2015. Courtesy of the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art.

“It’s all about public engagement,” says Thomas J. Loughman, the newly selected director and CEO of Hartford’s Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art. Founded in 1842, the Wadsworth is the oldest continuously operating public art museum in the country. The museum unwrapped the final phase of its remodeling in 2015, envisioning, rehanging and reinterpreting its heritage as a key to its future.

Loughman, eager to share stories animating the museum’s collections with a broad public, talks about the Wadsworth’s and the region’s “cultural footprint” with a contagious optimism. The current moment offers “an opportunity to think about how we fit with each other, how we can best serve a dynamic population here in New England,” he says.

The arts connoisseur and strategic thinker comes to Hartford from the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, MA. A high-profile coup was the exhibition Great French Paintings from the Clark, whose international tour he arranged. Loughman is intent on the personal touch as well as the big picture. “We are custodians of a world heritage,” he says. “It’s all about making art come alive for people.”

He aspires to create a richer visitor experience both within and transcending the walls of the Wadsworth’s Downton Abbey-like historic buildings. The goal is to connect people to great works of art. That connection can happen in person, in exhibition-related catalogues and online. While nothing can replace the physical visit, it’s expected of us that we also live in that fourth dimension. “I appreciate all kinds of objects from all places and periods,” says the scholarly museum director, whose credentials include a PhD in Art History from Rutgers University, an MA from the Clark/Williams Graduate Program in the History of Art and a monograph on 17th-century Neapolitan artists.

“I appreciate working on less widely known corners of the art world,” Loughman says, clearly relishing his new domain, which comprises masterworks spanning centuries, situated on three levels within multiple, interconnected buildings. “You don’t have to be a specialist in Italian painting to appreciate these objects,” he says, hurrying off to a meeting. “You only have to be human.”

PUBLIC ENGAGERS

Arlene Distler

Changes are also in store at the Mystic Museum of Art (previously the Mystic Art Center) with new executive director George King. With more than 25 years of experience in the museum world, King has served as director of the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum—where he served on the board of directors of the American Association of Art Museum Directors—the American Federation of Arts, and the Katonah Museum. He also worked at the Cooper-Hewitt Museum of Design in New York City.

The Mystic Museum of Art’s collection comprises approximately 250 objects from the estate of Charles H. Davis, a native of Massachusetts, who after studying painting in Paris, settled in Mystic in the 1890s because of the quality of light and landscape. There he founded an art colony, and in 1913, started the Mystic Art Association, the forerunner of today’s museum. Today’s collection comprises paintings by Davis—a tonalist and impressionist whose compositions were mostly of landscapes and seascapes—and other painters, particularly from the first half of the 20th century.

King has many goals for his new role at the MMoA. He wants to reassess the museum, grow the collection, increase attendance and engage the local community by giving the visual arts “a broader voice” in the community. “Education is key,” he says, and he cites the importance of technology. “To engage the next audience is going to be critical.” But, he acknowledges, technology is expensive, so with that need on the horizon, he needs to grow the endowment. The promoting of museum works through digital displays and web access are a boon, King acknowledges. “But,” he hastens to remind us, “there’s nothing that compares to seeing a work of art in person.”

Dr. David Little is in his element as the new director and chief curator of the Mead Art Museum at Amherst College. He has a long history with academia, both as an administrator and a professor. He ran the Department of Photography and New Media at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts; was Helena Rubinstein Chair of Education at the Whitney Museum of American Art; and director of adult and academic programs at the Museum of Modern Art. Previously, he was adjunct professor in leadership and the arts for Duke University—a position based in New York City, which exposed Duke students to the riches of the city’s museums. He has also been a lecturer with the Maryland Institute College of Art, and MOMA’s Department of Education.

At the Mead, Dr. Little oversees a broad collection from Africa to antiquity as well as more modern works including early American from the Colonial period and the Hudson River School. “A major goal,” he says, “is to make better use of the museum’s resources.” To that end, he aims to rotate the collection more frequently while highlighting works that are relevant to Amherst College’s diverse student body. His plans include showcasing more “non-western” art.

Through his work at the MoMA and the Whitney, Dr. Little made many connections with contemporary artists and galleries. He hopes to use that experience to bring more contemporary art to the campus. He will accomplish this “strategically,” by commissioning works and hosting visiting artists for lectures and other programs. One recent example is the nine sculptures by conceptual artist Tom Friedman (on view through June 26, 2016), based on works in the Mead collection.

