Real Clear Arts

Judith H. Dobrzynski on Culture

Museums

Good News From a Buyout, For A Change

I’ve been holding my tongue for a few days, but today I can give you the news of Richard Aste, the European paintings curator at the Brooklyn Museum. Aste took the museum’s buyout offer–it’s shrinking, as is the Metropolitan Museum and the Museum of Modern Art.

RichAsteBut now comes official word that Aste will become director of the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio.

Interestingly, the first quote in the McNay press release comes from the Anne Pasternak, the director of the Brooklyn Museum, which–I suppose–shows that he didn’t leave for negative reasons:

Over the past six years, Rich rose to be one of the most treasured curators at the Brooklyn Museum. With a focus on Latin American art, he brought insightful exhibitions to vast publics while expanding the Museum’s reach and scope to increasingly diverse audiences.

Among his exhibitions in Brooklyn were Behind Closed Doors: Art in the Spanish American Home, 1492–1898 and Impressionism and the Caribbean: Francisco Oller and His Transatlantic World.

From Sarah Harte, president of the board of trustees at the McNay, came this:

Rich exemplifies everything we were looking for in our next director: a collaborative leadership style, intellectual curiosity, and a deep knowledge of the arts. With his broad international perspective and culturally varied background, he is poised to build, strengthen, and diversify relationships between the McNay and the community of San Antonio.We are confident he will take the McNay to the next level.

Those who know Aste, including me, would agree.

Here’s his bio.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of the McNay

Sree Sreenivasan is Out at the Met

SreeAnother big name is leaving the Met. An announcement this morning says:

We wanted to share the news that Sree Sreenivasan will be leaving his position at The Met after three years serving as the Museum’s first Chief Digital Officer. This decision has been made in the context of the recentering of the Museum’s work and our current financial restructuring.

In his time with us, Sree has introduced new audiences to the power and relevance of The Met and helped redefine what digital means to museums. He has overseen a number of important initiatives, including The Met App, #MetKids, The Artist Project and Facebook 360 immersive videos. Our website was refreshed and optimized for mobile; our social media following increased exponentially; the online collection has been expanded; and we developed new connections with technology companies and individuals worldwide. Sree also led our engagement with platforms like Facebook Live and China’s WeChat and Weibo and expanded our MediaLab’s pioneering work…

He leaves very quickly, on June 30, though he negotiated a consulting contract with the Met for six months.

We await news of a slimming of the tech department, which had ballooned to 70-80 people in histenure.

Another Shoe Drops At the Met

concepts_sellersAs predicted here on Monday, Susan Sellers, Head of Design at the Metropolitan Museum,* is departing and returning to private practice. The memo from the top came this morning and said, in part:

We are grateful for her work on the brand strategy and identity, The Met Breuer opening, and the introduction of new design initiatives throughout the Museum.  She will remain a trusted resource and dear friend to The Met, where her design legacy will long be felt.

These memos are always strange, sometimes praising troublesome “accomplishments”–e.g., in this case, the rebranding campaign,–and yet ignoring some actual accomplishments.

Sellers was hired in 2013.

I don’t plan to chronicle every departure from the Met. But there will be more and when it hits critical curatorial staff, I hope to let you know.

*I consult to a foundation that supports the Met.

The Ax Falls At The Met, Again…More to Come

Today the Metropolitan Museum announced a significant layoff: Cynthia Round (below), the senior vice president of Marketing and External Relation–who was hired by Thomas Campbell, the director, only in 2014. Her department, remember, was in charge of the rebranding and the dreadful new logo. She also oversaw press and, apparently, was responsible for the regrettable profile of Sheena Wagstaff in The New York Times last fall.

028d6a9Round’s defenestration is no surprise in some ways therefore, but the fact that she was a Campbell hire, the person brought in to replace Harold Holzer, does not look good for him (to several people close the Met and/or former employees of the Met that I interviewed).

