Kaywin Feldman sat on stage at the Arts Club this month with moderator and Club member, Dana Tai Soon Burgess, and talked about her background and vision for the National Gallery of Art. Later, she answered questions from the 50 or so who paid to come and hear the "new" (three years) Gallery director.
Ms. Feldman started her career as a director at a museum when she was only 28, after being on staff of a Fresno, California museum for just a year.
Although 52 percent of museum directors today are women, she said there are still none "at the top except for me."
Her dad was in the U.S. Coast Guard and they moved around a bit. When Ms. Feldman was born in Boston, he was working on his Ph.D. Although she mentioned him several times in her talk, she scarcely made reference to her mother, a homemaker.
Ms. Feldman's "role model," was Mary Tyler Moore for, after all, who else was there to admire professionally in her growing up years?
She was unsure about a college major and it took several international trips before she found her "calling" on Crete and Knossos which led to her major in Greek and Roman architecture.
In her younger years, the Scrovegni Chapel by Giotto in Padua, Italy brought her to tears: "I cried, I was so moved" when she saw it, she said. "I was walking on air" to "experience the feeling of wonder. It's bigger than we are as human beings. We are part of the shared humanity."
She praised Andrew Mellon who started NGA with his fortune but who died before the Gallery opened in 1941. His son, Paul, took up his father's leadership role and worked towards making NGA "a living institution."
Now, NGA is diligently working to reassert "national" in its name and image and more closely match U.S. demographics. NGA's collection is made up overwhelmingly of male artists: 92 percent and of that percentage, 98 percent are white.
The new exhibition of historic and contemporary pieces by black artists (Afro-Atlantic Histories) is "joyful, celebratory, challenging, and difficult;" a history "of so many different people."
The audience interrupted her talk several times with applause.
The show does not focus explicitly on slavery, Ms. Feldman noted, but it's part of the story told on the walls. (Writer's note: The depth and scope of Histories is surprising; much more than I ever expected with 130 works from several continents spanning the 17th century to the present.)
Answering a question from an audience member (none of the questions which appeared pre-screened), Ms. Feldman said the East Building (which has been undergoing renovations since 2019) is set to open in July and then the West Building will close for renovations.
All the skylights in the East are being replaced, the first time since 1978, she said.
It's not been easy working as part of the federal government and having to wait for years for budgets to be approved.
As a director in her 20s, she relied a lot on instincts which with her experience, still help her today.
Museums are "moral institutions" which should strive "to do good things and do no harm."
Climate change was acknowledged: When it comes to heating and cooling buildings, art museums are "wasteful....I need to do more to reduce [our] carbon footprint." Staff travel contributes to climate change.
Because of Russia's attack on Ukraine, Ms. Feldman resigned her position at the Hermitage to some criticisms, she said. [She had been a member of the State Hermitage Museum International Advisory Board.]
She has European colleagues who are "very afraid we may no longer be able to work with Russian colleagues."
Like the Baltimore Museum of Art with an exhibit now up which was curated by museum guards, Ms. Feldman has been communicating with NGA's security guards, too, some of whom have worked at the Gallery for 30 to 40 years. She finds the conversations "challenging, joyful, exciting."
The NGA guards are "so proud that their story is being told now" as part of the African Dispora.
She talked about the Benin Bronzes and deaccessioning the only Benin piece at NGA. The process has taken 2.5 years and is "still in our basement." She feels "very strongly [these] works should be returned."
A British military officer involved in the Benin's "looting" only died in 1970, bringing the acts closer to home.
She said art can change lives with its transformative powers. It changed hers.
Dana Tai Soon Burgess is the Smithsonian's choreographer-in-residence.
patricialesli@gmail.com
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