terrie sultan
198
199
ART
ART
TERRIE SULTAN
bition is the first time that he’s enjoying a major survey since The Phillips Collection’s. It brings together all of the major works that represent the full trajectory of his career. It’s visually compelling.
DIRECTOR OF THE PARRISH ART MUSEUM
In July, simultaneously with our summer party, we will launch Clifford Ross’s new project, which is part of what we call our ‘platform series.’ It’s a series that we do every year inviting artists to respond to the architecture of this building, the permanent collection, or the landscape — anything that inspires one. Clifford will be creating a project called Light Waves, where the visitor will become completely immersed in the waves.
By amy puRssEy
For our fifth anniversary, we will be reinstalling all seven of the permanent collection galleries. We’ll have a series of exhibitions focused on particular themes or solo exhibitions of artists who are key to the art historical story of the legacy of the East End.
T
errie Sultan has spearheaded programs at the museum for almost ten years. In this interview we discuss the museum’s fifth anniversary, the importance of working with the local community, and what role women play in today’s art world. What is it about the Hamptons that inspires artists? The indigenous population has a very deep and abiding art-making history of their own. But, if you want to talk about how the Hamptons really became a central feature in the entire American Art conversation, it was when the railroad came out here in the late 19th century. Artists such as William Merritt Chase and Winslow Homer started coming out for the light because they painted outdoors. It’s what more or less launched this area as an artist community. Then you get to artists like Jackson Pollock, Larry Rivers, and Willem de Kooning largely because it was close enough to New York so they could still be part of the New York art scene and yet at the same time have inexpensive access to larger studios, cheaper living, and concentrate on their work. The community grew. This year the Parrish is celebrating its five-year anniversary of its new site. We opened this new facility in November, 2012. It has been transformational both institutionally for the Parrish itself, but also I believe for this community. By working with the architects Herzog & de Meuron, we really did something that I think is very special here
when one talks about a purpose-built building. Of course you have to take into account things like climate control and the right kind of gallery, parking, and loading dock that will be needed. For us however, a purpose-built building also meant how does one really create an experience situation where visitors can come and really have an understanding of why the East End of Long Island has since the late 19th century been a magnet for the best and the brightest of America’s creative community — starting with William Merritt Chase all the way up through modernists like Fairfield Porter, and then moving into the contemporary world of Chuck Close, Cindy Sherman, and Clifford Ross — all of whom are represented in our permanent collection. The last five years for us have been an amazing trajectory of growth and development of our program. Our services to the community are diverse — from working with the local schools and with special needs adults and children to providing a place that serves as a platform for sharing ideas and social lives. It has really been an amazing achievement that we celebrate. What exhibitions are coming up? John Graham – Maverick Modernist opened on May 6. Graham is one of those key figures in American art history who is represented in probably every major art museum in this country but who has not really received the appropriate attention that he deserves. This exhiSocial Life
Did this wonderful new building affect how you formed ideas for programming? Probably the most important impact that constructing the new building had on the institutional focus was the new space we had to work with. Our small building in the village of Southampton had about 4,500 square feet of exhibition space. We could show works for a special exhibition or exhibit pieces from the permanent collection, but we could never do both at the same time. Now we have 12,500 square feet, and can extend the conversation through works of art that are on view much longer. This means we create a very interesting dialogue between special exhibitions and the permanent collection. That was a huge change for us. Now that we have an installation of the permanent collection, we can introduce it to all of the teachers. They know at the beginning of the school year what they have to work with for their students for the entire year. There will always be key artworks that they can refer to. Our dedicated art studio also enables us to hold art classes not only for children but for adults, too. Now that we have fourteen acres of natural meadow landscape, we hold a lot more programs that have to do with the relationship between art and nature. That’s quite an impressive program that you have going on. Well, that doesn’t even take into account that every Friday, for 52 nights of the year, we do some kind of a special program, either in the theatre, in the galleries, or on the terrace. We have a whole series of classical piano concerts, jazz on the terrace, documentary films, and speakers about artists and their creativity. We operate as if we’re a huge museum, despite being a mid-sized regional museum. Our program is very diverse, very compelling, and sometimes overwhelming for the staff! You mentioned you work with local schools? Sure. We’re very deeply embedded in the school system. We work SocialLifeMagazine.com
