I’m not talking about “Kiss Me, Kate” or another show. I’m talking about art museum directorships. Doreen Bolger, director of the Baltimore Museum of Art (pictured at right), just announced that she is retiring, effective June 15. That’s not much notice.
On March 19, Michael Conforti (at left) announced that he’d be retiring on Aug. 31 after 20 years as director of the Clark Art Institute.
Up and down the East coast, at least, major directorships are open: the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Morgan Library and Museum, the Brooklyn Museum, the Isabella Stewart Garner Museum, the Harvard Art Museums, the High Museum, the Wadsworth Atheneum, the museum at the New-York Historical Society, and several museums in Miami.
Then there’s the big hole at the Detroit Institute of Arts–not East coast, but still.
Have I left others out? Probably. This happens from time to time–a great number of turnovers at the top in the museum world. It’s always worth asking why. This time, most departees are of retirement age and many have recently completed expansions or other building projects.
But with museums in turmoil–worried about funding, desperately (and sometimes stupidly) seeking young audiences, trying to generate buzz instead of scholarship, etc.– these next few years, with new people at the top, are going to be momentous for art museums. I hope the boards choose well, but based on what I hear from some of them, I have doubts.
Just last night, I was chatting with a trustee of a regional museum in the South. He was dismayed by the direction the museum was going and the lowering of standards at the institution, whose leadership is stable and not about to turn over (or so it seems). “Have you spoken up?” I asked. No, he said, shaking his head. Too much headwind.
But how could he know? Maybe other trustees were worried too, but afraid to speak up.
It seems we have governance problems all over the place, with some boards trying to call the tune even on curatorial matters and other becoming rubber stamps.