An Interview with Deborah Emont Scott
REVIEW magazine, July 2006
1,540 Words

How long have you been at the Nelson-Atkins Museum, and what positions have you held?

I came here as Associate Curator of—at the time we called it—20^th Century Art. Then, in 1998, as we were approaching the 21^st century, we changed [the department title] to Modern and Contemporary. Also in 1998, I was promoted to a new position called Chief Curator. The curators report to me, and I report to Marc [Wilson], the Director.

Could you tell us a little bit about your professional background prior to your work at the Nelson-Atkins?

I was trained as an Art Historian and my field of specialization is Modern and Contemporary Art. I did internships at the Saint Louis Art Museum, and I worked at the Allan Memorial Art Museum, and at the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art.

 Did you work as a curator at all of those museums?

Yes.

Do you have any influences of note: artists, writers, other curators?

A curator’s influences are often other curators who have come before them: those who had formed great collections, organized great exhibitions and wrote great catalogues. There was a curator when I was in Oberlin named Chloe Young who really was my mentor and taught me a lot about being a good curator. And then Richard Spear, who was the Director of the [Allen Memorial] museum at that time. […] Of course, Marc Wilson has been my mentor and director for over 20 years. I think he’s outstanding at what he does.

Previously, you have written for publications that highlight the Nelson-Atkins’s contemporary sculpture collection and served as a guest juror at the Kansas City Artist’s Coalition. Are there any side projects that you are currently working on?

This isn’t an aside, but we are putting out a new edition of the handbook for this museum, of our collection. The previous one, one person—Roger Ward, our Curator of European Painting and Sculpture—wrote the introduction and then introduced each collection. I though I’d take another approach. I’m doing the introduction, but I’ve asked each curator to introduce their collections. And I think they’re enjoying this opportunity to do that. So, it’s taking a bit more coordination—it’s easier if you just do it all yourself, I suppose. But I think this is a better way of doing it because each curator really knows their collection best. This should come out when the Bloc building opens.

Recently the individual art galleries began including paintings and sculptures and ceramics. There is a lot more integration of the different types of art.

The installations of the permanent collections. Yes.

When was that idea conceived?

I think two to three years ago when we began planning the reinstallation of these galleries—well, probably more about four or five. We really wanted to be able to present a snapshot of the culture. I think it’s safe to say that none of these works of art were made for a museum environment. […] So it’s nice to see them a little bit more in a context in which they would have originally been seen. [The display] is not a domestic interior, but I think it works because of the scale of our galleries and just being able to have the desk with the painting over it—that might just have actually been like that.

Will these types of exhibits alter the curatorial divisions in any way?

Its altered the way that the curators work a little bit because Catherine Futter (Curator of Decorative Arts) and Ian Kennedy (Curator of European Painting and Sculpture) had to really work together, whereas they would have worked independently. Catherine has had three projects: installing European painting, sculpture, and decorative arts; American painting, sculpture, and decorative arts; and Modern and Contemporary painting, sculpture, and decorative arts. So she’s working with Ian, Margi Conrads (Curator of American Painting and Sculpture), and Jan Schall (Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art).

Have you received any feedback from the curators as they work with more people?

I think it was a learning process because we are taking the team approach even further. We start off with an Educator and a Designer with the Curators. […] The Curators are the knowledge base for the works of art, and their jobs are to interpret and present. However, we know that the Educator has great expertise in interpretation, understanding our audience and working to communicate to diverse audiences. We also know that the Designer has expertise in presentation. They are all linked.

Throughout your career Kansas City has undergone tremendous improvements in the arts community. Could you talk a little bit about your main achievements?

Working on the development of the Kansas City Sculpture Park, and the coordination of the Shuttlecock Project. Working with Hall Family Foundation on the Modern Sculpture Initiative (that meant acquiring some great modern sculpture). […] I did exhibitions along the way: the Ursula von Rydingsvard, the “Horizon” series… and I brought special exhibitions here.

[The Horizon Series] was something that I came across that sounded really exciting because you were the first curator of 20^th century art…

There actually had been one, but there wasn’t an active program. […] I was the first curator to actually be buying contemporary art. And it feels as though I bought a lot of wonderful, wonderful things. And of course Marc Wilson has final say on all of the purchases. Someone pointed out that a lot of women artists came into the collection while I was curator. […] But, the Robert Rauschenberg, the 1,3,5,7,9,11 the big Sol Lewitt tower, that was one of the things I acquired. The Elizabeth Murray, Susan Rothenburg, Jennifer Bartlett, Anish Kapoor…

Did you have something particular in mind when you were developing and editing the contemporary art collection at that time?

I wanted to buy things that matter. […] The artists were generally more established and the jury was to some degree out already. Our acquisition dollars are so few and far between; I didn’t have a lot of opportunity to venture capital, to say, “let’s just give it a try.” I needed to be really judicious, and I think it worked. Our museum has a collection now with some works that are really masterpieces.

The addition of the Hallmark Photographic Collection, which is considered “one of the finest photographic collections in the country,” has surely changed the Nelson-Atkins museum. What are some of the changes that are, perhaps, less obvious to the public?

In January attendance spiked by 63%. Photography means so much to so many different people, all in so many different ways. People feel that it’s a very accessible medium. They all have cameras.  I think its something that everyone can relate to on some level or another. We had lots of people coming in. As you maybe saw, it’s [….] a very small exhibition. It’s just the tip of the iceberg.

How does the collection fit into the Nelson-Atkins’s mission?

We are very serious about audience development. And we are trying new strategies, which will become evident gradually as you see various new things happen, such as extended hours. We realize this is an opportunity to make it easier for people to come: after work, turn it into a date… whatever. How does this play into our mission? We want people to feel as though this is their Nelson-Atkins. And we’re free. Come in any time. Come in if you want to look at one picture and go home. Come in and look at one sculpture, have a cup of coffee and a cookie and go home. […] What’s great about the photography collection is it’s just another dimension to the museum. We were just given another entire department, another entire collection.

How does this collection compare to the Chinese collection?

 In quantity, I think that the Chinese collection is still larger. The Met, Boston, and Cleveland probably have more Chinese paintings then we do, but we have more important Chinese paintings then any of them. We were buying when they were not necessarily buying. You just can’t build this kind of collection today. And in the same way, Keith Davis—with the Hallmark collection—was building that collection before it was very popular to build a [photographic] collection. And the things he bought, you can’t do that now. There are many similarities in quality and depth.

Can we look forward to larger Chinese exhibitions in the future?

We certainly want to do that. It’s very labor intensive and expensive. Exhibitions are tricky to put together and we could do it just with our permanent collection. One of the problems is that Marc has so much knowledge about this collection, and he’s a little busy these days! He managed to do the reinstallation of the Buddhist sculpture […] and he did the new installation of Chinese paintings. […] We realize that we have a fabulous, fabulous collection, and we need to do more exhibitions of it, and we will.

One last question. Can you give us a hint as to the Contemporary gallery’s inaugural exhibition?

There are two shows. We expect a lot of people from out of town for these opening exhibitions. And it will show off Kansas City to the world.