ARTISTIC IMPACT
New executive director of the New Mexico Museum of Art faces challenges brought on by COVID-19
Newly appointed New Mexico Museum of Art Executive Director Mark A. White wanted to work in graphic design until he fell in love with art history.
Offered an internship at Tulsa’s Philbrook Museum in 1991, he curate an exhibition on the World War I lithographs of the Ashcan School artist George Bellows.
“It turned out to be very propagandistic, in hindsight,” White said in a telephone interview from Norman, Oklahoma, where he was working as the director of the Fred J. Jones Museum of Art at the University of Oklahoma.
“But I executed that show just about when the U.S. was about to enter the Gulf War. There was something about curating, about being able to think of social/political issues that interested me the most.”
White will begin work at the Santa Fe museum on May 18.
Being appointed to the job in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic brings its challenges, he acknowledged.
“Coming in at this point is not what I had planned,” White said. “I don’t think anybody thought of this when the process started.
“The museum is doing its best to speak to its audience through digital means. They are really having to work fast in a way they are not accustomed to working.”
Budget concerns amid the economic downturn are real, he acknowledged.
“As a state institution, the New Mexico Museum of Art is probably going to feel the effects of the downturn,” White said. “What that means for the future is uncertain. There will probably have to be some changes in what the museum can offer in the future. Any change I would want to make is premature.”
White is still learning about the museum’s ongoing projects, specifically its expansion with the $12.5 million Vladem Contemporary Museum in the Santa Fe Railyard. Critics have objected to one casualty of the plan, a 40-year-old mural painted by the city’s 2017 “living treasure,” Gilberto Guzman, on the Halpin State Archives building.
The architectural designs are nearing completion, although construction has yet to start, White said. He said he would be attending a meeting on the issue in two weeks.
White has long been interested in New Mexico, where he has been a frequent visitor.
“It’s very easy to fall in love with the land and the sky,” he said. “But more important than that is the culture has always fascinated me. You have the influence of the pueblo and Hispanic culture and later the Anglo culture. Santa Fe probably attracted me more than Taos because Santa Fe became a destination for an international collection of artists.”
In Oklahoma, White spearheaded many projects, including more than $4 million raised in programming and collection support.
He spent eight years teaching art history at Oklahoma State University and earned his doctoral degree in art history at the University of Kansas, where he was the recipient of the Henry Luce Foundation Dissertation Award. He was one of six scholars chosen for a yearlong fellowship at the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum and Research Center in 2003-04.