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Home - Cover Stories
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Master Plan
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Meet the Joslyn Art
Museum’s new director, Jack Becker
by Sarah Baker Hansen
Jack Becker is taking his time.
The new director of the Joslyn Art Museum, who’s been an Omahan for a scant two months, is in the midst of what he calls his “90-day plan.”
He’ll get to know the city. Get to know the museum staff, donors and board members. He’ll listen and learn.
Then he’ll start coming up with the big ideas the museum expects him to bring to Omaha.
How’s it going?
“So far, so good,” Becker said.
There’s a lot riding on Becker. Joslyn board members say they’re hoping his fundraising skills and programming ideas will bring the Joslyn to a new level of notoriety. Local arts leaders and artists say they’re more than ready for Joslyn to deliver the type of programming and outreach they think the community deserves.
Will Becker’s Joslyn remain the same, with a focus on European and Western art, maintaining membership levels and sustaining current programming? Or, will he take a new direction, refocusing on contemporary art and supporting the city’s local artists? Those are two things that the chairman of Omaha’s Public Art Commission hopes to see.
“Changes don’t happen right away,” Becker said. “The goals I’ve always had — to strengthen the collection, build community partnerships, create that buzz — those are my same goals here.”
His accomplishments at Nashville’s Cheekwood Botanical Garden and Museum of Art, where he worked as both the museum director and the president and CEO, read like any museum’s wish list: he increased attendance and income, re-branded the museum, added several works of art to the permanent collection and completed a $2.7 million restoration campaign.
During his five-year tenure as CEO, Becker staged a citywide exhibition to celebrate Cheekwood’s 50th anniversary, featuring the work of glass artist Dale Chihuly (who has a large-scale installation at Joslyn) and introduced new programming targeting children, families and young professionals. He created partnerships with schools and young adult groups.
Not coincidentally, Joslyn Board of Governors Member Bryan Slone named most of Becker’s Cheekwood achievements as goals for the museum’s future.
Slone, who was on the search committee that hired Becker, said the group had three main reasons for choosing him: he has a passion for the Joslyn’s collection, he’s a great fundraiser with fiscal knowledge and he’s got a history of staging successful community outreach efforts.
“The fact that he’s taking a little time before he launches into new programming gives me even more confidence in his ability,” Slone said.
Becker said before he launches into anything, he wants to get to know Omaha and “learn about how it works here.”
He’s been hanging out into the evening at the museum every chance he has, interacting with people and introducing himself to patrons. He’s been spending time with the Joslyn’s collection, which he described as “a jewel,” learning its strengths and thinking about how to build upon that collection. He said he only plans to acquire the best of the best.
“I’m never going to settle for third-rate objects,” Becker said.
He thinks there’s a role for contemporary art in the Joslyn’s collection, and said two shows at the Joslyn in the past year — The Vogel Collection: Fifty works for Fifty States, which opened in September 2009, and The Human Touch: Selections from the RBC Wealth Management Collection, which opened in January 2010, are good examples of the kind of exhibits he’d like to stage.
As the “premier museum” in the region, Becker said the Joslyn has to serve the entire community: artists, schoolchildren and “the person looking for something to do on a Saturday.”
He said he’ll continue partnerships with the Omaha Public Schools, the University of Nebraska at Omaha and Creighton University, and grow new ones — this fall the Joslyn will partner with the Kent Bellows Foundation for a show of the late artist’s work. Working with regionally important artists such as Bellows, Jun Kaneko and Steve Joy, as the Joslyn has in the past, is another of Becker’s broad goals.
Larry Ferguson, chairman of the Omaha Public Arts Commission and a recognized photographer, said Joslyn must dive headfirst into the city’s contemporary art scene.
“We need to see that the Joslyn has the ability to move into this century,” he said.
Joslyn is entering a new era after the abrupt departure of Klaus Kertess, who staged the cutting-edge, contemporary show Fabulism at Joslyn in 2004. The most recent departure is that of former director Brooks Joyner, who during his eight-year tenure steered the museum through a major financial crisis and spearheaded the $10 million overhaul of the sculpture garden.
Ferguson had a virtual laundry list of areas where he thinks the Joslyn could improve. It could emulate the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, he said, and reach out to the city’s young people with events featuring young local artists and live music (which Joslyn’s new “Late ’Til 8” series seems to aim for this summer). It could emulate the Bemis Underground and incorporate local artists into the mix of regular exhibitions. It could reach out beyond internationally known artists like Kaneko and Joy to locally recognized artists like Therman Statom and Keith Jacobshagen, he said, who are well known and choose to make Nebraska their home. It could improve its online presence and more completely embrace social networking sites like Facebook.
Ferguson said the young art crowd in their 20s and 30s will be the big supporters of the arts in the next 30 years.
“The Joslyn is behind,” he said. “They really need to cater to this audience in a big, visible way.”
Bemis Center Director Mark Masuoka said the role of an art museum in Omaha should be as a cultural beacon for the community.
“For many museums, the challenge has been the steady shift away from being cultural institutions to the playground of the powerful and privileged,” he said. “As a result, some museums have compromised and marginalized their programs and collections.”
Masuoka said for museums to survive in the new economy, they must regain understanding of what makes them culturally and socially relevant and focus on the needs of the art community instead of cultivating new members.
“What does the Omaha community need?” Masuoka asked. “All of the above plus a museum that is not focused on the bottom line. A museum that is also paying attention to the front line.”
During his first two months in Omaha, Becker said he could feel the city’s energy, its creativity and the sense of possibility. He said he wants Joslyn to be a part of this community.
“It’s what I did in Nashville,” Becker said. “I know there’s an art community here — I’ve gotten to know some of the people already. I want to find the opportunities to bring the collection and the museum alive.”
Visit joslyn.org to learn about current exhibitions, educational outreach, the Young Art Patrons group, and to keep tabs on special events like the Late ’Til 8 series, continuing each Thursday through summer.
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