Fresh Prince

Steven Kern: “My challenge has been to arrange items from the permanent collection in a way they never have been.” MICHAEL DAVIS PHOTOS

Kern’s resume includes experience as curator of paintings at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Mass. and a 10-year stint as curator of European art at the San Diego Museum of Art. In 2006 he became director of the Benton Museum at the University of Connecticut. Thomas Bruhn, Ph.D., of the Benton Museum had only nice things to say in a press release announcing Kern’s departure for Syracuse. Bruhn praised Kern’s involvement with human rights issues and added that he “brought to the Benton a new level of museum professionalism that affected all of the museum’s operations.”

While he intends to settle in Sedgwick with his wife Josephine, Kern is still living in a hotel room while tending to his new job.

After thanking those assembled at the reception for braving a cloudburst, Kern described himself. “I am a populist,” he asserted. He cited the example of John Cotton Dana, an early 20th-century librarian and museum director who strove to make places of learning more welcoming and accessible for the common man. Kern quoted others including contemporary painter Chuck Close and I.M. Pei (architect of the Everson) as a way to flesh out his ideals, then asked, “But how do I give more substance to these words than the balloons tied fluttering in the rain and the breeze outside?”

I spoke to Kern in his office at 401 Harrison St. Aug. 28 to seek answers to this poetic rhetorical question. 

q: How do you like Syracuse so far? 

a: Summer is a wonderful time to get to know a place. It offers an opportunity to get out into the thick of things before September when all the schools are back in session. There’s time to have lengthier discussions and start working on something new. The reception was a fantastic event. It amazed me that in the middle of summer when you think nobody would be around there is still this critical mass of individuals who are curious to see the next step. 

q: After you familiarized yourself with the Everson’s collections and operations, what did you find? 

a: We’re still in fact-finding mode. The Everson has such an interesting history and such an interesting track record of significant contributions to the field—its buildings, its collections, its programs. There are almost 11,000 objects here, so there’s a lot left to see. 

My challenge has been to arrange items from the permanent collection in a way they never have been; to bring out works and juxtapose works that have not seen gallery light or haven’t been shown in the company of other artists in a long time; to take liberties in the gallery that will generate discussion. 

The art in the sculpture court in the main atrium at the entrance has been on view for almost forever. Many of those works will be removed from the floor and put into galleries. This will enable people to look at the art differently. It puts {the works} into a context with less encumbrance. The court, with its staircase and the skylights and the light going through, is one of the most dynamic pieces of architecture in Syracuse. It is one of the most important pieces of museum architecture in the United States. 

We will remove {pieces} from this bombardment of visual stimuli and make full use of the white boxes that we’ve got upstairs in our collection galleries. I’m really looking forward to having the Morris Lewis from the court and the Helen Frankenthaler from this wing put into a gallery that allows them to share space with Dan Christensen and Jules Olitski and other artists they were working with. Have the Al Held with Sol Lewitt or some of the other artists working in his mode in the 1980s. So, I’m really excited to see what’s going to happen—fresh coats of paint, a little bit of elbow grease, and the museum experience for those who have been coming here regularly is going to be different. 

In the temporary shows that we’ve got coming in September there is an emphasis on alternative ways of thinking and approaching the history of art. Marie Antoinette: Styling the 18th-Century Superstar. The title right away makes people ask, “What are we going to be seeing here?” Whenever we have popular art and popular culture coming together with history, it makes for a very exciting moment. 

Changing direction: Steven Kern plans to work with Everson senior curator Debora Ryan to create a deeper experience for museum visitors, especially with traveling exhibitions.

These exhibitions were already in motion when I arrived. Most exhibitions are planned two to three years out; we’re looking now at 2010. In terms of the mark that I want to make it’s more about working with Deb {senior curator Debora Ryan} on permanent collections to create an environment that results in a deeper experience. 

