This is an installment of a weekly interview series, on the Culture Comment blog. It’s called “Behind-the-Scenes.” Each week, we’ll discuss new facts and information about the people that make the Walters Art Museum tick. Now, let’s meet Joan Elisabeth Reid.
Gary Vikan: What is your position at the Walters?
Joan Elisabeth Reid: I’m the Chief Registrar.
GV: What does a registrar do?
JR: The registrar is responsible for collection management and collection documentation. This means that the registrar is responsible for the movement of art in and out of the museum. The registrar keeps an up-to-date inventory of every object in the collection as well as loans to the museum. The registrar is also responsible for insuring that the collection is either safely housed in storage or installed in the galleries. The registrar handles all the logistics of packing and shipping art to and from the museum as well as installing it. We ship and receive art from all over the world. The registrar also maintains documentation on all the art, increasingly in electronic form, for internal museum purposes and for dissemination on the web. We have a department of four registrars, one data entry assistant, and three art handlers to carry out these duties.
GV: How did you get the job of registrar?
JR: I received a B.A. in Art History and an M.A. in Italian Studies with a concentration on museum education. I then worked for a small museum as a curator, doing everything that a registrar does, so it was an easy transition from a job as curator to one as registrar.
GV: How did you get involved with the museum field?
JR: I actually started my career as an intern in museum education at the Baltimore Museum of Art and the Toledo Museum of Art. In additional to learning what museum education was all about, the internships gave me an opportunity to learn about the many different job opportunities in the museum field.
GV: What type of training do you need to be a registrar?
JR: Nowadays, most individuals wanting to be a registrar go to graduate school to get a Masters in Museum Studies. These programs incorporate internships into the course of studies so students have some experience when they begin to apply for jobs. When I started, one could train through a series of museum internships. A very few people are lucky enough to begin as volunteers and gain experience that way.
GV: What is the biggest challenge in your job?
JR: We sometimes have two to three (and sometimes four) travelling exhibitions on the road at any given time, in addition to the exhibition installations at the Walters and the care of the permanent collection. It’s a juggling act and good planning and organization are essential.
GV: What is the most interesting project you’ve worked on at the Walters?
JR: That’s a hard question, because there are so many interesting aspects of my job. I guess I would have to say that three projects stand out: taking an exhibition of Southeast Asian art to Hong Kong; going to Kiev, Ukraine to pack up an exhibition of beautiful Scythian gold objects; and going to St. Petersburg, Russia to pack up an exhibition of Russian avant-garde paintings to bring back to the Walters. I sometimes wonder what the artists who made these objects would have thought if they knew their art would one day fly around the world.
GV: What is your favorite piece in the Walters’ collection and why?
JR: There are so many pieces I love. One of the great pleasures of being a registrar is that you get to handle the art work as you move and install it. You really get to see it up close. Depending on what art I am moving or what exhibition I am working on, I have a new favorite all the time.
When I deinstalled the art in our Centre Street Building in preparation for its renovation and 2001 reopening, I handled one of the gold early medieval shroud crosses. It could have blown away, it was so light, and I had to be very careful I did not bend the thin gold or damage the beautiful, embossed design. It’s incredible to think that something like this has survived for 1,300 years, and now, it’s my responsibility to make sure it is safe.
In 2005, we opened our newly renovated Palazzo Building and in the Gentleman’s Study we installed a Flemish Rosary Pendant with the Crucifixion and Resurrection (61.132). It’s made of boxwood and measures only 1 15/16” in circumference. Every time I look at this piece, I can’t believe that any craftsperson could have carved such an intricate and minute scene. It’s just amazing.
GV: What project are you currently working on?
JR: I’m getting ready to go to San Diego to pack up our travelling exhibition, Heroes: Mortals and Myths in Ancient Greece. Then, I travel with it across country to New York where I will help install it at the Onassis Cultural Center. It will be on view in New York from October 5, 2010–January 3, 2011.
Learn more about the exhibitions at the Walters Museum, on our web site.
Do you have a question you would like to ask Joan Elisabeth? If so, let’s hear about it in the comments!
Bozo Prison by Laure Drogoul
Gary Vikan, director of the Walters Art Museum since 1994, has been with the Baltimore institution for more than 20 years. A native of Minnesota, Gary received his B.A. from Carleton College in 1967 and his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1976 before working as Senior Associate for Byzantine Art Studies at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, D.C.