Eagerly anticipating the opening of museums

DERRICK R. CARTWRIGHT: COVID-19 MAY HAVE INADVERTENTLY BROUGHT SOME ASPECTS OF THE ARTS WORLD CLOSER TO AUDIENCES, AND THAT NEEDS TO CONTINUE

Museums have had a rough year. The practical inability to share collections, exhibitions and in-person programs has taken a toll on these institutions, to say nothing of the patrons that depend on them. It is hard to escape a sense that the overall cultural ecology has suffered as a result of the pandemic. If we sometimes feel unfulfilled, or creatively depleted, be reassured that the condition is not unique to San Diego, or even broadly localized within the United States. What’s scarier than this perceived global lack is the more real threat that it could become an enduring phenomenon. It’s one thing to view December Nights through the windshield or to content ourselves with scrolling through imagery that’s designed for optimal viewing on a cellphone. Those substitutes don’t come close to what a sustained, direct encounter with a compelling work of art delivers. Still, these simulacra have to do for now. A missed biennial, the cancellation of blockbuster displays or the postponement of yet another franchised art fair is, like a deferred Olympics, bound to disappoint a privileged few, but those events will return soon enough. What is more concerning to me are the sustained losses of support — the missing communities and a feared recalibration of lasting philanthropic instincts. Will things ever return to “normal” in the museum world? Let’s hope not. The challenges faced by art museums after a full year of Covid-19-induced setbacks are ones that have shaped them for a while. The current crises serve to sharpen focus on these institutions’ weakest spots of economics and equity.

Welcome opportunity

It used to be that a financially troubled institution reluctantly selling off its collections in order to keep the doors open was deemed a pariah. The few, desperate museums that chanced such a maneuver were ritually excoriated by their constituents, the media and professional associations alike. But deaccessioning under a pandemic-sanctioned “timeout” is not only possible today, it’s being enthusiastically pursued for reasons both good and bad. It’s doubtful that the best of those freshly monetized assets will return to the public trust anytime soon, but the underlying, “unprecedented” conditions of fiscal instability remain largely intact. Inequities of representation and access, while not new or unique to museums, have been similarly highlighted during this prolonged closure. This provides a welcome opportunity for self-examination. Following their awakening to systemic injustice throughout our society, some art institutions rose quickly to assert their solidarity with Black Lives Matter and other valid protests. Yet, it remains unclear how transformed their underlying structures are as a result, beyond the usual, performative moves. The resignation of a few directors and chief curators from major museums in cities and on college campuses under clouds of having fostered toxic work environments can be viewed as only partial proofs of the widespread prevalence of these conditions. Hiring more diverse, empathic and visionary leadership is what’s needed to correct the status quo and ensure lasting change. Working toward equity and greater inclusion in museums, when matched with increased commitments to the contributions of BIPOC artists, has been thrilling to witness. It must continue to be encouraged once we return to buildings and a routine workweek. Pursued over the long term, such efforts will both sustain pipelines of impactful projects and encourage future professionals to enter the field. In smaller collections, like the one I help steward at the University of San Diego, it is possible to move the ball in measurable ways. For example, with generous support from the Legler Benbough Foundation, we’ve pursued initiatives aimed at increasing the collection’s overall breadth, while equipping undergraduates with the experience of leading acquisition decisions. For the last six years, students have proposed objects — prints primarily — that have multiple curricular uses and, equally importantly, that most excite them. These works are purchased after a transparent process that resembles what typically takes place in the closed committee rooms of larger museums. We are still working with a small sample, but preliminary results suggest that these acquisitions are destined to include more artists of color, will fearlessly tackle challenging subject matter, and promise to be used more immediately in courses than more conventionally acquired objects. We’ve applied a related strategy to include students in decisions about our exhibition programs and, again, I am impressed by the advocacy for topical and relevant thematic displays. While distance learning has posed obstacles for the academy as a whole, these student-centered experiments function surprisingly well during a pandemic and appear ready to be scaled up in larger institutions.

Public square redefined

In other good news, San Diego’s community of museum professionals has delivered an impressive array of lectures, panel discussions, virtual visits, art lessons, blogs and other online offerings that attest to their successful “pivot” from brick-and-mortar spaces onto digital platforms. I spent a part of the last 12 months drafting 52 “Work of the Week” postings for the Timken Museum of Art’s website and linked social media platforms. In what amounts to a kind of “Journal of the Plague Year” (seen not through the eyes of Daniel Defoe’s skeptical narrator of human suffering, but through the lens of our contemporary predicament), I’m fascinated by the capacity of familiar works to touch us anew. Those interpretations may not always demonstrate new knowledge, but if they’ve enabled us to remain connected to art, and collapsed even a little of the distance between us, then I am satisfied. The sheer variety of free and relevant offerings being promoted by museums, galleries, humanities centers and other institutions has been a heartening side effect of the pandemic’s otherwise formidable constraints. The leadership displayed by national organizations has been profound, too. Philanthropic entities such as the Getty Trust, Henry Luce and Andrew Mellon Foundations have provided financial backstops for organizations in need, but have also led conversations on timely matters, from the place of monuments and memorials in American cities to the role of the museum/archive in preserving the visual evidence of our convulsive times. At a moment when access to scholarly content might reasonably be expected to tail off, we have had first-row seats to urgent debates. We’ve also seen the public square redefined as a grid — a series of boxed faces in front of more or less carefully curated bookshelves — on our screens. That’s not been a bad thing, necessarily, but I am unconvinced that this format will sustain us over the long haul. When museums reopen in Southern California — with broad vaccinations this will be, hopefully, soon — the imperative to fight the virus ought to allow room for us to experience art in person again. Visiting new and old favorites will then be as safe, as unmediated, and as inclusive as possible, but only with continued effort on the part of our museum leaders. I am inspired by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco’s recent decision to address the currently reduced opportunities for local artists by launching a juried exhibition, called the de Young Open. Its commitment to make this a triennial, and thus a repeated event, is promising. There is room for that kind of inclusive action here. Think of all the spaces now nearing completion: new facilities for the Museum of Contemporary Art’s flagship in La Jolla and the Mingei International Museum in Balboa Park, and substantial renovations taking place at the Timken. The expanded social possibility suggested by future visits to these muchanticipated spaces is something to look forward to and an opportunity that the whole community should embrace. The promise of enjoying diverse objects together, slowly and satisfyingly close, is how museums will once again reflect the best things in our common culture. I can’t wait.

Cartwright is director of University Galleries and an associate professor in the Department of Art, Architecture + Art History at the University of San Diego. He is also director of curatorial affairs at the Timken Museum of Art. Cartwright formerly served as executive director at the Seattle Art Museum, the San Diego Museum of Art, the Hood Museum of Art (Dartmouth College) and the Musée d’art Américain Giverny. He was a member of the city of San Diego’s Public Art Committee from 2015 to 2019.

Working toward equity and greater inclusion in museums ... has been thrilling to witness. It must continue to be encouraged once we return to buildings and a routine workweek.

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