Finding a New Chief

In 1981 Seymour Slive, the Gieason Professor of Fine Arts, announced his plans to step down as director of Harvard's Fogg Art Museum, and the University organized a search committee to find a replacement.

The committee spent its first year sending out feelers to established curators and directors, but suffered an unexpected setback last spring, when President Bok abruptly cancelled plans for the Fogg's long-awaited new wing, citing a variety of financial considerations.

Bok reversed his decision weeks later, after Fogg supporters and Fine Arts professors expressed outrage and raised new funds, but the initial cancellation and the climate of uncertainty it bred complicated the committee's task.

Today, nearly two years and at least one turndown later, the committee is still at work. For the time being, John Rosenfield, Rockefeller Professor of Oriental Art, is serving as the museum's acting director, and Robert Rotner, the publisher of Harvard Magazine, is supervising financial affairs as acting associate director.

But both have agreed to step aside as soon as the committee finds a permanent director. Members of the committee are tight-lipped about their efforts, but members of the art community around the country point to a number of unusual obstacles they face.

Museum officials agree that today last spring's crisis is the least of the search's difficulties.

The controversy "couldn't have come at a worse time" during the search process, says David Mitten. Loeb Professor of Classical Art and Archaeology. "It was very damaging and disheartening." But Mitten believes the unhealthy repercussions have worn off, and many other prominent museum officials concur. Richard Oldenberg '54, the director of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, believes the events of last spring "haven't hurt the Fogg's reputation."

The Guggenheim's Messer, a member of the Fogg's visiting committee, believes that Bok's initial cancellation "was contrary to everyone's interests," he agrees it has not hampered the search committee's work in the long run.

"You know what the reputation of a museum is," concludes Evan Maurer, the director of the University of Michigan's art museum. "One incident doesn't alter it."

Museum officials say the Fogg's attractiveness as a place of employment may have lessened since last February. "It's much easier to step into a place where things are perceived to have been running smoothly," says one New York curator who asks to remain anonymous.

Allen Shostack, the director of the Yale Art Gallery, who turned down the Fogg post last year, refuses to discuss the reasons behind his decision.

But museum administrators around the country point to other factors besides last spring's events as possible obstacles in the Fogg's search. "It's hard to find a good person," says Suzannah Fabing, the former deputy director of the Fogg, who is about to become the curator for records at the National Callery in Washington, D. C. "The search committee set difficult criteria. They're looking for someone who can direct, teach, administrate and raise funds."

Adds Rosenfield: "I don't think it's possible for one person to do it." Indeed, Rosenfield predicts that the current division of director's responsibilities may become a prototype for future Fogg administrations.

Several major museums, including the Art Institute of Chicago and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, already organize their administrators similarly to the Fogg. The Met employs both a director--who oversees curatorial matters at the museum--and a president, who supervises its finances. The director and the president operate independently, says Robert Goldsmith, the museum's assistant to the president.

Goldsmith stresses the need for an official with the title of president to deal with museum contributiors and local officials. "You need someone with a rank and stature appropriate for the large scale fundraising activities," he says.

"One of the Fogg's problems is that it's a part of a larger university and has to compete for funds says Oldenberg. Rotner agrees, asserting. "With the new director should be an experienced administrator or there should be a high level administrator."

But Messer says it would be a mistake to duplicate the Met's plan permanently at the Fogg. "It is wrong to put the business person on top--you their subordinate, at least on paper, art to fund raising."

Messer also notes that the Fogg's curatorial system "adds a dimension of complication." Since many Fogg curators are also tenured faculty members. "It's more difficult to assert directorial authority," he says.

While Fabing says that in her experience the curators' independence never posed a problem, both she and Messer view the Fogg's curatorial system as a potentially undesirable feature of the director's job. At the Yale Art Gallery, Fabing notes, the fine arts faculty is separate from the curatorial staff.

Museum officials underscore the importance of finding a permanent director to replace the acting directors as quickly as possible. "It's a difficult position to be in," believes Oldenberg, who served as acting director of the Museum of Modern Art for six months before assuming the position permanently. "Projects have a long gestation period, and it becomes more and more difficult if you're not sure you'll be there to realize them Temporary arrangements raise problems."

John Howat '59, chairman of the Met's departments of American painting, shares Oldenberg's concern. "If you extend things too long, you loss the steam."

Rosenfield, who has excluded himself from consideration for the post, admits he has had to avoid planning far into the future as director. "Any museum has to work on long term plans, but what we're doing here has to be flexible."

Rotner agrees, "We try to leave major decision, open As official things come up, we decide two or three because they can't wait and we'll leave two or three for the new administration."