Lincoln Center Dialogue, Episode 2

(FEMALE ANNOUNCER) Lincoln Center Dialogue: the Challenges of Leadership I'm certainly trying to bring more voices of the Metropolitan forward. because of technology, and because of how our audience's ever-growing capacity single spokesperson for a museum is perhaps over. I think that museums have become a really important place They are the town squares. to invest and exciting to invest the Metropolitan Media Fund. From the David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln center, (REYNOLD LEVY) Welcome to the Lincoln Center Dialog. We're here at the David Rubenstein Atrium to explore, the challenges that topic in relationship in the museum world. Director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Michael Govan, Which will from now on in this The New York Times in 1984 wrote National Public Radio, August, 1995 - "Many U.S. art museums in deep in the museum world, in general, and affecting your >> You want the two-minute answer or the two-hour answer? Probably in New York the simple, the greatest factor is- is the very strong tourism in New York. museums have spent a lot of time We've got better at branding and marketing ourselves. There's a glamor factor. investment in modern and contemporary art has brought a luster to the art world that in the '50s, '60s, '70s. galleries a kind of a profile. the ongoing day-to-day The collections we present and the curiosity of our public. >> Michael, from the vantage amount of professionalization. that know how every position It was a business. for your audience. find sponsorships and organize And so those headlines- I know that LACMA after it closed its I think that museums have become a really important place They have a really important They are the town squares, sometimes. can go and see culture from around the world, sometimes, or modern occurred over the last two encountered by the visitor -foreign or domestic - What- what are the leading changes that you've worked things I've been encouraging over the last four years has been, bringing more innovation issues, like you know, To recognizing that our audience in multiple languages. in multiple languages. take for granted knowledge And of course, of transforming factor the advent of digital technology do things for our existing audience that we hadn't been able to do before, an ever-more international audience through our websites. And, I mean, nowadays, they come to the museum. >> Michael, have you had a comparable experience? When I got to LACMA, actually cut the advertising money - in social media. in two languages audience in Los Angeles. online for free. high-resolution images you can or on a t-shirt. So, I think there's this sense that, the free flow of to attract visitors. it wouldn't just be curators writing. So, we have gallery attendants So, the media age has given us But I think accessibility has to that I'm interested in because present world - and LA of course is a super contemporary city - and I think about that is- issue bit is flipping that timeline. So that instead of walking in on through art history, the door of the present. Because that's our present in the state of California and in California counties that look pretty severe. Has that had a major impact on LACMA and/or your colleagues >> You know, unlike the Met we That's pretty clear. All the new buildings, it's all private investment. And I think we do live in a time when our citizens have felt it necessary to invest and exciting complicated, complex Budgetarily, organizationally. You have lots of constituencies. People are really interested of leadership in that kind as you face leading the Met? And the questions you just asked before - you know, We- For the past 30 years, And with the financial markets in the state they're now in, about diversifying our revenue streams. that's the serious answer. And so I think time management is an ongoing challenge. >> You know, a lot of- It's funny, you have on your board a lot of business people decisions in the same way. your curators. and people from whom you It is a little bit sometimes more like being a politician executive. make that decision?" So, that's what requires getting people on the same page. And I think that's a huge amount equally, fundraising and making sure that we have financial stability. through ideas. - like a college president - where you have in one moment to be dealing with a corporate sponsor, who's written six books, it's quite an interesting, transition in every day. >> One of the, major characteristics of running And being a public figure. significant adjustment Becoming a public figure and You know, the transition between the curatorial work and then the you have to encounter - from trustees to press to politicians to visiting dignitaries. I would imagine, comfortable being in front of audiences of all kinds. been a fairly easy transition. I'm certainly trying to bring more voices of the Metropolitan forward. Recognizing that we live in an and because of how our audience's ever-growing capacity I think that the era of the single spokesperson You know, we have 140 curators All of whom are, you know, fascinating, eccentric and fun. I'm definitely trying to bring their voices forward of an institution like ours, in everything. So, you're sort of a full-time authority and to be in public. Sometimes you have to see it as taking the heat few years ago that in the middle of the financial crisis I made suspend LACMA's film program in Los Angeles.It caused a stir, ever seen in the city. of our wonderful programs. And it was film. Everybody wanted to get me fired. on this. And we can do something great. to get a meeting with any, you know, member- any studio head, all of a sudden, and wanted to give advice. And, we've turned that into, Because now our- is funding our film programs Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for them to build a cinema museum on the campus. where, actually it's a really- it's important to have