NEW CURATOR FOR SPEED MUSEUM; FIRST PUBLIC BOARD MEETING FOR SMITHSONIAN
Suzanne Weaver, associate curator of contemporary art at the Dallas Museum of Art, has been appointed the new curator of contemporary art at the Speed Art Museum, reports the Louisville Courier-Journal. Weaver fills a post left vacant for a year with the departure of curator Julien Robson for a new job in Pennsylvania. Weaver will join the staff in mid-January, said Charles L. Venable, the museum’s director. Before joining the Dallas museum, Weaver was a curatorial associate of contemporary art at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. She was editor in chief for Circa, a Texas journal of contemporary art, and exhibit coordinator for the Center for Research in Contemporary Art at the University of Texas. “She is an exceptionally good fit with the Speed’s ambitious plans for its contemporary art program,” Venable said, noting that the Speed plans to expand over the next few years in order to accommodate a growing collection of contemporary art.
In other news, Robin Pogrebin reports in the New York Times that the Smithsonian Institution held the first public board meeting in its 162-year history yesterday, as part of its new commitment to openness and accountability. Sitting on the stage of a 565-seat auditorium at the institution’s National Museum of Natural History, members of the governing body, or board of regents—including members of Congress—took questions from the audience present and online. The two-hour meeting revealed concerns about the Smithsonian’s shaky financial state and potentially endangered programs. The public, as well as Smithsonian staff members, had the opportunity to ask whatever they wanted about the organization’s operations and direction. Although billed as an open board meeting, Pogrebin writes that the session seemed more like a chance for the regents to hear from the public than for the public to observe the regents at work. “Why did you not all resign?” was the first question, submitted on a card by an audience member. It referred to the board’s decision to stay on after revelations about the lavish expense-account spending of Lawrence M. Small, the Smithsonian’s former secretary, or chief executive, who resigned in March 2007. Roger W. Sant, chairman of the Smithsonian’s executive committee, replied that the regents had asked themselves, “Do we resign, or do we roll up our sleeves? We chose the latter.”