Dr. Little feels privileged to be in Amherst with its vibrant five-college campuses. “Other museums strive to be ‘intellectual hubs’ these days,” he says, “We are already an intellectual hub!”

Calderwood Hall, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Photo: Nic Lehoux.

CULTURAL CURATORS

Susan Boulanger

Honor guards change to maintain their institutions and traditions, but museum leaders must both maintain and advance the repositories of cultural memory they guard. Several area museums are dealing with this conundrum as they renew their leadership for the coming decades. Large or small, international or local in reach, their watchwords are community and communication, the keys to 21st-century success.

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum’s new director, Peggy Fogelman, plans to extend the work of predecessor Anne Hawley, who oversaw tremendous changes in the museum’s fabric and outreach. Appreciating the Gardner’s unusual nature, Fogelman values the affection “its exceptional collections, its vibrant music program, its ability to connect past and present through contemporary exhibitions and artist residencies, the spectacular garden” inspire. Museumgoers worldwide claim it as their favorite museum.

Isabella Stewart Gardner’s legacy of unconventional, impassioned response to art creates an inimitable intimacy and engagement, giving visitors and staff “the permission—in fact the imperative—to respond to works of art with our own personal, individual emotions, and to find our own personal connections.” This essential connection “is what art is all about—helping us understand ourselves, each other and the world around us in new ways,” Fogelman says. Creativity and connection stand as hallmarks of the Gardner experience into the future.

Another highly personal resource, the Nichols House Museum occupies a Bulfinch-designed Beacon Hill townhouse bequeathed by Rose Standish Nichols (1872–1960), one of the country’s first female landscape architects and an international suffragist and pacifist. The museum provides insight into the life of a Boston family at the turn of the 19th century, but new executive director Victoria Glazomitsky plans to move it forward to embrace a 21st-century civic and cultural role. “The ideas of interest to this visionary family ranged from modern medicine, to women’s rights, to pacifism, to civil service reform. One of our goals is to promote the notion that innovation lives on a continuum … to connect historical movements, ideas and experiences with contemporary culture” through educational outreach and imaginative use of museum resources. As Glazomitsky states, “Our most important responsibility … is to preserve this beloved space, interpret it in ways that appeal to a broad audience and offer an engaging series of programs and events that bring its story beyond the museum’s walls. … I spend a great deal of time thinking about cultural change. What do we gain and what do we lose when we shift our focus from space and stuff to stories and ideas?”

Debra Petke, new executive director of the Danforth Art Museum\School, faces similar challenges. Since 1975, Danforth Art has promoted community engagement, providing an art school, studios and galleries for exhibitions, and a permanent collection. Integration of the community with regional artists was a founding principle achieved through annual juried exhibitions, photo biennials and solo shows. Its recently purchased historic Framingham building will rehouse museum activities, following reexamination of its goals. Petke sees this inward exploration as central to institutional growth. Fulfilling her extensive roster of goals requires well-conceived spaces and adequate funds for “exhibitions, building the collection, museum education programs and art school classes.” Focused on “responsible growth,” Petke plans to build for the future without sacrificing present vitality, instituting “changes that will move us forward right away.”

The Cahoon Museum of American Art in Cotuit, MA, also recently underwent major expansion and leadership change. Sarah Johnson started as director this March, just in time to reopen the renovated 1775 colonial building and an extension containing new galleries, storage and classrooms. Beloved and active in its Cape Cod community, the Cahoon emphasizes, through the work of Martha and Ralph Cahoon, New England’s folk and regional art and visual storytelling traditions. Johnson seeks to expand its reach and depth, diversifying audiences and programming while maintaining financial stability. She sees the Cahoon as an “educational center” and “important civic space” supporting self-expression. Johnson plans to “empower the community,” enriching opportunities to make, understand and celebrate traditional and contemporary craft.

Rose Standish Nichols Bedroom, Nichols House Museum, Boston, MA.

The new Museum of Fine Arts, Boston director, Matthew Teitelbaum, plans to build on the physical expansion and inclusive gestures instituted by his predecessor, Malcolm Rogers, using concepts of encounter and experience as touchstones. “Museums are places where objects and ideas meet [and] people come together to share and to interact,” he states. “Museums must do more than just exhibit great art; they must engage us in conversations differently. The way we communicate today is more fluid. We need more external voices.” Teitelbaum’s interest in contemporary art should further expand this dialogue. As he notes, “At one time, all art was contemporary … it was received by an audience and played a certain role in relation to a culture or community.” Given that perceptions of art objects change over time, Teitelbaum seeks to connect the museum’s audiences with its collections and exhibitions “in ways that mean something to them and the issues they’re thinking about. That is a contemporary sensibility.”

