(From July 3-9, 2007)

CENTER FOR CURATORIAL LEADERSHIP WILL TRAIN CURATORS TO BECOME MUSEUM DIRECTORS - NEW ORGANIZATION TO BEGIN JANUARY 2008 - Co-Founded by Agnes Gund, President Emerita, the Museum of Modern Art, and Elizabeth Easton, Former Chair, Department of European Painting, Brooklyn Museum (New York, NY, June 29)
Is there an upcoming crisis brewing in cultural leadership at fine art museums across the country? A new organization, the Center for Curatorial Leadership, contends that the most successful new museum directors of the future should be chosen from the ranks of today's curators. Co-founded by Agnes Gund, President Emerita of the Museum of Modern Art, and Elizabeth Easton, the former chair of the Department of European Painting at the Brooklyn Museum, the Center for Curatorial Leadership will train curators to assume leadership positions in museums. The initiative is to be funded by Agnes Gund for three years through December 2009. Philippe de Montebello, Director, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and many other museum directors from across the United States have pledged their time, enthusiasm and support.

"The Center for Curatorial Leadership is the realization of my longstanding desire to empower and nurture the curatorial profession," says Gund. "By basing this program in New York, we can capitalize on the city's great cultural resources. The program will also provide unparalleled access to the country's diverse museum community, including its most gifted directors, trustees and administrators. We hope to prepare the next generation of leaders for the ever-evolving museums of the 21st century."

"There is clearly a need for curators to take initiatives toward educating themselves in business and management skills," notes Easton, who received countless emails from curators feeling a sense of frustration about professional advancement during her term as president of the Association of Art Museum Curators from 2003 to 2006.

The Center for Curatorial Leadership (CCL), located in New York City, will identify within the curatorial ranks individuals who have the potential to become leaders and will help them become curators who not only take charge of the art in their care, but who are also capable of assuming the leadership responsibilities essential to directing a museum. "CCL is premised on the conviction that there need be no contradictions between these two sets of obligations - indeed, that there must not be," notes Easton.

The Advisory Committee includes distinguished museum directors and trustees including Agnes Gund, President Emerita, The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Philippe de Montebello, Director, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Timothy Potts, Director, Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth; Susana Torruela-Leval, Director Emerita, El Museo del Barrio; and Axel Rüger, Director, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam. Other cultural leaders on the Committee include the Rt. Hon. Lord Smith of Finsbury, former Secretary of Culture for the United Kingdom, now director of the Clore Leadership Programme, which helps train a new generation of leaders for the UK's cultural sector, and Darren Walker, Vice President, Foundation Initiatives, The Rockefeller Foundation.

At the founding of the Association of Art Museum Curators six years ago, Philippe de Montebello charged curators to consider as a high priority the crisis of the diminishing pool of future museum directors: "If we are to win the battle of the 'curator/director' over the 'administrator/director,' a profile with which increasingly boards of trustees are instinctively more comfortable, then it is essential to enlarge the pool of curators with the qualifications to be tomorrow's museum directors. It is essential, in order to reassure trustees that hiring curators as directors will not compromise the business-like running of a museum's affairs, in other words, their bottom line. Whether this is achieved through more exposure of curators to the functioning of the administration from within, or more schooling in business administration...it is absolutely critical that more should be done in broadening the professional development of curators."

CCL Program Overview
Ten fellows currently working in art museums at all levels of the curatorial profession will be chosen to participate in the program by a small committee of current and former museum directors. The selection of the fellows will be announced on October 1, 2007. Curators will learn management skills and benefit from mentoring by top-level administrators in the most important museums in America. Application forms will be due July 31, 2007. The costs of participation for the fellows will be fully funded.

Curriculum
Drawing upon the rich resources of museums and academic institutions in New York, the first class of fellows for the Center for Curatorial Leadership will begin on January 7, 2008, with a two-week intensive program combining mini academic courses in non-profit management, finance and budget analysis, fundraising, board development, cultural properties law, communications, conflict resolution and strategic long-range and short-term initiatives. The teachers will represent both the museum world and academia. This will be followed by a one-week residency at a major museum in the spring which will be different from each curator's home institution. The program will conclude with a final one-week of study in June 2008. A mentorship program will cover the overall six-month time span. However, the fellows will only need to take off a total of four weeks from their current positions.

Through the Center for Curatorial Leadership, curators will have direct contact and continuing exposure to the leadership of the major museums of the city and the rest of the country. In addition to the intensive study program, throughout the year CCL will hold executive leadership seminars where directors, trustees and curators will come together to share information about the most important issues facing the museum world.

Certificate
The Center for Curatorial Leadership will offer a certificate upon completion of the program. In addition, CCL will act as an unofficial clearinghouse and resource for directorial positions in the future.