a public position, carefully, effectively and of leadership is that you need to pay respect to the heritage history of your organizations. You live in contemporary terms with decisions that you may have reached three or four years ago, The gestation period of exhibits being what they are. And you sit in your office today planning what's going to happen, or five years out. exhibits and in- and in your cases, physical locations, So, I'd love to know what you're excited about. What can we look forward to, coming out of that museum over feasibility study of the whole building, looking at the major need to be undertaken, collections, thinking how we can make better use of our spaces, better use of circulation within So, and it's great fun playing It's seeing, "Oh wow, if you kind of remove that, Really planning a kind of a sequence, a capital program that would extend over the next 15 to 20 years. I mean, you've just- you've just finished this. But that's what's exciting >> And you've also announced Yes. The current plaza was designed With those very distinctive, long fountains in front of the those fountains have totally sum of money to rebuild them as they existed. the fountains. And if we replaced the fountains, what about rethinking the plaza. final design that has come out of this process is to- is to create, an entrance to the Metropolitan that is fully worthy of- of this great institution. A public plaza that is welcoming, friendly, not austere. a prison yard at the moment. I think, will really be a- really beautify the neighborhood and leave the institution. >> And before we turn to Michael about what is exciting him about developments- It's also been reported that, you're in the city that never sleeps. opening up the Met on Mondays. So, you can, buy a container any time and you can go to the I mean, in fact, And then it closed one day We've realized that, New York, we can open that wonderful things in public sculpture, that have been really extraordinary. But those of us in New York, you're looking forward to at LACMA. >> Well, no matter what we do, we can't really catch up There's, just to be clear, Our collections are fraction of the size. And there's no catching up You know, when it's- when you're you have to think differently. our responsibility is, is to be playful the ceremony of moving a 340 ton piece of granite from Riverside, California to the campus And I've tried to make the outdoors a big feature of LACMA. It was big news. you know, when Cleopatra's Needle was moved through the streets of New York, ceremony that the museum is. Also public sculpture. for me, the next thing Is that LA's always had an easier time with the present than in grasping that kind and, I think, in Europe and on people are just more having cultural history, art history, as- as part of your background to understand So, my biggest job is going to be- and there are very ambitious and maybe reconsider and rebuild the history museum as sort of a pre-1960s art museum. through two decades of massive expansion of cultural facilities in this country. and expansion - I think we may be at the end of that cycle of expansion, and so when we're thinking about the future, it's not so much about expanding building just to rebuild the new model for how people visit museums today. >> I think we have a question. (KARA BARNETT) Michael, you mentioned that we may be nearing the end in the States for cultural country, but as you look out global building boom in cultural in museums - what do you see that perhaps inspires you? institutions or areas of Or is there anything that really worries you in that building boom abroad? >> Well, Tom just got his cold that we're everywhere in the world at all times and working with museums everywhere. I mean, as I understand it there I just got- Mexico and all are great for communities. People have read headlines about museums being built in the Middle East with the support of the Louvre or the Guggenheim. And I think, in one sense it's very exciting because one does sense that the town square is a museum now. want to invest in your city, you start with a museum. of some kind - museum, true if you talk to people who are in these places of the world And there just aren't enough trained- I mean, we have the benefit of years And now that buildings are being present institutions but without So, I think there is a fear. And- and you see this, now where there are big cultural institutions being built and no programs. >> Yeah. I'd echo that. I think that we're seeing a boom of investment in museums and there's a- there's a shift We- You know, so much- audiences in Brazil, in India, in China, and elsewhere. And we have to become partners to a greater degree. And an institution like the Met, LACMA, you know, we- we have peer-to-peer relationships with museums conservators, engaging But I think that looking of energy. Our responsibility to work as we see these, of museums emerging. ah- your vision for the museum in the 21st century. Is there a place in the museum for the performing arts? >> Without any question. The Met has had, a concert theater, Rogers Auditorium. and a spoken word, program there. a new, head of that, of new innovation, out into the galleries of the museum. So, we're having a lot >> Yeah. In fact, I think in the future collaboration, between the performing arts, we've designed our spaces to accommodate performances in the museum. So, I- I think there space and back and forth I think what happens is, you know, the responsibilities of running big institutions does And I think that it takes work to reach out and to really force which is so exciting [laughter] >> That's right. >> The Metropolitan Museum of Art with a DJ in residence. if ever I've heard it. I think you've both given us a sense of, the spirit and the intelligence and the institutions in New York and Los Angeles. Very grateful for your being Center Dialog. Please join me in a warm round [applause] the Metropolatan Media Fund. ♪ music playing ♪