quite a lot with the Southampton schools, the Bridgehampton schools, and Sag Harbor schools, to name a few. The Southampton schools are probably where we’re most deeply embedded. We have ongoing projects with various classes in fourth, fifth, and sixth grades. We go into the schools with teachers, and they visit the museum and work with the permanent collection and special exhibitions. The students also have the opportunity to work with the art studio. We also have an artist’s residency program where we invite the artists to work directly one-on-one with the students. Classes are available where works of art are created and then shown in our February art exhibition, which is held annually. Do you believe that art has the power to change people’s lives? I believe that absolutely, and I think that it comes in a lot of different ways. I think it comes through the transcendent experience of actually seeing a master work of art. It’s not so easy for people to jump on a jitney; for a lot of our community, we are their only opportunity to engage in a live experience with masterful works of art. That is life changing. The opportunity for young people to meet and interact with professional artists is life changing. It gives people a notion that there are all different kinds of opportunities for what they might want to be when they grow up. Even if they’re not going to be artists, working in this way gives people skills in communication, creative problem-solving, and visual literacy, all the things that one needs in order to live the best possible, full life. You’re a powerhouse woman in the art world. What are your thoughts on women’s equality in the art world; are we getting closer to smashing that glass ceiling? I basically started my East Coast museum profession working for Marcia Tucker, the founder of the New Museum of Contemporary Art, and that was in the mid-1980s. At that time there were few female art museum directors — some, but not many. There’s an organization called the Association of Art Museum Directors. Marcia and a few of her colleagues would go to these meetings and put together a group of women art museum directors as a sort of sub group, an affinity group, that would meet and discuss certain issues that might be specific to women art museum directors. There was only a handful of them, they would talk about glass ceilings, the lack of equity in pay, and the increased difficulty for fundraising. Recently the women art museum directors’ affinity group dissolved itself at the AMD meetings because there are so many more of us now that our concerns are more global and less gender-specific. I would say that I am the product of a whole lot of hard work by my predecessors who mentored young women and helped them advance in their careers. For me, what I feel now in my position is that I need to pay that forward. The more young people I can mentor the better, and that includes both men and women. I would say that there is still a glass ceiling that is slowly being cracked.
199
ART
ART
TERRIE SULTAN
bition is the first time that he’s enjoying a major survey since The Phillips Collection’s. It brings together all of the major works that represent the full trajectory of his career. It’s visually compelling.
DIRECTOR OF THE PARRISH ART MUSEUM
In July, simultaneously with our summer party, we will launch Clifford Ross’s new project, which is part of what we call our ‘platform series.’ It’s a series that we do every year inviting artists to respond to the architecture of this building, the permanent collection, or the landscape — anything that inspires one. Clifford will be creating a project called Light Waves, where the visitor will become completely immersed in the waves.
By amy puRssEy
For our fifth anniversary, we will be reinstalling all seven of the permanent collection galleries. We’ll have a series of exhibitions focused on particular themes or solo exhibitions of artists who are key to the art historical story of the legacy of the East End.
T
errie Sultan has spearheaded programs at the museum for almost ten years. In this interview we discuss the museum’s fifth anniversary, the importance of working with the local community, and what role women play in today’s art world. What is it about the Hamptons that inspires artists? The indigenous population has a very deep and abiding art-making history of their own. But, if you want to talk about how the Hamptons really became a central feature in the entire American Art conversation, it was when the railroad came out here in the late 19th century. Artists such as William Merritt Chase and Winslow Homer started coming out for the light because they painted outdoors. It’s what more or less launched this area as an artist community. Then you get to artists like Jackson Pollock, Larry Rivers, and Willem de Kooning largely because it was close enough to New York so they could still be part of the New York art scene and yet at the same time have inexpensive access to larger studios, cheaper living, and concentrate on their work. The community grew. This year the Parrish is celebrating its five-year anniversary of its new site. We opened this new facility in November, 2012. It has been transformational both institutionally for the Parrish itself, but also I believe for this community. By working with the architects Herzog & de Meuron, we really did something that I think is very special here
