The change that has been pulsing through the country this year is reflected in the local art community, enveloping personnel and institutional direction as well as economics.
While many venues have begun scaling down, in response to lower endowment returns as well as to anticipated shrinking donor and grant support, other changes have been part of a natural ebb and flow. On the plus side, as purses tightened institutions and artists had solid, some excellent, programs in place, many of which reflected the tenor of a diverse and dynamic year. And, due to the long-range planning nature of art exhibitions and grants, we will likely enjoy a buffer period before programming fully reflects economic realities.
Today and next Wednesday I'll take a look at the local visual arts year.
Of most significance is the departure of Carnegie Museum of Art director Richard Armstrong to head the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York. As Carnegie curator of contemporary art from 1992 and director since 1996, Armstrong shaped the museum's contemporary direction while initiating renovations that highlight collection strengths.
The Three Rivers Arts Festival is being re-imagined after its executive director and associate director positions were eliminated by Carnegie Museums. Given interim shepherding by Andy Warhol Museum deputy director Colleen Russell Criste and associate curator for performance Ben Harrison, the festival is now under the wing of The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, which is busily organizing next summer's 50th anniversary edition.
Criste, an integral presence at The Warhol for a decade, has since resigned her post to become deputy director for external affairs at the International Center of Photography in New York City.
Also gone is Heather Pesanti, former Carnegie Museum of Art assistant curator of contemporary art, now curator at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, N.Y. Pesanti, who assisted with the 2008 Carnegie International, was a vivid presence in the community, visiting artists, teaching, and organizing exhibitions at the Mattress Factory and in Braddock in conjunction with Mayor John Fetterman and Deputy Mayor Jeb Feldman's goal to grow the arts in the depressed community.
Silver Eye Center for Photography lost long-time executive director Linda Benedict-Jones, but the doubly good news is that she was recruited by Carnegie Museum of Art to head its newly established curatorial department of photography.
Three losses that impact the arts community, if not specifically the visual arts, are those of Post-Gazette colleagues Christopher Rawson, Barry Paris and Jane Vranish, whose departures were part of a companywide buyout offer. With luck we'll continue to see their reports on theater, movie and dance, respectively, on PG pages, but not with the regularity we've heretofore enjoyed.
On the up side, The Andy Warhol Museum has appointed a bright and progressive contemporary art historian, Eric C. Shiner, as the first Milton Fine Curator of Art. And, after a lengthy search, Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art (headquartered in Loretto, Cambria County) seems to have found the perfect fit for executive director in G. Gary Moyer.
Art headlines, outside of pre-crash exorbitant auction numbers, included a judge's ruling to dismiss the Department of Justice's case against Steven Kurtz, artist and professor of visual studies at SUNY, Buffalo, who previously taught at Carnegie Mellon University. Federal Judge Richard J. Arcara deemed the government's indictment against Kurtz -- who was at first suspected of terrorist activity and eventually charged with wire fraud and mail fraud -- "insufficient on its face."
And, the run of the 2008 Carnegie International, "Life on Mars," was marred when a painting in the exhibition by Carnegie Prize winner Vija Celmins was heavily damaged, apparently by a security guard temp, in May.
Several laudable projects were completed in 2008:
• Filmmaker Kenneth Love produced "Samuel Rosenberg: Pittsburgh's Painter Laureate," a 47-minute documentary about the artist and educator who lived from 1896 to 1972 and was the subject of a recent retrospective at the Westmoreland Museum of American Art, Greensburg.
• "Pittsburgh Signs Project: 250 Signs of Western Pennsylvania," which began as an inventive Web project, was given print life by Carnegie Mellon University Press. PG book editor Bob Hoover wrote that the book "collects compelling photos by a wide range of shooters in 14 counties around Pittsburgh."
• The Latrobe Art Conservation Trust brought out a second edition of its commendable color-illustrated catalog of The Special Collection of the Greater Latrobe School District, "A Unique Vision of Art." Author Barbara Nakles has added works acquired since the 1996 first printing.
• Finally, architect and artist David Lewis published a color-illustrated, 48-page monograph on eclectic furniture-maker Rob Brandegee, "Brandegee: Usable Art."
The year ahead looks to be a tough one, just the kind that the arts best offer refuge from. Remember to give thanks when you attend a venue or program; they'll appreciate your support as much as you do them.
First Published: December 31, 2008, 10:00 a.m.