Round was preceded out the door recently by Olena M. Paslawsky, the chief financial officer, senior vice president and treasurer–who is taking some blame for the museum’s huge deficit, and Joanna Prosser, vice president and general manager, merchandise and retail. The Met’s stores are considered to be a bit of a disaster. Prosser was hired in 2013, also by Campbell

Christine Coulson, who was promoted to Chief Advisor to the Director in June 2014, is also leaving, though apparently of her own volition, and possibly for only a year.

Previously, several people who had been hired by Campbell’s predecessor Philippe de Montebello and were long-time employees, left or were encouraged to leave. They include Nina Diefenbach, the deputy vice president for external affairs and chief development officer, who left to be deputy director for advancement at the Barnes Foundation. You  might also include Holzer and Emily Rafferty, the former president in the this category. These people were thought by many to be “employees for life.” Perhaps wrongly. Meanwhile, Associate Director Jennifer Russell, hired long ago by de Montebello and again by Campbell (after other posts in between), also retired this spring.

Rebecca Rabinow, on the curatorial side, also recently resigned to be director of the Menil Collection. She was a huge loss, not only for her smart exhibitions and scholarship (like the 2012-13 Matisse show) but also because she was head of the Leonard A. Lauder Research Center for Modern Art at the Met, and close to him and his curator, Emily Braun.

Who’s next to go? Rumors suggest there will be many layoffs before July 1. Among the names being bandied about is Susan Sellers, named head of design by Campbell in 2013–she’s targeted in part because she also had a lot of say in the rebranding/logo initiative. Sellers oversees exhibition design, and while some recent shows have been praised, others have been disappointing.

And many hope that people will be let go from the huge tech department. It has ballooned out of proportion, my sources say.

 

That Sad, Empty,Yet Hopeful Palestinian Museum

"Impossible Dream" by Leila Shawa, Palentine
“Impossible Dream” by Leila Shawa, Palentine
"Autumn Mountains" by Ammar Khamash, Jordan
“Autumn Mountains” by Ammar Khamash, Jordan

You may have seen the New York Times article headlined Palestinian Museum Prepares to Open, Minus Exhibitions in Tuesday’s paper. It told the sad story of a new museum, “a stunning, contemporary new building; soaring ambitions as a space to celebrate and redefine Palestinian art, history and culture; an outdoor amphitheater; a terraced garden” that because of a disagreement will open on Wednesday with nothing in it.

I found it hopeful, in one way.

Without getting to the politics of it–I have no way of knowing which side, the ex-director or the museum’s board, is right. The conflict centers on the execution of a show that was to “feature artistic interpretations of things like keys and photographs that Palestinians around the world have kept from the homes they fled or were forced from in what is now Israel.”

But the good news was simply that people looked to a museum and the arts as a way to uplift people. In a poor area, where many other needs are left unsatisfied, it’s easy to forget that people can be nourished with art. From the story:

Omar al-Qattan, the museum’s chairman, said Palestinians were “so in need of positive energy” that it was worthwhile to open even an empty building. “Symbolically it’s critical,” he said, conceding that the next phase, including the exhibitions, “is the more exciting one.”

That comment reminded me of something Darren Walker, president of the Ford Foundation, told me in a casual conversation about a year ago. He said that Ford staff had proposed creating arts programs for the refugee camps. “Who knew?” he said. But it made sense, because people are spending years in refugee camps. They need artistic visual stimulation and nourishment, too.

"The Masked" by Nasr Abdelaziz, Jordan
“The Masked” by Nasr Abdelaziz, Jordan

When I visited Jordan last fall, I stopped in at the National Gallery of Fine Arts in Amman. Being there on a weekday, early afternoon, I was not fighting crowds. But I had plenty of time see what kind of art Jordanians and other artists in the Mideast were producing for display in this kind of official museum. I’ve posted some here (sorry about the reflection on the mezzotint below). They are, obviously, not a comprehensive look–just a few paintings that encapsulated what was on view.

Westerners are increasingly interested in art made in the Middle East, and I need not say that that’s a very good thing.

"Bird and Grapes" by Hachmi Azza, Morocco/France
“Bird and Grapes” by Hachmi Azza, Morocco/France