Whoever the Seattle Art Museum hires to replace Michael Darling (why Darling left here), the museum needs somebody who likes a challenge. Money is tight, the work load (with three sites) is enormous, and payoffs on the national stage are elusive.
For the hiring committee, 10 suggestions:
1. Don’t limit yourselves to PhD’s. We all know PhD’s who get the job, sit down and rarely rise again.
2. Good contemporary is not skin deep. How well does the candidate know the permanent galleries at the Met? The Frick? Ask who has the best American historical collection on the West Coast. (It’s the de Young.) Make it/break it question: Who is Robert Farris Thompson? (Extra credit: What are his links to the SAM? Answers here and here.) In short, don’t pick a person who’s all about who’s hot and who’s not.
3. No divas. The Northwest flattens their feathers. They’re not happy, and yes, we talk about their huge egos behind their backs. On the other hand, glam’s fine. High-heeled sneakers and wig hats welcome.
4. Reach for the sky. When Max Anderson left the Whitney, who would have guessed he’d take a job at the Indianapolis Museum of Art? At the time it looked like a demotion, but he’s a bigger deal now than he was then. Get the back story, and pick somebody with something to prove.
5. Consider art dealers. Jeffrey
Deitch broke that ice. If he can be director of MoCA, why
can’t an art dealer be curator at SAM? Ask Donald Young if he’s available. What’s next for Scott Lawrimore? Greg Kucera? Marian Goodman would be an amazing coup, and so would Paula Cooper. Maybe one of them is secretly sick of the commercial world. Thinking less commercially, on the commercial/nonprofit divide, how about the team of Shelly Bancroft and Peter Nesbett? How about Matthew Higgs?
6. R-E-S-P-E-C-T. Find out what it means to peers.
7. Don’t think you can’t get a big name. That person might have private reasons to make a move. But fame alone doesn’t mean he or she will have anything genuine to offer in the NW.
8. Pick somebody who
can find the global in the local. That person will get behind the
region and push. He or she will inspire donors and attract diverse audiences.
When she doesn’t have money for a necessary exhibit, she’ll be
someone others write checks for.
9. Tough skin is a requirement. Nobody who collects grievances, please.
10. Without vision the people perish. Find somebody who has one and can make it matter.
lawrimore dude would be kool!
Frankly, I could care less if a curator can pass all your test questions.
I want somebody with a good eye, guts, drive, and a tiger in their tank.
But the one thing a decent curator wants, the SAM never will give em- which is free reign, without micromanagement.
SAM always opts for safe, polite people who know which fork is for shellfish. We need a bit more loose cannon on deck, pedal to the metal, passion and vision.
I, for one, am not holding my breath.
Great list of suggestions–hope someone at SAM is reading. Would love to see someone like Greg Kucera at SAM.
I don’t know any museum that gives curators
“free reign” but I do know curators smart and smooth enough to get their way most days. I think Kucera could do it.
Please let it be Billy Howard.
howard couldnT keep a gallery running leT alone a museum
Why not an Artist. Why does it always have to be the solidly entrenched? Speaking of the entrenched, I’d take a chance on Ries Niemi. His funny clothes would look good in the boardroom and he can bull-crap with the best of them. He’s a businessperson and I’ve heard that he has a very smart wife, in which case SAM would be getting two for the price of one(kind of like Hillary and Bill.
Ries has a firsthand Northwest knowledge base that goes way back and yet he is hard-wired to most of what is going on today.
If SAM is looking to stir the pot, then I think he’d be just the thing.
If Ries would be out of the question, my second choice would be Jesse Edwards. If anything, he’d probably kick some ass.
How about a mix of Linda Farris & Marita Holdaway – two gallerists who always made the art and artists of the NW shine while delivering on the “experience”. There is always going to be a disconnect between the need to survive (ticket and art sales) and pushing the cultural edge (making relevant statements). Mining resumes and check lists can become a process of what’s been done, not what’s next …
“You can’t cut down the forest from behind a desk, you gotta get out in the woods”, brother Doug.
Scott Lawrimore would be awesome! I’d bet he start by doing something about the waste of space in the escalator area. Would he consider it?
No, not me.
Being a curator is a career, a lifelong pursuit, and takes somebody who is willing to do that and nothing but that.
we have some great examples of curators that have been here, and a few who still are, who thru sheer willpower, put on some great shows-
Meg Schiffler at Con Arts, Larry Reid at Coca way back when, Robin Held at the Frye, Beth Sellars at Suyama, Jill Medvedow before we lost her to Boston, Anne Focke at the old And/Or- and others I cant think of off the top of my head, no doubt.
But SAM, in general, has been hidebound, conservative, and usually only open to “stamp collecting” shows like Target Practice or Kurt, or, worse, ordering premade shows from catalogs.
I think Billy, or Scott, would be great, myself. But the powers that be want nice safe choices that have already been validated elsewhere.
Ries is spot on. The SAM board and the donors want their donations seen and the fact that the galleries look like a yard sale doesn’t seem to concern them. It’s excellent art, it’s just overhung.
One of my favorite museums is the San Francisco Museum of Contemporary art – each gallery flows and makes sense, and each gallery has a connection to the next gallery. SAM just seems to jam it all in and it becomes just stuff.
Aw shucks, I’m honored to be spoken of in the same breath as Donald, Billy and Greg (Donald Young would be amazing in this post, I agree).
While I am only 1/2 qualified for the SAM gig, if you add Yoko Ott’s ample curating and administrative chops to the mix, we might have something though. Double Dutch curating, if you will. Heck, we would do twice the work for the salary of the single position even…
Holding my breath,
sml