The Center for Curatorial Leadership will be funded by Agnes Gund for three years though December, 2009. CCL will fund the cost of tuition, travel, room and board for the fellows. Additional information can be found on www.curatorialleadership.org


Registration is available now for the 2007 AASLH Annual Meeting, to be held in Atlanta, GA from September 5-8, 2007. If you register online by July 20th, you can save up to $75 on the registration fee. For all of the details, visit www.aaslh.org or call Gina Sawyer at 615-320-3203.

Possible donation(s): A woman in Asheville recently contacted State Historic Sites with a list of artifacts she'd like to donate. Any museum that might be interested in accepting one or more items should please contact Martha Battle Jackson (Mailing Address: 4620 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27699-4620; Street; Address: 430 North Salisbury Street, Suite 1115, Raleigh, NC 27604; 919/733-3877; ext. 236; FAX: 919/733-9515; e-mail martha.jackson@ncmail.net)
for image(s) and further details. Here's the list:
Kettle; copper; hand-hammered (?); bought about 40 years ago in an antique shop by owner
School bell; hand-held; used by owner's grandfather in Boone area; has picture of his grandparents in front of a one-room schoolhouse; his mother (Ola Dotson) is also in picture; grandparents, Ennis Hagaman Dotson and Water Leroy Dotson, taught English and other topics. Mrs. Dotson lived to be 99. Mr. Dotson also used to make & repairs shoes; he used the shoe last.
Flat irons (2); strap handle; probably came from Maryland, but they're generic enough to use anywhere.
Desk; nice piece! Belonged to owner's father, Oliver Watson Godwin, Sr.
(1902-1971); helped put NC back on its feet during the Depression; FHA (Farm & Home Administration); worked with N&O Daniels; interesting construction; writing surface covered with Formica but I think that can be easily removed; desk appears to date to about 1875.
Blanket chest; bought circa 1967 at antique shop in Fayetteville; seems to have original lock; not sure about hinges but they could be original; some screws replaced; appears to have been hand-planed.
Coffee grinder; made by Enterprise Mfg. Co.; belonged to Dr. & Mrs. Richard Fulton Kieffer, Sr.; brought from MD when they moved to Asheville recently; no NC history but generic enough for display if needed; top broken
Candy dish (?); pressed glass; with lid; she also has a creamer & berry bowl if we're interested.
Bowl with gilded edge; mold marks evident
Relish dish, cut crystal, possibly early 19th century.
"Gone with the Wind" lamp; dates to about 1880-something.
Foot stool. Looks late Victorian
Shoe Last; iron; adult size & child size on one last.

Port Discover, Elizabeth City, has extended its hours for July and August (for the summer, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday-Saturday). "Slime Time" is the Make-It-Take-It project for July, and the Second Saturday Science program, appropriate for children kindergarten through fifth grade ages, is "Aging of Fish" -- offered at 9:30 and 11 a.m. (call 252-338-6117 for registration).

The Young Affiliates of the Mint (Charlotte, www.themintmuseums.org) are organizing an Attitudes gallery crawl in the South End -- the group is meeting at 6 p.m. on Friday, July 6 for a pre-party at the Southend Brewery, with shuttles available later for gallery visits. The Museum itself will be closed on July Fourth. A Target Third Thursday: Live Jazz! is scheduled for July 19th.

The N.C. Transportation Museum will hold its first annual Mystery at Spencer Shops Summer Day Camp, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., on July 26, 27 and 28. Visit the website or call 704-636-2889 for fee information and registration.

The Light Factory, Charlotte, will show the film "Road" at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, July 12 ($7 per person at the door).

The next Summer Breeze Concert at Newbold-White House, Hertford, is scheduled for Sunday, July 22 (5:30-6:30 p.m.) - bring chairs, snacks and drinks.

Numerous activities are planned at Tryon Palace, New Bern, for the July 4 celebration. The next performances of "Box & Cox: A One-Act British Farce" are set for July 7 and 21 at 11 a.m., Visitor Center Auditorium. "A Historical Punch & Judy Puppet Show" will be presented on July 14 and 28, 11 a.m., Carriage Bay of Stable Office. Free Friday Flicks for Kids are at 3 p.m., Visitor Center Auditorium, on July 6, 13, 20 and 27 (different films each date).

The Gregg Museum of Art & Design, N.C. State Univ., Raleigh, will open two new exhibitions on July 5; they will remain through August 3. One is an interpretation of five final projects from the last 12 years of the Master of Graphic Design program at NC State; the other is the Fourth Biennial BOOM Design Competition. A reception for the exhibitions will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. on Thursday, July 12th.