when one talks about a purpose-built building. Of course you have to take into account things like climate control and the right kind of gallery, parking, and loading dock that will be needed. For us however, a purpose-built building also meant how does one really create an experience situation where visitors can come and really have an understanding of why the East End of Long Island has since the late 19th century been a magnet for the best and the brightest of America’s creative community — starting with William Merritt Chase all the way up through modernists like Fairfield Porter, and then moving into the contemporary world of Chuck Close, Cindy Sherman, and Clifford Ross — all of whom are represented in our permanent collection. The last five years for us have been an amazing trajectory of growth and development of our program. Our services to the community are diverse — from working with the local schools and with special needs adults and children to providing a place that serves as a platform for sharing ideas and social lives. It has really been an amazing achievement that we celebrate. What exhibitions are coming up? John Graham – Maverick Modernist opened on May 6. Graham is one of those key figures in American art history who is represented in probably every major art museum in this country but who has not really received the appropriate attention that he deserves. This exhiSocial Life
Did this wonderful new building affect how you formed ideas for programming? Probably the most important impact that constructing the new building had on the institutional focus was the new space we had to work with. Our small building in the village of Southampton had about 4,500 square feet of exhibition space. We could show works for a special exhibition or exhibit pieces from the permanent collection, but we could never do both at the same time. Now we have 12,500 square feet, and can extend the conversation through works of art that are on view much longer. This means we create a very interesting dialogue between special exhibitions and the permanent collection. That was a huge change for us. Now that we have an installation of the permanent collection, we can introduce it to all of the teachers. They know at the beginning of the school year what they have to work with for their students for the entire year. There will always be key artworks that they can refer to. Our dedicated art studio also enables us to hold art classes not only for children but for adults, too. Now that we have fourteen acres of natural meadow landscape, we hold a lot more programs that have to do with the relationship between art and nature. That’s quite an impressive program that you have going on. Well, that doesn’t even take into account that every Friday, for 52 nights of the year, we do some kind of a special program, either in the theatre, in the galleries, or on the terrace. We have a whole series of classical piano concerts, jazz on the terrace, documentary films, and speakers about artists and their creativity. We operate as if we’re a huge museum, despite being a mid-sized regional museum. Our program is very diverse, very compelling, and sometimes overwhelming for the staff! You mentioned you work with local schools? Sure. We’re very deeply embedded in the school system. We work SocialLifeMagazine.com
quite a lot with the Southampton schools, the Bridgehampton schools, and Sag Harbor schools, to name a few. The Southampton schools are probably where we’re most deeply embedded. We have ongoing projects with various classes in fourth, fifth, and sixth grades. We go into the schools with teachers, and they visit the museum and work with the permanent collection and special exhibitions. The students also have the opportunity to work with the art studio. We also have an artist’s residency program where we invite the artists to work directly one-on-one with the students. Classes are available where works of art are created and then shown in our February art exhibition, which is held annually. Do you believe that art has the power to change people’s lives? I believe that absolutely, and I think that it comes in a lot of different ways. I think it comes through the transcendent experience of actually seeing a master work of art. It’s not so easy for people to jump on a jitney; for a lot of our community, we are their only opportunity to engage in a live experience with masterful works of art. That is life changing. The opportunity for young people to meet and interact with professional artists is life changing. It gives people a notion that there are all different kinds of opportunities for what they might want to be when they grow up. Even if they’re not going to be artists, working in this way gives people skills in communication, creative problem-solving, and visual literacy, all the things that one needs in order to live the best possible, full life. You’re a powerhouse woman in the art world. What are your thoughts on women’s equality in the art world; are we getting closer to smashing that glass ceiling? I basically started my East Coast museum profession working for Marcia Tucker, the founder of the New Museum of Contemporary Art, and that was in the mid-1980s. At that time there were few female art museum directors — some, but not many. There’s an organization called the Association of Art Museum Directors. Marcia and a few of her colleagues would go to these meetings and put together a group of women art museum directors as a sort of sub group, an affinity group, that would meet and discuss certain issues that might be specific to women art museum directors. There was only a handful of them, they would talk about glass ceilings, the lack of equity in pay, and the increased difficulty for fundraising. Recently the women art museum directors’ affinity group dissolved itself at the AMD meetings because there are so many more of us now that our concerns are more global and less gender-specific. I would say that I am the product of a whole lot of hard work by my predecessors who mentored young women and helped them advance in their careers. For me, what I feel now in my position is that I need to pay that forward. The more young people I can mentor the better, and that includes both men and women. I would say that there is still a glass ceiling that is slowly being cracked.
