New LACMA Chief Brings ‘Participatory’ Attitude to the Job

It’s no secret that Michael Shapiro, chief curator of the St. Louis Art Museum, will be the new director of the County Museum of Art. News that he was the preferred candidate leaked two weeks ago, and the museum announced his appointment on Wednesday. Shapiro will assume his new position in October, succeeding Earl A. (Rusty) Powell, who resigned in April after a 12-year tenure to direct the National Gallery of Art in Washington.

That much we know. But who is this curator who has shot from Midwestern obscurity to West Coast stardom?

In his view, Shapiro is part of a new generation of like-minded museum directors who attended college in the late ‘60s and ‘70s, including James Cuno of Harvard University’s Fogg Art Museum, Kathy Halbreich of the Walker Art Gallery in Minneapolis, Ned Rifkin of the High Museum in Atlanta and Glenn Lowry of the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto. What distinguishes these young directors from their predecessors is a “participatory style,” Shapiro said during an interview in the LACMA director’s office.

The style is actually an attitude, Shapiro said. Those who share it favor collaborative ventures among arts institutions, curatorial departments and individuals with complementary talents. The new directors advocate educational programs that reach out to new audiences. They also invite artists to make creative use of museum collections, and they work directly with artists on exhibitions, acquisitions and architectural projects.

In short, these administrators envision a future of community-conscious, education-oriented, user-friendly museums and they pour creative energy into making it a reality. Shapiro hasn’t yet moved to Los Angeles, but he already speaks of LACMA staff and supporters as “the museum family.” Appearing relaxed and unflappable after a grueling courtship with the museum, he talked about his professional development and his vision of LACMA’s future.

As a native New Yorker, Shapiro had access to art as a youngster, but he hadn’t settled on an art career until 1971, when he took a summer internship at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. “It was literally as if bells were ringing in my head when I was in the museum. I was only an assistant to the preparator, but I loved it,” Shapiro said.

The day after he graduated from Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y., he began working as a cataloguer for Joseph Hirshhorn’s collection, then based in Manhattan. It was an exacting job that led Shapiro to study the intricacies of bronze casting and other methods of art-making so that he could accurately describe the 6,000 objects that Hirshhorn had accumulated.

In the process of learning about bronzes, he visited a historic foundry and discovered a world in which unknown artisans cast sculptures that bear celebrated artists’ names. Intrigued by a collaborative process that was largely undocumented, he returned to it as a Harvard University graduate student. “It was a very non-Harvard topic,” Shapiro said, “but I’m really interested in things that are shared that way.” In 1980 he completed his dissertation on “The Development of American Bronze Foundries: 1850-1900.”

His dissertation and exhibitions he subsequently organized on casting and Western artist Frederic Remington’s work turned Shapiro into a Remington expert. But that distinction was merely the result of “following my curiosity” about a subject that had not been recorded, he said. During his eight-year tenure at the St. Louis Art Museum, he has concentrated on other subjects, such as contemporary German art and 19th-Century American artist George Caleb Bingham. “Some people think of me as a contemporary art person, some people think I’m a Remington person or a 19th-Century American art person. I think of myself as being open to art,” he said.

As to questions about having made a career move that outstrips his experience, Shapiro said, “I’m energized and excited about the big leap.”

At LACMA, a general art museum with collections ranging from Egyptian antiquities to post-modern paintings, Shapiro will have plenty of opportunities to pursue his interests. The scope of the collections seems appropriate to his vision, which he describes as “providing a way to view world culture through the eyes of the community.” But he plans nothing less than a gentle revolution.

Museums have largely failed to present a world view that allows visitors to fit exhibited objects into a larger context and relate them to their own lives, he said. “Museums display examples that are picked by people who have devoted their lives to them. The question is, once they are selected, how are they explained to someone who has no experience? We probably need a place in the entrance area of the museum that tells you where you are in the world, what you are able to see and how it relates to other areas and to your own experience,” he said.

Within the galleries Shapiro hopes to make use of familiar education devices, such as recorded tours, interactive video and panels of graphics and text that provide a context for artworks. In these days of recessionary budgets, he also advocates expanded use of the museum’s permanent collection as an educational tool. And in an era of multicultural consciousness, he hopes to fill gaps in the collection in such areas as Latin American and African-American art, which have particular resonance for Los Angeles’ ethnically diverse population.

Shapiro is also concerned about children’s museum experiences. “Our hope is to collaborate with other institutions in the area, and look at cultural resources of the entire region as a set of tools that could be included in a kind of curriculum for children,” he said.

As to the facilitation of his vision, “I’m talking about something more extreme than reinstalling galleries,” Shapiro said. “I’m talking about maybe establishing an educational center or an educational methodology that runs throughout the museum. The plan needs to develop, ferment and percolate, but we’re thinking of something very extensive.”

The key to all these changes is an expanded education department and a new working relationship between the education and curatorial departments, he said.

But what about the people who love traditional museums and fear that progress in the name of education will destroy the profound experience of simply encountering great works of art? “We’re not talking about compromising quality or the traditional values of museums. If anything, we will accelerate the search for the highest quality of art we can find. We will always recognize the dignity of the work of art,” Shapiro said.

“There really is not resistance to change,” said museum President Robert F. Maguire, who chaired the search committee that selected Shapiro. “There is a willingness. No, more than that, a sense of need that the place has to be changed in the ‘90s. There’s a lot of curiosity about what we can become.”

“The county supervisors, trustees, museum staff and curators all agree,” Shapiro said. “We need to bring the groups together in a series of meetings and push toward a plan. The plan is eminently fund-able, and it could be tremendously creative. I think it could regenerate the museum in an exciting way.”

Money is extremely tight these days, but both Maguire and Shapiro insisted that funds are available for creative programs that address the needs of the community. Collaborations with the J. Paul Getty Museum and entertainment industry giants such as Sony and Disney are possible, they said, and even the financially strapped county is open to ideas that focus on education.

“Los Angeles has a can-do attitude, even in the face of the recession and other difficulties,” Shapiro said. “I’m confident that once we begin to put the staff and friends of the museum in touch with each other and with advocates of this attitude, we can assume a leadership position.”

’ Some people think of me as a contemporary art person, some people think I’m a Remington person or a 19th-Century American art person. I think of myself as being open to art. ‘