Brooklyn Museum Director Anne Pasternak: Interview

CULTURE

BROOKLYN MUSEUM’S ANNE PASTERNAK ON SHAKING UP THE ART WORLD

“The museum doesn’t have to just be a temple—it can be a forum where debate happens, where courageous conversations happen.”

PORTRAIT AND INTERVIEW

by TATIJANA SHOAN

HAIR AND MAKEUP

by DAVID TIBOLLA

for EXCLUSIVE ARTISTS MANAGEMENT

ALL ARTWORK

from BROOKLYN MUSEUM

For more than two decades, Anne Pasternak ran one of the globe’s top public art initiatives, Creative Time, turning it from a mom and pop operation with a little more than a quarter million-dollar budget, into a juggernaut non-profit art platform with nearly a $5 million operating budget. Her ability to understand and connect with artists, her ambitious vision of what art can do in the world, tripled by her ability to navigate through the political waters of New York City and beyond, make Anne a bona fide ass-kicking champion for the arts.   

In 2015, Anne Pasternak became the director of the Brooklyn Museum, making her the first woman to head one of the city’s encyclopedic museums. Her post at the Brooklyn Museum brings voracity and vision to an encyclopedic museum, but with an enormous sense of responsibility and understanding of the history of the institution, as well as a commitment to re-energizing a collection of hundreds of thousands of art works spanning 5,500 years of culture from around the globe. Below, the director answers AS IF’s five essential questions.

AS IF: Tell me how you’ve been approaching painting and sculpture at the Brooklyn Museum, how you’re integrating other forms of art in your programming.

Anne Pasternak: The museum serves many roles. It’s a place where we can come, be reflective, and be in awe of humankind’s extraordinary accomplishments and potential. The museum is also a place for learning about who we are and where we’ve come from. And it should, even must, be a place of difference, struggle and debate. I am more interested in how we connect the past and make it relevant to our visitors today. One of my interests as the director of Brooklyn Museum is to put a contemporary lens on all that we do. We have a responsibility to correct histories and tell stories that are true to our very diverse audiences, stories that are celebratory, or that may even be difficult. So, when I talk about art doing more, I think that the museum doesn’t have to just be a temple—it can be a forum where debate happens, where courageous conversations happen. A museum doesn’t have to be a quiet place of contemplation. It can, and should, be that and more.

Anne Pasternak portrait by Tatijana Shoan

At your old post, you implemented exciting projects that engaged communities and were not afraid to tackle big social and political issues. How are you bringing that vision to an encyclopedic museum, and how much does politics factor into your programming?

I am working to build on the legacy of my very visionary predecessor, Arnold Lehman. Arnold always said that the most important book for an American museum director to read is the U.S. Census. This was his rather poignant way of saying that we needed to serve our publics—all of our publics, not just the white and privileged. Thanks to his efforts, I would hazard to say that the Brooklyn Museum has the most diverse audience of any encyclopedic museum, and it’s not because of tourism—it’s because many of our local audiences see themselves, their histories, their cultures, and their issues here and are passionate about the Brooklyn Museum. One of the first things I did when I arrived at the museum two years ago was to hire a community organizer, somebody who could connect with local cultural organizations, community groups, and community leaders to hear about their work, learn about their issues, and invite them into the museum in ways that meaningfully connect their work with our own.

What does it mean to be the museum’s first female director in an era where we’re seeing a lot of female firsts?

I know symbolically what it means to other women who dream of having real leadership positions of power within the arts, or within other creative industries, so I take this very, very seriously. I also am very keenly aware that our cultural institutions reflect the biases of the larger world, and hardly a day goes by without seeing evidence of the fact that people do not trust women the way they do men.  

What has been the most exciting thing you’ve done here?

One of the things that’s been really exciting is seeing how the exhibition, We Wanted a Revolution: Black Radical Women 1965-85, has been embraced by so many young people. This is the first major museum show to put a spotlight on the extraordinary work of these artists during a seminal time period in American history; so many young people have never had an opportunity to see much work by these artists in person. They stay for hours. They watch every video. They read every bit of the ephemera. They are really looking, learning, and discussing.

Tom Sachs, Boombox Retrospective, 1999-2016. Installation at Brooklyn Museum. Photos by Jonathan Dorado

“So, when I talk about art doing more, I think that the museum doesn’t have to just be a temple—it can be a forum where debate happens, where courageous conversations happen.”

Stephen Powers, Coney Island is Still Dreamland (To a Seagull), 2015. Photo by Jonathan Dorado

There have been so many interesting projects and exhibitions at the museum since your arrival such as, Iggy Pop Life Class by Jeremy Deller. Tell us about that exhibit.

Jeremy told me that for 10 years he’s been dreaming about a project that he hadn’t been able to realize: a life drawing class with Iggy Pop as the model and subject. Iggy grew-up in a working class family outside of Detroit, and became an American icon through his amazing punk and rock music contributions as well as his gender-bending male sexuality at a time when people were pretty strict about conforming to gender binaries. Jeremy feels one of the best ways to study someone is to look at them deeply—drawing is a way to do that. They collaborated quite closely and I have to say Iggy was quite courageous. It’s not easy to be naked in front of strangers, and it’s even harder when you are older, physically and emotionally. He sat for long poses, was in very vulnerable positions, and the resulting imagery is quite extraordinary.

Art by Judy Chicago, "The Dinner Party," Photographed by Donald Woodman

Judy Chicago, The Dinner Party, 1974-79. Photo by Donald Woodman