Mentorship is a core value at the Colby Museum. With our internship program, student advisory board, and fellows, the Museum team is continually sharing knowledge and supporting professional development at all levels. This past year, Lunder Curator of American Art Beth Finch channeled her mentorship skills into the Association of Art Museum Curators’ Mentorship Program, where she was paired with mentee Whitney Tassie, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts in Salt Lake City, Utah. Below is Whitney’s reflection on their mentorship experience this past year. Read Beth’s post on the UMFA’s blog.
When I applied to the Association of Art Museum Curators’ Mentorship Program in 2015, I was looking ahead to a time of professional change. My institution, the Utah Museum of Fine Arts, would be closing for a year of renovations, followed by a reinstallation of the entire permanent collection, including the Museum’s growing modern and contemporary art collection, which I oversee. I was also four months pregnant with my first child but was unable to conceive of how that little detail (!) would affect my professional life, so I didn’t include it in my application.
Luckily, AAMC paired me with an ideal mentor: Beth Finch, the Lunder Curator of American Art at Colby College Museum of Art. For the next year, Beth and I spoke at least monthly, e-mailed regularly, and met in person twice. She was generous in sharing insights from her years at Colby, The Drawing Center, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and elsewhere. We discussed exhibition making at university art museums, book publishing, collection planning, collegial relationships, institutional strategic planning, writing processes, long-term career goals, and many other topics that occupy the lives of museum curators.
But Beth helped me most where I least expected it: finding a rhythm in my new role as a mom-curator. When Jane was born, I was shocked to find that my priorities shifted in an instant, and I’ve needed this whole year—and a lot of talk with Beth—to realize that my “readjustment” will be ongoing, that I will be perpetually renegotiating my priorities in search of an (unattainable) balance of working and mothering.
So far, this balancing act is the hardest thing I’ve ever attempted, but, with Beth’s guidance, I’ve been reenvisioning not only the Museum’s approach to modern and contemporary art but also my own priorities and how my dual roles as mother and curator intersect. I was relieved and reassured when Beth confirmed that Jane should be my top priority and that I am not shortchanging my job or career ambitions. Instead, she pointed out, I am learning to be more efficient, focused, and decisive. Beyond that, she encouraged me to be reflective, to accept change in my life, and to allow new challenges to inspire my work. Beth promised that out of this new challenge would come personal and professional growth. This shift in thinking was hard at first, but eventually I felt empowered rather than overwhelmed.
Perhaps it’s because we finally have a woman presidential candidate. Or maybe it’s because I have twice-daily brainstorming sessions while I pump breast milk. Or maybe it’s because I’m thinking about what it means to raise a little girl. Either way, I’m thinking a lot about women, the roles they play, and their place in history. Sexism is still part of the language and structure of the art world, and many institutions reflect this disparity in their male-heavy collections, but the cornerstones of the UMFA’s modern and contemporary collection are two masterpieces by women: Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Nets (1959) and Helen Frankenthaler’s Wizard (1963). Curious about this unique fact and encouraged by Beth, I dug a little deeper into the UMFA’s collection storage and was thrilled to identify a trove of exceptional work by women artists, a few well-known and celebrated but many underresearched and overlooked. Energized by the opportunity to provide new perspectives, I decided my 2017 reinstallation of the UMFA’s Phyllis Cannon Wattis Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art would be a curatorial corrective, an attempt to dismantle art history’s widely accepted patriarchal framework by underscoring the value of work by women artists previously excluded from common art historical narratives. Early in my planning process, Beth helped organize a trip to Boston, where she and I met with curators at the Harvard Art Museums; the Rose Museum at Brandeis University; and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Discussing their career paths, their permanent collection installations, and their approaches to collection planning helped me identify potential problems, tactics, and opportunities for an exhibition of all women artists.
I don’t expect all of my future projects to be informed by the fact that I’m a mother. But this year, Beth has gently reminded me that all aspects of my experience, including that of being a woman, can enrich my work as a curator. Learning from her vision, values, and holistic approach to curating, writing, health, and living has been eye-opening and renewing. I am a better curator for it.