'El Museo' Director Sets Sights On New Gig
To view our videos, you need to
enable JavaScript. Learn how.
install Adobe Flash 9 or above. Install now.
Then come back here and refresh the page.
El Museo del Barrio has undergone some major changes since it was founded 40 years ago. And now it's getting ready for yet another big change. NY1's Stephanie Simon filed the following report.After seven years, El Museo del Barrio Director Julian Zugazagoitia announced last week he's leaving at the end of June to head the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri.
"So, I will work very, very carefully to learn from everyone in the staff where I am going and then articulate it to a vision that both the board, the staff, and the city as a whole can embrace and hopefully have the same results that we have been having here," Zugazagoitia said.
Zugazagoitia helped oversee not only the recent $35 million renovation of the museum but also a major transformation from a community art organization to a world class art museum. Visitorship has increased five fold and the budget doubled during his tenure.
"I think also the other element is that we have brought the rich of El Museo by making sure that every exhibition that we do is just as important for Latinos to enhance their perception and their notion of their heritage but also for non-Latinos, to share and partake with us in the joy and excitement of our culture," Zugazagoitia said.
But not everyone has been pleased. The museum was originally founded by Puerto Rican artists and activists in East Harlem to sustain and celebrate local Puerto Rican culture. As its mission expanded over the years to embrace art from all over the Americas, some felt it was too much "Museo" and not enough "El Barrio."
"If 40 years ago this institution was serving a very small group of people, and today in the last 10 years, we multiplied by five," Zugazagoitia said. "More people from El Barrio are being served, more of our out focus, of our output to education programs, to school programs, to senior living centers, are coming from El Museo. We go to them, they come to us so I think we've increased. Some people have that perception but we are more open and more welcoming than ever before."
The search for a successor has already begun. Zugazugoitia says the person who replaces him should possess a passion for Latino arts and culture in all its forms.