The museum of modern art at Michigan State University has a new leader. Phillip Bahar is now the fourth director of the Broad Art Museum since it opened in 2012.
For WKAR’s weekly series Inside The Arts, Scott Pohl talks with Bahar about his background, and his hopes and plans for the future of the Broad.
Interview Highlights
On how he plans to lead the museum
I'm the director. The director has very specific roles, you know. Influence on what kind of programing we do is certainly part of it, but I'm not a curator at heart. That's not why I'm here. I'm here to curate the institution, and I let the programmers, the educators and the museum curators curate the programs, the exhibitions and the projects. So, I think it's a really nice kind of connection between, you know, a larger vision, and then letting people really do what is in their hearts and how they can bring their expertise to the museum and the university.
On his relationship with artists
I've spent my entire career wanting to support artists and helping them get their singular visions out to their publics. Sometimes those are well-established artists like Zaha Hadid, who designed the building and who we have, you know, the biggest collection in North America of. Sometimes they're young artists who have never had a museum exhibition, mid-career artists. Diana Al-Hadid, who we have on view right now with an exhibition unbecoming, you know, right in the middle of her career, but this was an opportunity to have a museum exhibition and an opportunity for us to really give her, you know, a scale that allows her to show the full array of her works.
On how the museums serves students
This is an art museum, really the only art museum right in this region. So, this is the art museum many students will experience first. It might be the only contemporary institution they've ever been to. It's the institution they can come to during the week when they're trying to decompress, when they're trying to get inspired, when they want to do homework in a quiet space. So, I'd say innovation is a big priority with artists.
Interview Transcript
Scott Pohl: The museum of modern art at Michigan State University has a new leader. Phillip Bahar is now the fourth director of the Broad Art Museum since it opened in 2012.
For WKAR’s weekly series Inside The Arts, I talked with Bahar about his background and his hopes and plans for the future of the Broad.
Philip Bahar, welcome to East Lansing.
Phillip Bahar: Thanks so much for having me. I look forward to getting to know the campus and the area more.
Pohl: One of the first things I wanted to learn about you is how you feel your particular training and background fit in here at the Broad Art Museum.
Bahar: So, you know, I think of the Broad as this remarkable combination at the intersection of art and ideas, and at civic engagement and innovation, and I think that comes through in our exhibitions and our programs, in our engagement with students. I have a long history working in art museums and cultural institutions, all of which really thought of, you know, ideas and art as a central place to create community.
So, I come from Chicago Humanities, which presents the Spring and Fall Festival of Ideas, about 100 programs a year, with artists, authors, journalists, policymakers, kind of other thinkers at the forefront of their field. And before that, I spent almost 20 years at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, both of which have a lot of similarities but some differences with the Broad.
I'd say both of those institutions really thought of themselves as town squares, where we can bring people together around art, where we can allow artists to really flourish and give them platforms that they might not normally have, to stretch their wings a little bit and to connect with audiences in new ways.
Pohl: A lot of your work with Chicago Humanities has revolved around events and visiting speakers, that sort of thing. Do you envision much of that as part of what you're planning to do here at the Broad?
Bahar: Well, you know, the Broad already has a lot of programs, some designed with and for students, some designed by faculty, some designed by Broad Art Museum staff. So, I imagine we’ll continue to explore where that programing might look like here. Just this last week, we had a fantastic performance of electronic and acoustic music that we partnered with the School of Music here at MSU on, and it filled the entire gallery with kind of this sonic resonance.
So, I think that's the other beauty of the Broad is being situated here on campus. There are a remarkable array of partners we can work with, each kind of at the top of their areas, and we can provide that opportunity to connect people with them.
Pohl: In Chicago, you were able to get big name celebrities like Margaret Atwood and Kate McKinnon. Are you working on bringing celebrities to the Broad?
Bahar: I'm not quite at the point where I'm deciding what our team might want to do, but certainly there are opportunities to bring in voices from all across the country or internationally. You know, our exhibition in the winter-spring semester is Jan Tichy, who's a Chicago artist who does remarkable photography installations. So, that'll be a voice from outside of this community coming in, but certainly there are opportunities to think about what that might look like.
Pohl: We're talking with the new director of the Broad Art Museum at MSU Phillip Bahar.
What have you been told by the university administration are your goals for this institution?
Bahar: We have a strategy for Arts MSU, which is all of the units here on campus that engage with art. You know, I'd say the priorities here at the Broad Art Museum are innovation and creativity through the lens of artists, really being a platform that allows artists to flourish. I think a big priority is how do we engage with our students?
You know, this is an art museum, really the only art museum right in this region. So, this is the art museum many students will experience first. It might be the only contemporary institution they've ever been to. It's the institution they can come to during the week when they're trying to decompress, when they're trying to get inspired, when they want to do homework in a quiet space. So, I'd say innovation is a big priority with artists.
I'd say student engagement is a big priority, and that also comes with how we partner with faculty. Right now, we have an exhibition on view at the Broad of African objects, and that's a partnership with the African and African American Studies Department that just turned 65 years this year. So, there are a lot of opportunities to engage in that way.
Pohl: Do you have personal goals that you're hoping will work within that framework of administrative goals?
Bahar: For me, I've spent my entire career wanting to support artists and helping them get their singular visions out to their publics. Sometimes those are well-established artists like Zaha Hadid, who designed the building and who we have, you know, the biggest collection in North America of. Sometimes they're young artists who have never had a museum exhibition, mid-career artists. Diana Al-Hadid, who we have on view right now with an exhibition unbecoming, you know, right in the middle of her career, but this was an opportunity to have a museum exhibition and an opportunity for us to really give her, you know, a scale that allows her to show the full array of her works.
Pohl: One last question that I wanted to ask you is the extent to which, if at all, you consider yourself to be a curator of what exhibitions will be brought here, as opposed to an administrator who will hand off curatorial tasks to the other staff members here.
Bahar: You know, I'm the director. The director has very specific roles, you know. Influence on what kind of programing we do is certainly part of it, but I'm not a curator at heart. That's not why I'm here. I'm here to curate the institution, and I let the programmers, the educators and the museum curators curate the programs, the exhibitions and the projects. So, I think it's a really nice kind of connection between, you know, a larger vision, and then letting people really do what is in their hearts and how they can bring their expertise to the museum and the university.
Pohl: Philip Bahar is the new director of the Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University. Thank you for your time. Good luck in this new position. We all wish you success.
Bahar: Thanks so much for the opportunity. I look forward to continuing the conversation.
Pohl: With Inside the Arts. I'm Scott Pohl.
The MSU Broad Art Museum is a financial supporter of WKAR.
UPCOMING ARTS EVENTS
The MSU College of Music presents several more performances of the American opera "The Grapes of Wrath," based on the John Steinbeck novel. That’s in the Fairchild Theatre Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m., and at 3 p.m. on Sunday.
The Williamston Theatre holiday season show opens on Friday at 7:30 p.m., and it’s something of a mashup of "A Christmas Carol" and Sherlock Holmes. "A Sherlock Christmas" imagines the legendary detective investigating the death of Ebenezer Scrooge. The show is recommended for ages 10 and up, and will run through December 21.
And, comic magician Justin Willman, fresh of his Netflix special "Magic Lover," will be at the Wharton Center. That will be Saturday at 7 p.m.
