Q&A with Walker director-to-be Olga Viso

This is turning into Q&A week on MAN, but that happens when the sloth of August gives way to the news of September. I'm going to break my Q&A with new Walker director-to-be Olga Viso into two parts. First, Viso's thoughts on what she accomplished at the Hirshhorn and what she's taking with her to the Walker. Tomorrow afternoon I'll post the second part: Viso's thoughts on Washington and the state of the museum scene here.

MAN: You've been at the Hirshhorn since 1995, the last two years as director. What's your legacy there?

Olga Viso: First there is the collection, and the focus on building certain aspects of the collection. That gave me great pleasure and I have great pride in having been a curator there for for many years. To have been able to build some depth in some particular artists -- that's one of the strengths the Hirshhorn has.

Another is how the staff and the board have really gone back to the founding roots of the Hirshhorn and to go back to the art and artists of our time by supporting artists over their careers. Hopefully I've gotten everyone to be in touch and in tune with that again. Certainly shifting the program to a more contemporary focus by getting in touch with those roots with great commitment and passion.

MAN: Was two years as director enough for you to be able to accomplish what you wanted to do there?

Viso: I think I had the benefit of really four years because I was deputy director for two years and a lot of the programmatic initiatives and the shifting in direction, the restructuring of the program and staffing... all of that was something I began with [former director Ned Rifkin] as his deputy. I had the benefit of having two years of investment in shifting the direction of the museum and building a team of people and setting out a program, so early on I didn't have to go through that one-to-two year assessment that a new director often does.

Of course there are things I have yet to do. One has a two-year and a five-year and a 10-year plan. One of the things I'm proud we accomplished was a strategic plan with the board and the staff, something done in an integrated way across the institution, from 2005 to 2011. Many of those initiatives have begun and many will launch this fall, such as the new website, the new calendar and the new graphic identity. Exhibitions and other programming is well underway. A lot of them emphasize our strength and underscore those strengths.

MAN: And that strategic plan will go forward?

Viso: Yes. We're well into the second year of that and a lot of the core initiatives may evolve and take another form, but the basis of the thinking is all there for someone to build upon.

MAN: What do you take from the Hirshhorn experience to the Walker?

Viso: I think there are many wonderful parallels between the Hirshhorn and the Walker. We are sister institutions and we do have a history of collaborating together. Some of those parallels are having a sculpture garden and having an international scope in terms of our programming, as well as having depth in works of individual artists and committing to artists over a period of time.

I think that one of the things that has really worked and resonated really powerfully at the Hirshhorn and with the community is our work with artists, our work with artists curating from the collection, our after-hours programs, our inviting artists to do workshops, bringing artists into every part of the museum's practice. It's resonated for the public at large, and it's inspiring to the public -- and to the staff. The Walker certainly has a history of doing that and it's something I'd like to translate to there.

Part of what makes Walker appealing to me is that it has a strength in performing arts, but also in film and media. There's a possibility to do even more cross-disciplinary programming and to encourage artists to use those platforms. Contemporary artistic practice is so cross-disciplinary in the world in which we live, and I think the Walker is uniquely positioned to create interesting platforms for artists in which to work.

Subsequently: The Washington Viso leaves behind.