Who Wants to Be a Museum Director? CCL Announces Curator-Mentor Match-Ups

Hitting the jackpot: Kevin Salatino gets matched with MoMA’s Glenn Lowry and Tate’s Nicholas Serota

I don’t know about you, but I find these odd couples interesting.

The second group of curatorial fellows selected for intensive training that’s intended to lead to professional advancement (including directorships) has just been assigned mentors and residency hosts by the Center for Curatorial Leadership.

It’s a pretty stellar list (both the teachers and their pupils). I think the synergy works both ways: They will all learn a lot from each other.

Valerie Cassel Oliver, Curator, Contemporary Art Museum, Houston

Mentor: Madeleine Grynsztejn, Director, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
Residency: Olga Viso, Director, Walker Art Center

Gloria Groom, Curator of 19th Century European Painting,
Art Institute of Chicago

Mentor: Deborah Card, President, Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Residency: Mimi Gardner Gates, Director, Seattle Art Museum

Maxwell Hearn, Curator, Department of Asian Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art

Mentor: William M. Griswold, Director, Morgan Library & Museum
Residency: James Cuno, Director, Art Institute of Chicago

Robin Held, Chief Curator and Director of Exhibitions and Collections, Frye Art Museum

Mentor: Thomas W. Lentz, Director, Harvard Art Museums

Residency: Joseph Helfenstein, Director, Menil Collection

Eik Kahng, Curator and Head of the Department of 18th and 19th Century Art,
Walters Art Museum

Mentor: Richard Armstrong, Director, Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation

Residency: Kaywin Feldman, Director and President, Minneapolis Institute of Arts

Mary-Kay Lombino, Chief Curator, Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College

Mentor: Julián Zugazagoitia, Director and Chief Executive Officer, El Museo del Barrio
Residency: Adam Weinberg, Director, Whitney Museum of American Art

Kevin Salatino, Curator and Department Head, Prints and Drawings,
Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Mentor: Glenn D. Lowry, Director, Museum of Modern Art

Residency: Sir Nicholas Serota, Tate, England

Britt Salvesen, Director and Chief Curator, Center for Creative Photography,
University of Arizona

Mentor: Ann Philbin, Director, Hammer Museum

Residency: Neal Benezra, Director, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

Rochelle Steiner, Director, Public Art Fund

Mentor: Michael Conforti, Director, Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute

Residency: Michael Govan, Chief Executive Officer and Director,
Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Matthew Welch, Assistant Director of Curatorial Affairs; Curator of Japanese and Korean Art,
Minneapolis Institute of Arts

Mentor: Michael E. Shapiro, Director, High Museum of Art
Residency: Maxwell L. Anderson, Director, Indianapolis Museum of Art

Wait a minute. Shouldn’t Kevin Salatino, the prints and drawings specialist, have been paired with Bill Griswold, whose field matches his own? Does Gloria Groom plan to orchestrate her 19th century European paintings shows to music by Brahms and Debussy?

I guess the idea, in some cases, is to gain exposure to things you don’t already know.