Conversations
Karen Brosius, Executive Director of the Columbia Museum of Art
MidlandsBiz:
What is your educational and professional background?
Karen Brosius:
After attaining a Masters in Music History, I started my career at the Morgan Library & Museum located at 36th Street and Madison Avenue in Manhattan. Known for its world-renowned collection of autographed manuscripts and rare books (it has more Gutenberg Bibles than anywhere), as well as one of the finest collections of music manuscripts and musicians' letters in the country, the Morgan is a rare jewel and was a great place to get my feet wet in the museum world. I worked directly alongside the curators, conservators, and educators and learned a great deal about all the various departments of a museum.
In 1982, a job opening came up at Philip Morris, the conglomerate that was actively expanding their arts and culture philanthropic support. In this new role, I worked with other museums as well as dance and theater companies to promote modern and contemporary art at the highest level. With a focus on local communities where the company had employees and business operations, we funded landmark exhibitions and retrospectives of important work and influential artists. It was an exciting time and gave me the opportunity to work on between 25-30 exhibitions a year. Most museum directors, if they are lucky, will work on four or five major exhibitions a year within their own institutions.
Through this process, I was able to learn more about the mission and business of museums and make good connections with other museum directors all across the country.
MidlandsBiz:
Where were you born and raised? How did you get from New York to Columbia, SC?
Karen Brosius:
I was born and raised in the Finger Lakes region of New York State. My hometown is Geneva, NY, a beautiful college town where Hobart and William Smith University is located.
While in New York, I met and married Willson Powell, a South Carolinian. One year, as my husband and I were planning a trip to South Carolina to scout out future places in which to possibly retire, a friend of mine called and thought of me for an opening as the director at the newly built art museum in Columbia. During the trip, I managed to arrange a preliminary chat with Suzan Boyd, the chair of the search committee, and when offered the job as Executive Director, I gladly accepted. Suzan has a great passion for art, and more importantly, loves this art museum and the impact that it has on the community.
MidlandsBiz:
What are the strengths of this museum?
Karen Brosius:
We have a singular, unique standing in South Carolina, as the only museum in the state with an international art collection. Some museums act solely as arts centers, and some museums focus on particular styles of art while still putting on unique art exhibitions. Here in South Carolina, Charleston has an amazing collection of art focusing on the Lowcountry; Greenville concentrates primarily on Southern artists.
Other museums are true teaching museums with encyclopedic collections of art - Ancient, Asian, Renaissance, Baroque, Impressionism, Modern – and they also offer a cadre of changing exhibitions. The Columbia Museum of Art falls into this latter category. We consider ourselves a 'teaching museum' by providing a wealth of educational programs and classes to learn more about our collection and about art in general. We show a wide range of art from Ancient all the way to Modern and Contemporary, along with amazing exhibitions from major institutions or special collections. As such, we are the only museum with this broad scope in South Carolina.
By being located in the center of the state that is easy to get to, we can be of service and have an artistic tie to the entire state.
MidlandsBiz:
Compare running a business to running a museum.
Karen Brosius:
If you offer capital to a business, the business owner puts that money to use in whatever way they deem appropriate to attain a return on investment. Non-profits, on the other hand, are driven by donor intent. If a donor gives you money to build a new gallery, for example, you would have to park that "capital" in a special donor-restricted fund and its purpose would be restricted to build a new gallery.
MidlandsBiz:
What is your ownership structure?
Karen Brosius:
We are governed by two entities: one public, one private. In 1915, a Columbia non-profit was formed called the Columbia Art Association and incorporated in 1930 dedicated to bringing art and culture to Columbia. In 1949, the South Carolina legislature chartered an art museum for the state of South Carolina and on March 3, 1950, the museum opened its doors to the public. We have a 24-person board that comprises the Columbia Art Association that oversees the operations of the museum, such as the revenue and expenses. We also have a public side called the Columbia Museum of Art Commission. This side of our governance is comprised of five trustees approved by City Council whose job it is to manage the investments and the maintenance, preservation and exhibition of our art collection.
MidlandsBiz:
What is your title and job description at the museum? Are you a curator?
Karen Brosius:
I am the Executive Director of the museum, and I report directly to our board and act in a CEO capacity for the museum. We have two curators on staff who are responsible for the art on display and in the collection. A curator directly manages the galleries and decides what, how and where to display the works of art, developing the storyline of a museum through art. A curator often has a depth of expertise in a particular area of art. Our chief curator Todd Herman, for example, worked at the Cleveland Museum of Art as a research fellow and has a PHD in art history with a specialty in Italian art from the Baroque and Renaissance periods. We also have a second curator, Brian Lang, in charge of the decorative arts, more so the three-dimensional objects such as glass, furniture, sculpture etc.
MidlandsBiz:
What role do you see the Museum of Art playing in the local community?
Karen Brosius:
An art museum has its own intrinsic value in a community; it's a quiet place for reflection, a community meeting place, a source of beauty. We want this be Columbia's living room. The strategic question is how to expand on that intrinsic value, to create a ripple effect to broaden our mission, which is to inspire, educate, and enrich lives through art.
My job is to clearly articulate the vision and mission for the museum to potential donors and to encourage giving in the three areas that we best serve the community: education, exhibitions and programs. Through these three areas of focus, the museum has an impact on the local community in a civic and educational realm that goes far beyond a place to look at beautiful paintings and works of art.
There is widespread evidence that exposure and experience in study of the arts help the brain function at a higher cognitive and emotional level. As arts education in schools has been eviscerated, we can and do play an important role in this teaching our students.
