The New Guard

In the first two weeks of January 2008, an unprecedented transfer of power will take place in the Twin Cities arts community. During that time, the new director of the Walker Art Center, Olga Viso, and the new director and president of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Kaywin Feldman, will both report for duty, ushering in a new era of leadership for our two most prestigious art institutions.

Viso and Feldman are not the only newcomers on the scene. In the past six months, the Ordway has sworn in a new president, Patricia Mitchell; the Children’s Theatre Company has appointed a new managing director, Gabriella Calicchio; The Museum of Russian Art has recruited former state auditor Judi Dutcher as its new president; The Loft Literary Center has hired a new executive director, Jocelyn Hale—and in February, the Minnesota Orchestra will welcome its new president, Michael Henson.

These names may not be familiar yet, but they nevertheless represent the new guard of leadership in the local arts community. Never in the history of our metropolis have so many top posts in the arts changed hands. By virtue of their positions alone, all will become major players in the cultural life of the Twin Cities—and their collective impact will be impossible to ignore. They will, after all, be responsible for sustaining and extending what has become one of the nation’s great civic success stories—our beloved and burgeoning arts scene. And this historic change in leadership comes after an unprecedented period of investment in, and expansion of, the very institutions in flux. Fortunately, this also may be an opportune time to hand off the leadership baton.

Most fortuitous of all may be that Olga Viso and Kaywin Feldman, two of the most dynamic arts executives in the country, have managed to land here at exactly the same time. Aside from the personal stamp each will inevitably impose on their respective institutions, Viso and Feldman are the same age (forty-one), they already know and like each other, and from the start both have said they will be looking for ways to work together.

“I think we have to collaborate,” says Viso. “The economics of the art industry are making it necessary, not just in Minneapolis but all over the country. It’s a new attitude in the field—a way to share efficiencies and expertise. I’m eager to understand where the opportunities lie, not just with the MIA but with other local museums and arts organizations as well. We all have different missions, so there’s no reason we can’t work with and help each other.”

This is huge. For almost a generation, the MIA and the Walker have kept their distance, largely because the MIA’s previous director, Evan Maurer, and the Walker’s outgoing director, Kathy Halbreich, were not exactly kindred spirits. When outgoing MIA director William Griswold came on board two years ago, however, he and Halbreich immediately began forging a strategic relationship between the two museums, starting in June of 2006 with the Walker loaning the MIA Franz Marc’s 1911 painting, The Large Blue Horses, which still hangs in the MIA’s Darwin and Geri Reedy Gallery.