The Harvard Art Museums, unified under Renzo Piano’s glass and steel canopy, suggest to new director Martha Tedeschi “a laboratory for innovative explorations of the visual.” Noting its extraordinary collections, opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration and new synergies created by the “beautiful and thoughtful new building design,” Tedeschi sees the museums as “uniquely poised for a leadership position training the next generation of museum leaders” while providing “welcoming and inclusive programming” for all museum constituencies, “campus, local and international.” Museums offer perspective on “what makes us human, what connects and divides us, what inspires and provokes us,” Tedeschi notes, concluding: “In this image-saturated world, learning to look critically, to weigh subjective response with objective evidence, to develop analytical skills, and to value creativity and intuition are important for all of us. The Harvard Art Museums offer almost infinite opportunities to share … the ways in which the past informs the present and, conversely, how the issues of the present can make the past relevant again.”

“The new museum won’t be defined by architectural glamour or by a market-vetted collection … It will be defined by its own role as a shaper of values and by the broad audience it attracts,” wrote Holland Cotter in the New York Times. This perspective seems well-reflected in the ambitions and abilities of the region’s new cadre of museum leaders.

COMMUNICATORS

Alexander Castro

For the next three-plus years, Dartmouth College’s Hood Museum will be hibernating—at least from the public, as it undergoes a massive renovation to the tune of $50 million. In a phone interview in March, Hood’s new director, John Stomberg, said the museum had already raised an astounding $38 million. That number is not just financially impressive; it implies an almost religious
certainty among donors in what Stomberg calls “a major institution in a rural town.”

This vote of confidence is an outlier in a time of widespread institutional distrust. Museums have not emerged unscathed from this trend. A 2015 report by management consultants Reach Advisors showed that museums scored 6.4 out of 10 in trustworthiness. As institutions are reconsidered, museums are not immune to demands for governance that’s inventive and transparent.

A new crop of regional museum leaders is plotting to push their institutions forward in this transitional time. These leaders hail from backgrounds as diverse as the collections and audiences they represent. Yet their responsibilities don’t stop at mere management. These new directors have to keep their institutions fresh, inviting and trustworthy—all while facing challenges unique to each museum.

“Museums are outgrowing our name … ‘Museum’ sounds kind of like a place where you just hang pictures on the wall,” says Stomberg, who became Hood’s director in January. To survive, today’s museums need to be living organisms—hotbeds of cultural and intellectual growth available to all.

Aidron Duckworth Art Museum, Main Gallery, 2014. Photo: Jack Rowell.

Lynn Museum/LynnArts in Lynn, MA, is a prime example. Drew Russo, its new executive director, is eager to integrate the recently merged institutions with the “emerging downtown culture district.” The museum’s collection mirrors Lynn’s increasingly diverse population, with items ranging from decorative and fine arts to shoes, textiles and artifacts from the town’s industrial past.

Russo, who started in May 2015, arrived with a star-spangled résumé, having been the outreach and finance director for Congressman John F. Tierney. More recently, he ran for delegacy at this year’s Democratic National Convention in support of Hillary Clinton. Not having a “traditional museum background” has been beneficial, Russo says. A politician’s wit has helped him to “think more broadly about different collaborations” within the city. He’s “ratcheted up fundraising” and continued partnering with local nonprofits.

Brian Wallace, director at Keene State College’s Thorne-Sagendorph Art Gallery since June 2015, is likewise expanding his institution’s outreach. The gallery’s collection contains about 400 works from regional artists. Wallace is trying to further relationships with local creatives. He mentions moving an annual regional artist exhibit from a “brief winter time slot” to a summer showing. “Nascent partnerships” are beginning to bloom.

Other efforts involve relaunching educational programs for local homeschoolers, and a community group. “One of my big jobs is to rebuild those bridges to the community,” Wallace says. That includes tackling the modest but important issue of limited parking at the gallery. It’s a matter of adequately informing patrons on “how to visit us.”

