Smart Art
Impressionistic, neoclassical, modern. If you love art, a museum is the place to be. Susan Lubowsky Talbott can attest to that as newly appointed director of the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford.
“I’ve always been interested in art from my childhood,” she said. “I love working with it and studying it.”
Talbott, 59, a native of New York City, will be relocating to Hartford as she takes her position in early May.
Talbott graduated in 1970 with a degree in art from the Pratt Institute and started out as an art teacher in the inner-city New York schools. She brought art education to students that didn’t have other opportunities and she considers that experience the foundation for her museum work.
“I worked as a receptionist in the Pratt art gallery and I liked it so much I found that I wanted to continue in that field,” Talbott said. “I went back to Pratt for my master’s degree and by that time I was assistant director of their gallery.”
After receiving her master’s degree in 1975, Talbott taught courses in museology and art education at the State University of New York Brockport while acting as director of their art gallery. She was soon sought after by two branches of the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City.
Subsequent positions included director of the visual arts program of the National Endowment of the Arts from 1989 to 1992, executive director of the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art in North Carolina until 1998, director and CEO of the Des Moines Art Center until 2005, and her most recent position as director of Smithsonian Arts at the Smithsonian Institution in D.C.
“I missed working directly with art and artists in the museum environment,” Talbott said. “The Wadsworth is storied and important with an enviable collection.”
Talbott’s biggest challenge in past positions has been in fundraising and communicating the role of museums in communities.
“This message is going to be an important one,” Talbott said. “The Wadsworth plays a role in benefitting the community at large.”
Emily Boisvert is a Hartford Business Journal staff writer.
WBJ Web Partners
Most Recent
Most Recent
0 Comments