Timothy Rub, posing in front of the new Rafael Viñoly-designed wing of the Cleveland Museum, which he’s about to leave
Maybe it was a good thing that I couldn’t teleport myself to the Philadelphia Museum in time for Monday morning’s press conference introducing its new director (for which an invitation stealthily arrived in my inbox in the dead of night).
To hear Peter Dobrin of the Philadelphia Inquirer tell it, Rub’s first meet-the-press moment in his new capacity as director-designate was no more revelatory than Tom Campbell‘s close-up at the Metropolitan Museum.
But CultureGrrl, while not there in body, was in Philadelphia in spirit. Rub DID answer the question I had posed here, regarding his peripatetic ways: “Can they keep him?”
Dobrin reports Rub’s sacred vow:
I am here for as long as Philadelphia will have me and I can do
wonderful things [like maybe roll back today’s $2 admission increase?]. There is no other place I would like to
be, no other place I can imagine myself. This is one of the great
museums in the country. There is a lot of great work to be done here in
terms of the [architect Frank] Gehry project. So much work in terms of
strengthening the staff and resources. There is no better place for me
to be.
Not even Washington, if the National Gallery directorship eventually opens up? Let’s not even go there!