Somebody reduced it when they asked me, “So, you want us to mix it up a little bit in the gallery?” Yeah, basically, that’s it. Don’t think in a linear fashion because our collection isn’t linear. You can go to the Met and see the entire history of art. Every era is represented because they’re a huge, distinguished institution, but that’s not what we’re about. We’re about these phenomenal clusters of islands. It makes for a very interesting and charming confluence of artwork and place, especially the artwork from the 1960s and 1970s being shown in a building from the 1960s and 1970s. 

q: How would you convince someone that the Everson and museums in general are not relics of a dusty past? 

a: A museum, regardless of its holdings, has a mission to discover the threads that exist throughout the history of design and culture, seeing them as they resurface in the visual arts and connecting the dots. Creating a context between the offbeat and the familiar brings those things together. Those who appreciate the strange or the challenging, the unknown—surprise is what they like—all of a sudden the traditional/boring is more exciting. Using present day and history to nourish each other makes for a very dynamic experience in the gallery. 

Museums are didactic places, but people learn in all kinds of ways. People are hardwired to respond to surprises, so let’s give them some surprises. Scratch the surface and nurture curiosity. Too often people are taught not to be curious, so curiosity has to be cultivated. Ultimately that is what keeps people coming back. 

q: Will viewers just pick up on the connections between works or will they be explained to them? 



a: Some people come in and they’ll just absorb or reject what’s around them because visual arts are just that: They’re visual. There will be different tools for people to understand what we are trying to do. It’s presumptuous to think that everyone understands right away. We all need guidance when we go into a new area. In a supermarket it’s nice to see a sign over a fruit you’ve never seen before. A favorable reaction in a museum requires a certain amount of familiarity, generosity with information, an ability to share ideas and an aptitude to make language accessible. People will be guided through some of our thoughts and perhaps they’ll ask questions and generate thoughts of their own. 

There are some places that show art exhibitions that don’t own anything. It’s called the Kunsthalle method, after the German word for “art center.” But a museum that collects, preserves, displays and interprets has a higher charge. It’s important to me as director to encourage people to make the most of the museum. Docent tours are available. There’s a new technology of audio tours with cell phones. It only goes back about a year and a half and the Everson is right there helping to lead the charge. It recognizes that most people have cell phones now. There are brochures available listing the phone number to call from home so it’s not exclusive. But if you have a rotary phone you are in trouble. 

q: Is there a planned direction for acquisitions and/or sales of work? 

a: You mean building the collection. At this point I don’t have a real plan for building the collection other than to say the museum will continue to build to strength. Many areas will continue to benefit from acquisitions through gifts, purchases and other means. 

Ceramics is one of them, especially in such a region that has such extraordinary output. It’s also a tradition that sort of transcends geography and time period so it’s easy to collect in that area. The same is true in color-field painting, later abstraction, significant paintings in American art. Other than ceramics, this is a museum of American art. 

What I am convinced of is the necessity of pushing the definition of “American.” Artistic inspiration doesn’t stop at borders. Those boundaries should be approached with the same healthy disrespect as the artistic movements themselves treated them. Given our location, there is some extremely important collecting to be done of Canadian artists working in the 1930s and 1940s. Do we exclude Jack Bush, who worked in New York, simply because he was born and raised in Canada? It’s an absurd notion. By the same token if you really look at where a person works how do we deal with John Singer Sargent, or Mary Cassatt, whose entire career as an artist was spent in France? Redefine what we term American. 

q: Can I ask about your favorite works of art in the collection? 

a: Don’t. 

q: What about these here in this office? 

a: These have been here since the last director. We’ve been busy taking care of the public side first. In fact, today someone was in measuring to get something new going on in here. It’s about time to give these a rest. 

What’s coming remains to be seen. What will remain on view are the drawings and models that were part of discussions about an addition to the building. They inspire me in terms of thinking of a master plan for the museum that is directly connected to the master plan of the Metropolitan Development Association for this part of downtown. They represent not a specific future but a direction. In terms of specifics, who knows where it will go? The museum is beautifully poised to take advantage of momentum and the materials and wherewithal to contribute to the future direction of the city.

Pei-off: The I.M. Pei-designed Everson Museum of Art is considered one of the architectural jewels of downtown Syracuse, and among art museums worldwide.