CultureComment

For this installment of “Behind the Scenes at the Walters”, the interview is with me, Gary Vikan. A member of the museum staff conducted the interview with me. I hope it will give you an idea of what it is like to be the director of a museum.

What do you do at the Walters?

I am the director of the Walters Art Museum.

What does the director do?

Well, everybody asks me that and it’s hard to answer.  It depends on what day of the week it is.

Sometimes you go down to city hall and try and get permission to put a sign on the side of a building. Sometimes you ask people for money. Sometimes you deal with personnel issues. Sometimes you do budgets. Sometimes you’re up on stage and you talk about why the museum is important. At the end of the day, I think the most important thing a museum director can do is help contribute to culture in general. That is the purpose of a museum.  In a way, our whole experience with the Internet has done a lot to contribute to culture, in a huge way, just as big as anything that has happened to this place in the last 25 years.

What would you say is the biggest challenge of being the director?

I would say the biggest challenge is accepting what you can’t do and recognizing the mistakes you make. It is also a challenge to just let go, to let other people do stuff. I’ve gotten better at that and I’ve seen more people with talent just take off.  It’s all about respect.  If you hire somebody and the reason why they’re here is for the talents they bring, then leave them alone! It is important to encourage them, nourish them, but also to remember that there is no end to the good things that can happen.

Do you have a favorite place in the museum?

My favorite place in the museum is the Conservation Lab.  Even within conservation, it’s the painting lab that I like best, mostly because it’s bigger and easier to see them than the manuscripts being worked on in the next room or the metal work or stone work.  Paintings are big and they change pretty quickly if they are being cleaned.  And to watch them come to life is just amazing.  In a way like If you watch a famous person on a stage it’s better than the movie, but imagine if you were actually in the same place socially, its just very exciting to see them outside of the protective realm of perfection of an installation or case.

This is an installment of the 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 Mindy Riesenberg.

Gary Vikan: What do you do at the Walters?
Mindy Riesenberg: I am the Director of Marketing.

At the Walters, the Director of Marketing does more than just direct the day-to-day goings-on of the typical marketing department. I am in charge of many different departments: marketing/advertising, public relations, graphic design, web and social media, membership, visitor services, the Museum Store and the Walters Café. All of these departments have a public face to them, and overall, the Director of Marketing is responsible for cultivating a compelling public perception of the Walters Art Museum and for identifying opportunities to develop broader public awareness of the museum. The departments under my purview help to increase museum visitation and produce earned revenues from special exhibition ticket sales, membership revenue and museum store sales. We also maintain responsibility for providing a high level of visitor hospitality.

GV: How did you get the job?
MR: I was working at another museum in another state, and I was ready to take a step up in my museum career. I heard about the Walters position on the American Association of Museums’ website and applied. Luckily, I got the job!
 

GV: How did you get involved with museum work?
MR: I fell into museum work after spending some time working in PR/ad agencies and publishing. I found out that a small art/history/children’s museum was looking for a Director of Marketing, and I was curious about that type of work. I had been raised going to art museums, and I spent time studying in Paris in college where I went to museums almost every day, so I already had an affinity for art museums. I have also been a singer my entire life, so the arts in general have always been a passion of mine.

GV: What type of training do you need to do your job?
MR: In marketing, you need to have advertising and public relations experience, as well as good writing and communications skills. Basic business courses are also a good idea, as budgeting is a large part of the position. These days, good knowledge of social media and web practices can be very helpful as well. Marketing, journalism, business…these are all good majors in college that will help you get a job in museum marketing.

GV: What is the biggest challenge in your job?
MR: Finding new ways to bring people to the museum.
 
GV: What is the most interesting project you’ve worked on at the Walters?

The new Walters logo.

MR: I’d have to say the re-branding campaign we are currently in the process of working on here at the Walters. We’ve spent the last couple of years doing extensive research on who our audience is, who our potential audience is, what perceptions people have of the Walters, and why people are or are not coming to the museum. From that research, we’ve developed a new logo and the tagline, “What will you discover?”, and we’re launching a major new ad campaign that goes along with this research in the spring of 2011.
 
GV: What projects are you currently working on?
MR: Among many projects, I’m working on getting the re-brand ad campaign ready to go in the spring, and the campaign/publicity for the spring exhibition, Treasures of Heaven . I’ve also been very busy working with our new café operator to get new items to offer our visitors and to make the café a more appealing place to enjoy lunch or a snack.
 