The link between the arts, or more aptly, a vibrant and diverse arts community, and economic development is clearly proven. The City desired for the Columbia Museum of Art to be located on Main Street and to be a cultural anchor to bring people downtown. People want to be part of an energetic city. We are thrilled the Nickelodeon is going to be located on Main Street and will be one of our cultural neighbors.
MidlandsBiz:
Talk about the Turner to Cézanne exhibition. How do you measure the success of a large exhibition like this?
Karen Brosius:
We have to think about the viability of any particular exhibition and be reasonably confident that we can raise enough money through donor leadership support, membership, the gift shop, and the gate (admission fees) to cover the costs. That said, we try to look beyond a simple profit and loss statement for each exhibition. The best measure of success for Turner to Cezanne may just be the feeling of accomplishment for the museum and the city. The Turner to Cezanne exhibition was a great win for the state both culturally and economically. South Carolina had never hosted an exhibition of this stature before. These were unique works of art – French Impressionism mostly with many of the great artists of their day -- that had never travelled to America, let alone, Columbia. We can do it! We came out of the whole experience charged up about the endless possibilities for this city.
We are a very strong "drive and stay" location capable of attracting the lucrative cultural tourist market. These people are known for staying longer, staying in hotels, and eating at restaurants and spending more per visit than the average tourist. Sixty percent of the visitors to the exhibition came from outside Richland County. In total, we reached 46,000 people over its 12-week run. We had lines out the door. The comments we received from people were overwhelmingly positive. Those are all metrics that we are extremely proud of.
The show would never have happened without the support of two of our most dedicated members, Joe and Melissa Blanchard (who is a museum board member), who immediately stepped up as sponsors of the exhibition.
We are always looking for exciting and dynamic mix of exhibitions that are unique to South Carolina. We had a great Chihuly glass exhibition, an Excavating Egypt exhibition that had real mummies from Egypt and was our second biggest success in terms of gate with 33,000 visitors. We had a photography exhibition by Ansel Adams, and a recent exhibition on contemporary African American art, the biggest in a decade. We are proud of all of our exhibitions.
MidlandsBiz:
Do you have other exhibitions in the pipeline?
Karen Brosius:
This fall, we are showing a national touring exhibition of Lesley Dill's work, a contemporary artist who lives in New York, and whose sculptural art is inspired by poetry, particularly by Emily Dickinson's work. And next spring, a major rock & roll photography exhibition is coming! It is the very first one to put photographers in the foreground during the rock and roll era from the 1950s to the present, and includes some of the world's most iconic images. Another of our goals is to do a blockbuster traveling show every two to three years, and t he exciting news is that we have something big coming up in the Fall of 2011 that will be announced in a month or two. In this business, you never live much in the present as planning keeps you thinking always about the future.
MidlandsBiz:
What are some challenges that you face at the museum?
Karen Brosius:
Parking is a problem. There is metered parking on Assembly and Main Streets and a couple of local parking lots, but other than that, it's pretty thin. A new parking lot is planned one block down the street at Taylor and Sumter that will have a walk-through to Main Street. We have valet parking for events, a convenience and service that people appreciate, but easy and close parking remains an obstacle to growing the museum in a significant way.
We are also challenged by enough galleries to display more of our collection. Our wonderful modern and contemporary collection (which is really popular particularly with our younger visitors) often has to go to the storage vault when we have other larger exhibitions on view. You might come to our museum during an exhibition and think our collection ends in 1940. The good news is that we have room to expand our gallery space in this current footprint. The challenge is finding the resources.
Our last challenge is financial. Because we have to keep our galleries at a constant temperature and level of humidity, even during a famously hot Columbia summer, our utility bill is around $20,000 a month. We are being proactive and looking to come up with innovative solutions to lower our costs. We applied for and received a federal grant of $213,000 to put solar panels on the roof, for example.
MidlandsBiz:
Are you looking for other ways to raise money at the museum?
Karen Brosius:
We have tremendous community support here in Columbia. Recently, a group of talented young leaders in the city who are members of the museum put together a campaign to raise enough money to buy a Dale Chihuly chandelier that is hanging in the entrance hall in the museum.
Our collector's circle is something that I wish more Columbians knew about. It is a group of individuals who pool their donations to the museum into a fund that goes towards an annual art acquisition for the museum. They work with the curators throughout the year to learn about art, take a trip to New York to visit dealers, collectors and galleries, and finish off by voting on which piece they want to buy as a group. It's a fabulous way to educate people about art and to get them more involved.
We recently started a legacy society this year for people who wish to leave the museum in their will or a percent of their estate.
Most important to our future, we are looking at the possibility of a capital campaign with the goal of increasing our endowment, which allows us to grow and thrive.
MidlandsBiz:
Are museums still viable in a world dominated by the internet?
Karen Brosius:
The web has opened up the Columbia Museum of Art to the world, not just Columbia. Some museums are now showing their works in 3-D and including a lot more video on their websites. The interesting point is that people don't substitute the internet for coming to the museum; in fact, the internet stimulates people to come and see the original works of art first-hand.
Museums have had to adjust to how their customers attain information. The days of having one expert on staff, of looking at the curator as the guru of all things "art" are long gone. We still remain a trusted authority, and people are taking hold of their own experiences. They are blogging, tweeting and Facebooking about their art experiences and making their own decisions about what they see. It's a remarkable democratization of the art experience.
