In a time when finances are the major issue in the museum world, SAM‘s press release on new director Derrick R. Cartwright doesn’t mention the subject. If he’s a fund-raising wonder, he has declined to say so.
As the director of the San Diego Museum of Art, he repeatedly described his job as presenting vital, challenging, aesthetically rewarding and socially relevant works of art.
From SAM’s press release:
Over the past five years, Cartwright’s leadership has bolstered San
Diego Museum of Art’s international reputation as a nexus for deep
scholarship, thoughtful exhibitions and a dynamic permanent collection,
while developing close ties to the community it serves through public
outreach and engagement. Under his direction, the museum has increased
its traveling exhibition and permanent collection loan programs,
established a strong publications program and added more than 1,000 new
acquisitions to the collection.
The San Diego Museum has little relationship to the art he says he admires most, however, the challenging and social relevant. Instead, it’s a once-over-lightly assortment from all periods, with no particular strength in contemporary. It seems like a place that is loath to challenge to anybody.
As a much bigger museum with depth in African, Asian, European decorative, European/American art after WW II and growing depth in American historical, gives him a wider field of engagement, and it can use his interest in connecting with regional communities.
Back to money. With the failure of Washington Mutual, with whom SAM shared space, the museum lost nearly $6 million annually. That’s along with the losses all museums are experiencing in this economy. (Story here.)
I could find no negative stories about Cartwright and few positive ones. In his mid 40s, he’s largely unknown but respectable. Mimi Gates retires June 30, and Cartwright starts in the fall.
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