Q&A with Kathy Halbreich

As MAN was the first to tell you yesterday, Walker Art Center director Kathy Halbreich is leaving the institution after a 16-year run. Earlier today she and I spoke about both her time at the Walker and about being a museum director. Because her resignation is still news, today I'll post Halbreich talking about her time at the Walker and what she may do next. Tomorrow I'll publish the big-picture stuff. That may read like I'm jumping into the middle of our chat... but I am.

MAN: What are you proudest of accomplishing at the Walker?

Kathy Halbreich: Let me talk about what I think is least visible. I'm acutely aware of this, having experienced what my message meant to the staff yesterday. That has to do with when I realized it would be very, very difficult to be both a museum director and a curator. I had to develop a scenario whereby my creative energies could be put to good use.

In a way, I think I fell back on being a child of the late '60's in the sense that I had always wondered whether it was possible to create an institutional culture that was flat, that was respectful of every person's role within it, that gave people more responsibility than they thought they might initially be comfortable with and that made a trade. That trade was: If people are responsible, they will have enormous freedom that will bring the best and the brightest independent minds into contact with each other, that tried to solve challenges and identify possibilities through consensus.

I'm extremely proud of, for example the young fellows who have come through the Walker. From Eungie Joo on through, the field is populated with them. To great curators like Philip Bither in performance art to Richard Flood to Liz Armstrong to Joan Rothfuss, all people who have done important shows. The Fluxus show was Liz and Joan, the Bruce Conner show Joan did when no one else was able to do a show with Bruce Conner, to the remarkable way Phillipe Vergne put together the Latitudes exhibit.

From the incredible crew who will never say to an artist, 'This is impossible,' to the designers who make remarkable catalogues in concert with artists and curators, to the educators who are fearless, every person could tell you what the mission of the Walker is. And I think that's what makes it strong. In a certain funny way I think it's a healthy cult.

Do you have a favorite acquisition from your time at the Walker?

Oh gosh. I mean it's like asking me if I have a favorite artist. And the luxury of my position is that I've had incredibly deep and interesting relationships with a very board cross-section of artists form around the globe.

I remember once a director asked [chief curator] Richard Flood, 'How's Kathy?' and Richard said, 'Kathy is happy because there are artists in the house today.'

Do you have any disappointments from your time at the Walker?

I wish we had an even bigger endowment. [Ed: The STrib pegs the Walker's endowment at "roughly $200 million."] I was really thinking about this the other day. Honestly, programmatically, no disappointments. Institutionally, no regrets. And I guess that's one of the reasons why it feels like a good time to leave. I realize that there are also things I want to get back to which came from my recent sabbatical, and that has to do with being able to look at art exhibitions more than once. Having a different kind of stress in my life. I kind of thrive on it, but I'm willing to sort of say that a new challenge might have a different kind of stress attached to it.

But the thing that I really wanted to teach myself before but couldn't is something I've learned from artists and Buddhists, and that is for a control freak the best thing she can learn is to cede some control and to live in the present. And I must say that much to my surprise, having made the leap into the void it's also exhilarating. I realized that [I'm not] leaving Walker to go to some other place. I am leaving Walker so that Walker could continue to challenge the status quo. I am a person of commitment and I've got a chunk of time left to commit to something that I can have another professional love affair with.

What's next for you? A return to curating? Another directorship?

It's a little too soon for me to really know. It's just a little too soon. I've got really seven months left at Walker to make sure that the transition is as smooth as possible. And I'm really determined to allow myself to be as open as possible to whatever opportunities cross my desk.

Even another directorship?

Potentially.

So you're not sour on directing art museums.

No, but I would tend to want to direct a different kind of institution, and a different scale of institution.

You mean somewhere smaller?

I mean smaller. You know I've had, you know...

Opportunities to go elsewhere.

Yes. The thing is, where do you go after Walker if you're me? People assumed I would climb this ladder they had in their minds, and I haven't had a job interview in 16 years because I was absolutely satisfied with the challenges and opportunities I had here.