Art Institute taps a James-come-lately

James Cuno, newly appointed as director and president of the Art Institute of Chicago, came late to the world of museums and art collecting.

Cuno, 52, didn’t hold a museum job until he was in his 30s and didn’t even study art history formally until he realized he didn’t have much of a future in theater.

But being a relative newcomer means Cuno still has a convert’s zeal. He sees the museum experience as almost religious and definitely good for you.

“It’s almost therapeutic in offering people a chance to step back from the political anxieties of the world and connect, mentally and emotionally, with the people of other places and other times,” he said.

“In an encyclopedic museum like the Art Institute, you can look at a Roman statue from 2,000 years ago, a Chinese pot from 5,000 years ago and a French painting from 200 years ago, and be moved by all of them -- as well as by something brand new and American.”

Cuno was recruited to take the helm in Chicago when director James Wood retires in September.

Wood, who took no part in the selection process, said he was highly pleased by the choice of Cuno, calling him “a leader in the American and international art museum community for the past decade.”

For the past year, Cuno has been director of the prestigious Courtauld Institute of Art in London. Nick Ferguson, chairman of that teaching and museum facility, said Cuno has done an excellent job at Courtauld.

“This appointment is a major and much deserved accolade,” he said.

Cuno acknowledged that there was awkwardness in leaving London after so short a tenure but said accepting the Chicago position meant obtaining his dream job.

One reason, he said, is the high quality of the museum’s permanent collection. The Art Institute’s assemblage of French Impressionist paintings is world famous, but Cuno also praised its South Asian sculpture, 20th century European and American works, architecture, fabrics and Old Master drawings.

Another reason, he said, is the active role the museum has always played in the cultural life of Chicago.

“The Art Institute has a very long investment in its relationship to the public,” Cuno said. “It involves educational efforts, special exhibitions, publishing and many other factors.”

Surprisingly, for someone who has spent his entire career elsewhere, Cuno claims a Midwestern identity himself. The son of a career Air Force officer, he was born in St. Louis and spent his early years in Belleville, Ill.

While a history major at Willamette University in Salem, Ore., Cuno fell in love with Europe and began a habit of yearly visits there, which led to a lot of museum-hopping. But he didn’t consider a career in museum work until after a number of years in experimental theater in San Francisco. Eventually, after realizing he was making more money as a theater janitor than as a performer, he decided to go to graduate school in art history. He received his master’s degree from the University of Oregon and his doctorate from Harvard.

In 1986, Cuno became director of UCLA’s Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts. Three years later, he assumed a similar post at Dartmouth College and in 1991 was chosen as director of Harvard’s art museums.