Over breakfast one recent Saturday, Kaywin Feldman, the director of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, recalled a moment years ago at a meeting of the Association of Art Museum Directors. Then in her mid-30s, one of association's youngest members, and director of the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, she proposed a session on museums and the environment. "I was told it was irrelevant," she says.
By June of this year, when the AAMD met in Indianapolis for its annual meeting, the association had caught up with her thinking: Not only was a session devoted to making museums "greener," but Ms. Feldman was elected president. Ms. Feldman is part of a new generation of women and men in their 40s that is taking the reins at America's top art museums. It includes Christoph Heinrich at the Denver Art Museum, Thom Collins at the Miami Art Museum and James Steward at the Princeton Art Museum, to name a few. Shaped by their times, which differ markedly from the formative years of the directors they are replacing, many have different views of what a museum should be.
Not so long ago, directors were proud to say museums were "cathedrals of culture," collecting, displaying and preserving the best art. Today, that's regarded by some as elitism, and it's not enough. Reacting to demographic and social trends, they are bending the art-museum concept to reach new audiences and remain relevant. "We live in a more global, multicultural society that cares about diversity and inclusivity," Ms. Feldman says. "We're thinking about how we increase our service to the community." Doing their part to save energy is an example of that.
There's no shining line separating the generations, of course. Some directors have been preaching the "populist" gospel for years, often translating that into exhibitions about guitars, hip-hop or "Star Wars" paraphernalia and live music nights with cocktails, DJs and dancing.
Current thinking goes much deeper. Many young directors see museums as modern-day "town squares," social places where members of the community may gather, drawn by art, perhaps, for conversation or music or whatever. They believe that future museum-goers won't be satisfied by simply looking at art, but rather prefer to participate in it or interact with it. "The Artist Is Present" show by Marina Abramovic at the Museum of Modern Art—silent, one-on-one encounters between volunteers and the artist, which viewers hung around to watch—is a recent, popular example.
Wall Street Journal
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