GV: When people ask you about your work, what do they most often want to know?
MR: If it’s as glamorous as it sounds! I think my friends think of my job as a real “glamour” position, meeting the crème-de-la-crème of Baltimore society, attending opening parties and events, etc. Not that there isn’t that element to this job, but there’s a heck of a lot more work involved than they know!

This is an installment of the 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 Jackie Copeland.

Gary Vikan: What do you do at the Walters?

Jackie Copeland: I’m the Director of Education and Public Programs.

GV: What does your position entail?

JC: I develop the vision and strategic direction for the Education Division and supervise a talented and creative staff of 14.  The Education Division is responsible for developing programs for a diverse range of audiences—elementary school students, adults, families with children, pre-kindergarten kids, college and university students, training our volunteer docents—you name it!  We use sound education pedagogy and foster learning, critical thinking, creativity and creative play. We are deeply engaged in interpretation throughout the museum—what the visitor needs to help them understand the themes of an exhibition—everything from labels, brochures, scavenger hunts, gallery and family guides, to videos, audio and items you can touch.  Lastly, we evaluate the visitor experience in all our programs and special exhibitions.
GV: How did you get the job of Director of Education and Public Programs?

JC: I’m an art historian and taught in colleges in Illinois and Minnesota, and eventually got a job at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis teaching art history to docents and managing the School program. I moved to Baltimore for this job.
GV: What type of training do you need for this position?

JC: Most people with my job have an advanced degree in art history, art education, education, museum studies, fine arts or cultural studies.

GV: What is the biggest challenge in your job?

JC: It is a challenge not being able to do everything we want to do, because of restraints of money, time, staff or even space. But that makes us focus, prioritize and make decisions about what is really important to us and our community.

GV: What is the most interesting project you’ve worked on in your career?

JC: Hmmm…there are so many, but two stand out. I really enjoyed working on an award-winning web resource ArtsConnectEd, which remains a standard in the field of educational web resources.

I also really enjoyed curating the recent special exhibition Walter Wick: Games, Gizmos and Toys in the Attic, which has been a big hit with kids and families.
GV: What is the most interesting project you’ve worked on at the Walters?

JC: There are many projects within the Education Division that stand out, but museum-wide I’d have to say, working to have the museum add to its permanent collection the first works by African American artists has had special significance and resonance with our community.

GV: What is the most unusual experience you’ve had at the Walters?

JC: Well, at the recent Family Festival for the Walter Wick exhibition, which drew nearly 3,000 people in one day, I found myself cleaning the tables in the café so people would have clean surfaces on which to eat. That’s part of the “other duties as assigned” part of our job description!

GV: What is your favorite story involving the Walters?

Walter Wick’s book Can You See What I See? Dream Machine features a dream city. The diorama used to create some of the imagery is currently on view at the Walters Art Museum.

JC: My new favorite story just happened at our recent Family Festival for the Walter Wick exhibition. A young boy with Asperger’s Syndrome loves Walter Wick’s book, and had been building his own model “Dream City” in his basement. Because Wick’s books captivated him, the family drove up from Virginia to see the exhibition, even staying overnight in a hotel. They returned for the Family Festival and we made time for the family to have a personal visit with Walter Wick. It was a memorable experience for all of us.

GV: What projects are you currently working on?

JC: There are many projects going on at once, but one that really interests me is working with our Curator of Renaissance and Baroque Art, Joaneath Spicer, on the fall 2012 exhibition, Saints, Slaves and Diplomats: The African Presence in Renaissance Europe.  It’s an important exhibition for the Walters.
GV: What was your favorite exhibition?

JC: Gee’s Bend: The Architecture of the Quilt.  Beautiful quilts and beautiful quilters!

GV: What do people comment to you when you tell them where you work?

JC: The comment which I get most often is “That must be a fun place to work.”

I can honestly say “Yes, it is.”  When I come to work I never feel like it’s a job. I know it’s my “passion” and for that I feel extremely lucky and fortunate.

The Walters Art Museum Teen Arts Council is dedicated to bringing teens and art together at the Walters Art Museum. The group plans events and creates materials for teens at the museum and is interested in meeting other Baltimore teens that like art and meeting new people. This group recorded an interview with Joaneath Spicer, Walters’ Curator of Renaissance and Baroque Art.

On being a curator, Joaneath states, “You get to be a detective, from morning, noon, until night, and you’re not dealing with dead bodies; you’re dealing with these fabulous works of art…. There is a great satisfaction in really feeling that you can contribute to public discourse that you contribute to public life and often in ways that you don’t even know.”

Listen to the recording: Teen Arts Council Interviews Curator of Renaissance and Baroque Art.

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. If you have any questions that you would like to ask. Please feel free to post them in the comments here.