The answer is [drumroll]…Ellen Futter.
Hers is not one of the many names that have been bandied about in the press for the top spot at the embattled Smithsonian Institution, and perhaps she’s too committed a New Yorker to make the move.
But for 13 years Futter has been quietly and effectively running a large institution with strong similarities to the Smithsonian—the American Museum of Natural History. For 13 years before that, she was the highly regarded president of Barnard College. Maybe 13 is her lucky number for career transitions.
If I used “quietly” to describe her management style, it was not because she has ever failed to be outspoken and persuasively articulate on hot-button scientific issues of the day. (I am thinking, for example, of her forceful debunking of religious fundamentalists’ anti-evolutionism, in connection with the museum’s recent “Darwin” show.)
But in a tough museum town, where every misstep is scrutinized and magnified, Futter has somehow managed not to be embroiled in public controversy. The closest she came was the kerfuffle over the museum’s ownership of the Willamette Meteorite: This ended in an amicable agreement with the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon (ceremonial signing above; Futter on the left), which kept the celestial rock in New York, while “enabling the Grand Ronde to re-establish its relationship with the Meteorite with an annual ceremonial visit.”
That’s not to say that she avoids making waves by going with the flow of status quo: She has presided over steady, incremental changes to her institution, most dramatically with the new Rose Center for Earth and Space (replacing the planetarium with a far more ambitious astronomical emporium), but also impressively with a steady stream of upgrades and additions to the displays at her venerable institution: the Hall of Ocean Life, Hall of Biodiversity, Hall of Human Origins, Grand Gallery, Audubon Gallery, 77th Street Façade Project, and the Discovery Room…not to mention the annual Butterfly Conservatory, a popular nine-year-old tradition.
Like the Smithsonian, Futter’s institution encompasses art (cultural artifacts from around the world) and both the biological and physical sciences. It is as much a serious research institution as a destination for school groups.
Futter’s résumé is fleshed out with her status as fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, member of the Council on Foreign Relations and former chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. She’s a lawyer who can sling the lingo of lawmakers.
But what I most like about AMNH under Futter is its dynamic and, at times, unflinchingly provocative exhibition program, which tackles big themes (i.e., Gold, in all its manifestations and meanings) and big ideas (Einstein, Darwin, The Genomic Revolution), from every conceivable angle, using a multiplicity of multimedia, artifacts and inventive visual aids. These blockbusters are brainbusters—stretching visitors’ minds with new concepts and comprehension.
As for AMNH’s finances, Jeremy Cooke of Bloomberg recently reported that Standard & Poor’s has upped the museum’s credit rating from stable to positive, thanks to “strong fundraising, stable visitor levels, reduced spending from its $250 million endowment and improving finances.”
Futter’s got the skills, the experience and the advantage of not being saddled with Beltway baggage. What I don’t know is whether she’s got the desire to do it.