Friday, September 03, 1999

Art Museum should 'reach out'

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New director discusses goals

BY OWEN FINDSEN
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Timothy Rub is the new director of the Cincinnati Art Museum.

        Cincinnati Art Museum needs to “come down off the hill to engage the city and, beyond it, the region at a time when both are in a period of significant change,” Timothy Rub, its new director, said Thursday.

        His assignment, according to chairman of the board John Beatty, is to turn the Eden Park museum from an inward organization to an outward organization that is more meaningful to the community.

        “We can make it happen and polish the place up and make the experience of the collection and the building something extraordinary that people will talk about time and time again,” the new director said.

        Mr. Rub, 47, will leave the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire before the end of the year to become the seventh director of one of the country's oldest visual art institutions. At Dartmouth, he turned a purely academic in stitution with a budget of $2.3 million into a lively, community-minded museum.

        The Enquirer toured the museum with the tall, soft-spoken Mr. Rub on Thursday, the day his appointment was formally announced, and asked him about the collec tion, its standing in the museum world and the city that will become his home.

Timothy Rub says he admires the "great depth" of the museum's collection. (Glenn Hartong photo) | ZOOM |

        Q: What do you mean by “come down the hill?”

A: Cincinnati is in the process of becoming a different place and developing a different identity in relation to the region as it grows and becomes more diverse and complex.

        The museum needs to reach out, to think about service not only to the city but the the entire region; to think about a much more complex demographic than existed even five or 10 years ago.

        Q: How can that be done?

A: You've got the goods. You have the assets. This is an institution of which the city should be proud; that people who live here and also

        in the region should know more about.

        Q: How do you do that?

A: In part, it is simply a matter of getting the word out by putting your best foot forward.

        Q: What was your first impression of the Art Museum?

A: I am coming from a relatively small institution, a museum that is virtually landlocked between other buildings.

        I took a look at this building in a park surrounded by a very beautiful landscape.

        The history of the museum is written in its buildings. The Cincinnati Art Museum has a wonderful, if somewhat unruly, set of buildings. There is a lot of potential here.

        Q: Are there parts of the museum collection that particularly impress you?

A: There is great depth to the collection. Good Gothic works are so rare, and you have some extraordinary works.

        Your 19th-century French paintings, the Corots and Courbets are outstanding and the English pictures are a singular glory. No other city has such riches in this area.

        Some of the Native-American objects are really great.

        Q: What do you like about Cincinnati?

A: I have long admired this city. When I finished graduate school (he has a master's in art history from New York University and a master's in business administration from Yale University), I said to my wife Cincin nati is one of the cities I would consider moving to.

        Cincinnati has some truly great art traditions I don't think are as well-known as they should be in the rest of the country.

        Q: Of all the museums searching for directors, including Cleveland and Detroit, where you were a candidate, what attracted you to this museum?

A: It is a truly great institution. It has a very promising future. That was the most compelling reason I agreed to accept the postion.

        Q: What areas of the collection do you expect to expand?

A: The collection needs to be shaped and built into new areas of growth. There's much to be done in developing the modern and contemporary collections.

        Q: What do you think about the state of the museum now?

A: The museum is in a good position in terms of finances, visitation and membership. There is a good schedule of exhibitions coming.

        Q: The museum started making changes before your appointment, including plans for two major gallery renovations. One will focus on Cincinnati's fine and decorative arts, the other on prints, drawings and photographs. What do you think about the plans?

        A: I think the decision to create Cincinnati galleries and to think about the collection in a more eclectic way, showing the city's unique legacy in decorative arts with the painters who have grown up in this city, is a good model to think about in the future presentation of collections.

        Q: What do you regret most about leaving New Hampshire?

A: We (his wife, Sally, is a graphic designer) just finished renovating an early 19th-century house on a wonderful piece of property. We're going to have to give up some of our life's labor to move here.

        Q: Do you expect to renovate an old house in Cincinnati?

A: I won't commit myself. There are some great neighborhoods and very good houses around.

        As for where we'll live, it's the city itself rather than the perimeter around it that we're interested in.

        Q: Other than museum activities, what do you do in your spare time?

A: We've got two school-age children, Peter, 13, and Katharine, who is 9. You know how I spend most of my spare time.

ABOUT THE MUSEUM
        • Founded: 1881.

        • Opened: 1886 in Eden Park atop Mount Adams.

        • Collection: Contains more than 100,000 objects, spanning 6,000 years of art history. Best known for 19th-century European and American paintings.

        • Membership: 12,000.

        • Attendance: 250,853 for the fiscal year ending Aug. 31, an increase of 9 percent over last year.

        • Annual operating budget: $8.2 million. Its budget has been balanced for the past three years.

       

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