Leading the New New Museum

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We’re opening on December 1 with an international sculpture exhibition called “Unmonumental.” We’ll also have specially commissioned artists’ projects and the “Museum as Hub” project, which is a global partnership that will fill the whole education floor.

Tell me a little more about the project. The New Museum has always been keen on collaborations; is “Museum as Hub” another example of that?

In the 21st century, collaboration is back, and it has been one of the things that I’ve pushed for since I arrived. It makes a lot of sense to work collaboratively on so many levels: to plan things together, to share resources. We already have a partnership to co-commission works and exhibit them with the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago and the Hammer in Los Angeles. Now we have this global partnership—around the idea of the museum as a hub—with five institutions from different continents. We’re collaboratively programming exhibition space and a Web site around global cultural issues. It’s been in development for two years and launches in the fall. It’s really exciting. It’s a signature project for a particular way of working on many other things. This interview comes to ARTINFO from the fall 2007 issue of Museums Magazine, where it was originally published under the title "Leading the New New Museum."