It’s not very often that the departure of a museum’s education director merits an article in a city’s newspaper. But that is what happened last week, when Williams College announced that it had picked Christina Olsen to head its museum of art.
Olsen is leaving the Portland Art Museum, and the Oregonian acknowledged her work there, and before at the Getty, as well as her ambition, in a meaty article. The writer, D.K. Row, had also featured Olsen in an article in 2010. Then, he called Olsen one of the most important people at the museum and said she had “improved the museum’s relationship with children, young adults and other communities that have felt marginalized by Oregon’s flagship art institution.”
The museum’s director, Brian Ferriso, had wanted to upgrade education, and Olsen, the daugher and wife of painters, did that:
With military zeal, Olsen has directed special efforts to bring children and families into the museum through a multitude of events and workshops; she’s deepened the experiential component of exhibitions with greater Web-based interaction and interpretative strategies, such as employing Periscope illustrators; and she’s helped strengthen the museum’s partnerships with the local art community’s younger and less traditional artists.
Now, in the article announce her departure, Row said:
She was one of the most zealous practitioners of technology within the museum hierarchy and aggressively tried to make exhibits intersect with the aesthetics and practical uses of the Internet age. Olsen also diversified the department’s influence within the museum. The education department began to work more closely with curators, for example.
She also established programs that linked the museum more closely to the public, particularly viewers under 40…
In some ways, this is a blow to Ferriso, who had high hopes for Olsen in Portland, and now must find someone with equal zeal — but probably different ideas. On the other hand, it’s a compliment that Portland wooed her from the much larger, more influential Getty, and that she was chosen to lead the renowned Williams College Museum after less than four years.
It may also be a sign that the education departments at museums are gaining in stature. Many people have told me that museum educators feel like second fiddles to curators, called in at the last minute to discuss educational programs — if consulted at all.
Few have made it into the directors’ ranks.
But a few museum directors, lately, have also said, like Ferriso, that this should change. Not that educators need take the upper hand — but they aren’t appendages either.
Photo Credit: Courtesy Williams College