August 22, 2002 | Read Time: 7 minutes
When Judy L. Larson was taking art-history courses at the University of California at Los Angeles in the late 1970s, she remembers raising a question in class: Where are all the women artists? “Sure, there was Georgia O’Keeffe and Mary Cassatt, but after that there was — well, no one,” recalls Ms. Larson, who eventually earned a master’s in art history and a doctorate that focused on women’s studies, among other academic disciplines.
Ms. Larson doesn’t have to wonder where all the women artists are anymore. Next month she will take over as director of the National Museum of Women in the Arts, a Washington institution that exhibits the works of 800 female artists, including O’Keeffe and Cassatt.
But name-brand artists haven’t helped the museum overcome some recent problems. Ms. Larson will become the museum’s fourth director in the past five years. Three of the previous directors were administrators with no background in the arts, and the museum’s board of trustees thinks an art historian like Ms. Larson will be a better fit, says Margaret Robe, the museum’s publicist. “To be a great museum director,” says Ms. Larson, “you have to believe in art on a passionate level.”
But it will take more than passion for her to succeed. The museum, which has an $8.6-million budget and 35,000 members, has begun a $35-million drive to create an endowment. The drive is now in its “silent phase” and is collecting preliminary gifts before it is officially announced.
In the four years she has been in her current job, as head of the Art Museum of Western Virginia, in Roanoke, Ms. Larson helped increase annual giving by 20 percent, started the museum’s first annual fund, which has collected over $100,000 so far this year, and oversaw the purchase of $14-million in art. “I can’t think of too many museums, even in the big leagues, that have been able to do that,” she says.
In Roanoke, Ms. Larson’s exhibits attracted about 100,000 visitors annually, and one of her challenges in her new job will be to get tourists and others to pay more attention to the women’s museum. Only about 120,000 people visit annually, far fewer than many of the other galleries in the nation’s capital.
Ms. Larson is leaving the Virginia museum just as she was taking on her greatest challenge: raising funds for a new $30-million building. She has no plans to add to the National Museum of Women in the Arts. Instead, she will focus on attracting more girls and women, especially women who don’t live in affluent circumstances.
“I get a wonderful feeling from helping women improve their self-esteem through creativity and imagination,” she says. “It’s always interested me to work with disadvantaged women and see that they have access to improving their lives.”
In an interview, Ms. Larson spoke about her new position.
What is your favorite museum?
The National Museum of the American Indian in New York. I love the way they have interpreted objects with video, which really makes them come alive. You’re not just seeing them as art objects or that they’re beautiful, but that they function.
You have a Ph.D. Is that typical for a museum director?
Most museums want directors to have at least a master’s in the arts. But the one thing they don’t teach you at graduate school is management. A lot of us come into administrative positions having no background in what it takes to run a place, budget, or deal with personnel issues. I personally learned it all on the job.
The tourist economy has slowed in Washington, and the competition to attract museumgoers is tough. How will you overcome that?
Men and women want to know more about women artists. But sometimes we can get way too serious in art museums. Not everything has to be so highbrow, aiming for the intellectual crowd. If you do the best-quality program you can possibly do and don’t scrimp on getting the word out in clever, innovative ways, people are always looking for opportunities to see something fabulous. A lot of museums try to get on a steady cycle of blockbusters, but I don’t think that’s the way.
Is there more of an audience for a niche museum than there used to be?
Well, women are half the population — it’s a pretty big niche. But that’s always a question: Does this need to be a separate museum? This museum has taken the stand that it needs to be as inclusive as possible, to provide women the access that they just haven’t had in the 19th or 20th century. The measure of success for the women’s museum is whether more women are being included in group shows or thematic shows. Once people see the work of women artists and become familiar with their names, their styles, their issues, then they will fold into the mainstream.
What are some of the ways you have created buzz to generate traffic and help raise money?
In Roanoke we went into a partnership with a local billboard company for a small Norman Rockwell exhibit we were putting on. A lot of museum people might think that billboards are too populist, but that attitude has made museums seem elitist — people think you have to be educated or wealthy to visit, but that just isn’t the case. We started a program called “art venture,” a hands-on interactive exhibit with eight of our works of art, to try to bring in young families. That worked so well for us that we also initiated “family days” twice a year. When 100 people came to the first one, we thought that was great, but now we’re getting 1,200 people. It’s a fun thing, and it’s free. And we got a big sponsorship from McDonald’s to support it.
How have you overcome fund-raising problems?
As we were getting ready to celebrate our museum’s 50th anniversary last year, all of the state funding for nonstate agencies in Virginia was pulled. We lost about $350,000, and I have to raise $1.3-million just to cover my budget. We’re still kind of limping along. But you only turn 50 once, so I just started calling CEO’s and having them in for lunch and saying, “We need help this year.” We also had a big gala, and a lot of CEO’s that I had met and cultivated relationships with bought corporate tables at $5,000 apiece. We actually sold out, and there was a waiting list.
So how did you replace the $350,000 in state funds?
We leaned extra heavy on corporations and foundations, and cut back expenses as much as we possibly could. That sort of loss is devastating, and we didn’t get weaned off it gradually; it just all disappeared in one fell swoop. Some organizations went to the paper and the television and radio and anyone who would listen and boohooed and said, “This is terrible, I don’t know what we’re going to do, we’re letting go of half our staff.” Money came into those organizations in a little spurt at the beginning, but then it dropped off. If you’re getting ready for a capital campaign you need to look as dynamic and vibrant and growing and exciting as you can. I just refused to publicly say anything — even though at times I felt like saying, “Ah, this couldn’t be more difficult.”
ABOUT JUDY L. LARSON, INCOMING DIRECTOR OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF WOMEN IN THE ARTS
Education: Undergraduate and master’s degrees in art history from the University of California at Los Angeles, and a doctorate from Emory University in women’s studies, African-American studies, and Southern studies.
Previous employment: Since 1998 she has served as executive director of the Art Museum of Western Virginia, in Roanoke. Previously, she spent 13 years as curator of American art at Atlanta’s High Museum of Art.
Charitable affiliations: Has volunteered for Legacy International, a Bedford, Va., group that arranges for Americans to provide guidance to Russian entrepreneurs. Has also volunteered with Habitat for Humanity and Sisters of Tomorrow, an Atlanta organization that works with teenage mothers on child-rearing skills.
Hobbies: Growing roses, antiquing, opera.
