Richard Amstrong Gets A Chair — At His Old Museum

To my mind, the creation of an endowed curatorial position at a museum doesn’t make news. But here’s an exception: on Friday, the Carnegie Museum of Art announced that an endowment had been created for the position of curator of contemporary art. Lynn Zelevansky also announced the appointment of the museum’s Associate Curator of Contemporary Art Dan Byers (below left), who is co-curating the 2013 Carnegie International, to this new position.

Then came the twist: the chair has been named in honor of another museum’s director — Richard Armstrong (below right), director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation and previous head of the Carnegie.

It’s a hearty compliment to Armstrong, who left Pittsburgh for his current post in 2008 after 12 years as director of the museum and four as a curator there. When he left, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazettequoted museum board Chairman William E. Hunt saying “Physically and financially, it’s in as good a shape as it has been in a very long time,” praised his expansion of the museum as well as his people skills, and added, “We have a world class group of curators. He’s done a tremendous job with his management group as well as his educators. He has also made strategic and intelligent acquisitions.”

The Carnegie didn’t say how much money has been raised for the chair or from whom. But there’s one clue on the website: Announcing the fourth annual Art in Bloom — “a four-day celebration of timeless art and fresh flowers, presented by the Women’s Committee of the Carnegie Museum of Art” — it said that proceeds from it will “benefit the Women’s Committee dedicated gift for the Richard Armstrong Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art Endowed Chair.” That gift has been disclosed as $500,000, though it’s unclear if all has been raised or not. Or where else money for this endowment is coming from.

In any case, I can’t think of a similar gesture toward a living former director. (Let me know if there are others.)

Armstrong’s tenure at the Guggenheim has had its ups and downs, it compliments and criticisms, which is to be expected. Here’s hoping that it ends, whenever that is, with as good a feeling in New York as Pittsburgh has for his tenure there.  

Photo Credit: Courtesy of the Post-Gazette (top)