Manager of Exhibitions (DIA June 29)
Role/Responsibilities:
Project management. Manage contracts with contractors, budgets. Facilitate communication between people working in various departments
on a given exhibition (e.g. curator, interpretive specialists, in- house designer, architect, collections management, marketing, education,
audience development). For example for the upcoming Richard Avedon exhibition (a "canned" show that the DIA un-cans) she's currently having
meetings with the interpretive design team, the DIA's contract architect and the graphic designer about wall panel texts for the Avedon photos.
If there is a canned show, the DIA will re-do the interpretation - IE -they create new interpretives, labels, etc. This process is highly
iterative and involves many departments.
Another example of re-interpretation: recent Normal Rockwell exhibition. Artifacts were from Rockwell museum but DIA's interpretive strategy
involved taking a more critical look at what his art depicted - "maintream middle America". What does it mean to have a "normal"
American family? So they re-did wall panels, labels, etc. The "DIA Evening Post" was a way for visitors to describe their families and put
an image of them on the cover of a newspaper. Created "simple" and "complex" labels for the Rockwell show. For example a simple label would
read "Painting of a young boy on a train that was on cover of the Saturday Evening Post". A complex label for this image would have
explained that the Saturday Evening Post didn't allow pictures of an African American on the cover unless they were portrayed in a
subservient role. Visitors could choose whether they wanted simple or complex interpretive info.
Before an exhibition debuts the director of the DIA must approve. what input she has into the DIA Website: mainly content (e.g. what
visitor info, exhibition content). Lots of work with the Marketing Department.
*What's a typical day?*
Lots of meetings. Today: tactics -- talking about a fluxus show. After will have meeting w/ registrar & curator
about warhole exhibition re: budget. Also: meet w/ interpretive educators abour Warhol.
*IT used:*
Excel for budgets, exhibition calendar. Word for contracts. Used to use
MS Project.
*Exhibition design process*
4 - 10 years. Through African Eyes = 10. It depends on whether it's a canned show. Canned = 1.5 to 2 years to plan. Through African Eyes is
DIA-developed. Exhibition development usually strats with a curator's ideas. Usually managing at least 5 shows at one time.
Upcoming shows: Through African Eyes - 2010. Rembrant / Jesus - 2011. Avedon - Fall 2009. Islamic gallery permanent installation - Feb 2010.
Also a Fluxus show in the works.
*Is it a goal to shorten exhibition planning time?*
So much of designprocess is research - not something that can be sped up. Exhibitions based on the DIA's permanent collection might be faster. A way of
planning is to lay out pictures of proposed objects & show relationships between these pictures; also DIA works with CAD drawings of gallery
space. One way to shorten would be collaborative electronic tools to enhance collaboration. It's hard to share info between departments. A
lot of institutional knowledge is in emails. No DIA intraweb. There is a shared folder a server that can be used. In terms of ex planning and
management -- we need areas where people can share info.