Columbians in the art world: on-the-job training or ivory tower?

“The art world” is somewhat of an abstract phrase. It evokes a vision of downtown artists surrounded by their trendy entourages. Jonathan Neil—a doctoral candidate in art history in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) and co-founder of the private curatorial firm Boyd Level—noted quite correctly that the art world is “sexy and romantic from the outside.” However, he was eager to discuss the complicated world lying behind the alluring image.

The art world hosts an entire cast of characters beyond the artists—from antiquities curators to contemporary art critics—who are responsible for bringing art from an artist’s studio to public view. Numerous current and former Columbians have taken on these jobs and this mission, and they have ultimately fared quite well in this rather glamorous professional quest.

CU alumni and affiliates are curators at numerous high profile art institutions—from New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art to Los Angeles’s Getty Museum. In particular, Columbia graduates and faculty hold an impressive number of prominent positions at New York City’s Museum of Modern Art: Barry Bergdoll, professor of 19th and 20th century architectural history, is the chief curator of architecture and design. His colleagues at MoMA include Leah Dickerman GSAS ’97, a curator of painting and sculpture, and Peter Galassi GSAS ’86, the director of photography.

Others, like Neil, operate in the contemporary art market as private curators, dealers, or gallery owners. Reflecting this variety of occupations, there exists a wide range of opinions and anecdotes from alumni about the relationship between a Columbia education and jobs in the art world.

However, for all the undergraduates who, due to the recent economic situation, have recently decided that staying in school for the next few years is a good idea, it may be useful to ask: do years of a specialized education in the humanities provide skills that are ultimately helpful and necessary in pursuing a career in the fine arts, specifically for curating or gallery work?

Kim Benzel, a GSAS Ph.D. candidate in art history and an associate curator of ancient Near Eastern art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, had an immediate answer to this question—absolutely. “You can’t do the job [of a curator] without the academic underpinnings of graduate work ... Museum work is not like interior decorating,” she said.

While the primary role of a curator is to keep art safe and secure, another important part of the job is conducting research and publishing scholarly works, according to Benzel. Without a strong graduate education, one cannot fulfill this aspect of curatorial work.

However, Benzel did add that there are other tasks a curator must complete that “nothing prepares you for” such as coordinating shows that demand borrowing dozens of objects from all over the world. For example, Benzel had to work with museums in Iran, Syria, Lebanon, and other countries with which the United States has little or no diplomatic relations for the Met’s recent “Beyond Babylon” exhibition. The organizational skills and meticulousness necessary to bring comprehensive and innovative shows to fruition are not taught in a Ph.D. program.

Those who work outside of academia and museums have different views on extensive higher education. Neil believes that his study at Columbia has been useful for placing today’s works in context and giving him “a deeper understanding” of the tradition in which an artist is working. However, Neil noted that “graduate studies [in fact] maintain a certain distance from the contemporary art scene.”

Esther Kim, a second-year art history Ph.D. student and former co-owner of a New York contemporary art gallery, agreed with Neil. She highlighted reluctance among academics to “acknowledge the art market beyond the scope of academia” even though this market has brought works to the public and allows them to be studied.

The testimonies provided by Kim and Neil are indicative of an observation made by many Columbia-affiliated curators—that there are palpable differences and distances between studying art history at a university and working with art in museums or galleries not associated with the ivory tower. Those who have gone beyond College Walk to work in the art world feel profound connections with the public and, in certain cases, the future of art itself.

Kim said that while running a gallery, she interacted with people who were “interested in changing the course of art itself.” She went on to describe this attitude as almost diametrically opposed to academic approaches to art, which often focus on the historical at the expense of the contemporary.

Though this kind of criticism of academia—that it is out of touch with the real world—was articulated in almost every interview, there was also a general consensus that studying art history in a formal academic environment like Columbia is an important and central step towards any number of the highly sought-after occupations in the art world.