[Ed: In the course of producing this piece, Art New England was confronted with an intriguing question: When—and why—are some galleries considered museums? There’s the National Gallery in Washington, D.C., our nation’s art museum, and the Tate Gallery in London. Clearly the answer isn’t size. The New England Museum Association considers Keene State College’s Thorne-Sagendorph Gallery a museum. We thought readers might be confused if we included a new gallery director without explanation and explored further. ANE reached out to Brian Wallace again who clarified, “There is a legacy of campus museums being called galleries. To my mind it’s hard to sort out the difference but I am operating the Thorne as if it was the best small museum in New England.” Art New England will further pursue this debate in its September/October Gallery Issue.]

The bucolic and remote Meriden, a village in Plainfield, NH, presents a similar obstacle for Mila Pinigin, new director at the Aidron Duckworth Art Museum—a space dedicated to the preservation and presentation of the artist’s work.

“Location is probably the greatest hurdle for increasing viewership,” Pinigin wrote in an email. She found one solution to this challenge by exporting a pop-up exhibit to nearby White River Junction, VT, for First Friday —a monthly town-wide arts and culture night. This creative marketing is meant to stimulate museum attendance and attract visitors unacquainted with the late British-born artist.

Before becoming director in January 2016, Pinigin was the assistant director. At 26 years old, she may seem fledgling, but she understands what the museum needs and that includes belonging to a “network … providing a service to enrich the community.” Thus Pinigin organizes art workshops with inspiration drawn from Duckworth’s oeuvre—an echo of the museum’s past as a schoolhouse, where many members of the community either attended or taught.

“Jake and the Countertops” Loading Dock Show, 2015, performance view, Thorne-Sagendorph Art Gallery. Image courtesy of the band and Keene Music Festival. Photo: Les Ismore

The Abiel Smith School, the first in the nation intended exclusively for black children, is another schoolhouse-turned-museum, as part of Boston’s Museum of African American History (MAAH). The museum hosts programs and exhibits items pertinent to African American communities from colonial times through the end of the 19th century. Within a wider context of renewed interest in social justice, MAAH pays tribute to past activist efforts while pushing for continued dialogue. This offers hope that “people can act for the broader civic benefit,” says Marita Rivero, the new executive director as of January.

To engage audiences, museums need to “light some ideas” and “create presentations that spark us,” Rivero says. One recent example she mentioned was a visit from author Carol Boston Weatherford and illustrator Ekua Holmes, the duo behind a children’s book on activist Fannie Lou Hamer.

After years working in radio and TV, often creating programming for African Americans, Rivero knows how to develop “ways of respecting difference,” which she stresses is key in managing a museum today.

On a similar note, Stomberg adds, “Audiences want to participate in an exchange. You have a narrative, we have a narrative, and we engage.” Accordingly, Hood’s hiatus will not hinder any chances to engage. A traveling selection of “about 60 of our greatest hits” from Hood’s collection will vacation at other colleges, while locals in Hanover will be treated to a revamped storefront in the city’s downtown area hosting rotating exhibits by living artists.

In light of such skillful and substantive restructuring, one might rightfully wonder what trials the Hood could possibly face. Perhaps the test is internal. Says Stomberg, “The hardest thing in my career has been to say I know a story”—not all stories. He’s learned that curation should be “porous,” its shape subject to the voices of “the communities we serve … One of the way museums can maintain centrality … is to incorporate all these extra voices.”

Decisions, questions and interpretations swirl at the center of every exhibit. Today’s museum directors intend to have more voices heard in that conversation, but changes in directorship are only part of the renewal narrative. Truly transformative results require a team of professionals improving not just their museum, but also the community around them. These new leaders seem equipped for the challenge, but the proof will be found in the approval of the crowd.

Susan Rand Brown, a poet, art critic and frequent contributor to Art New England, writes for Provincetown Arts, The Provincetown Banner, and Inspicio, and teaches literature in Hartford, CT. Arlene Distler is a writer on the arts for regional and national publications as well as a poet. She lives in Brattleboro, VT. Susan Boulanger, an editor and writer, lives with her family in Cambridge, MA. Alexander Castro is a writer and journalist based in Attleboro, MA.

SIDEBAR

The New Britain Museum of American Art
New Britain, CT

Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art
Hartford, CT

Mystic Museum of Art
Mystic, CT

Mead Art Museum
Amherst College, Amherst, MA

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
Boston, MA

Nichols House Museum
Boston, MA

Danforth Museum and Art School
Framingham, MA

Cahoon Museum of American Art
Cotuit, MA

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Boston, MA

Harvard Art Museums
Cambridge, MA

Lynn Museum/LynnArts
Lynn, MA