Politics may feel like the main story coming out of Washington, D.C. these days, but the city’s art remains as vibrant as ever. The Hirshhorn Museum has long raised the bar for culture in the nation’s capital and this year celebrated its 50th anniversary, as well as the 10th anniversary under celebrated director Melissa Chiu. This legacy institution continues to evolve, with efforts like Studio Hirshorn, a video series and YouTube channel designed to demystify the museum by taking viewers behind the scenes. Observer recently caught up with Chiu to hear about these efforts and discuss the museum’s past and future.
Now that the Hirshhorn Museum has celebrated its 50th anniversary, what is your view of its legacy? How has the institution’s ethos evolved over the years?
Hirshhorn Museum is grounded in a foundational gift from New Yorker Joseph H. Hirshhorn. The gift of his collection to the people of the United States allowed the Hirshhorn Museum to come into being fifty years ago. Mr. Hirshhorn demonstrated equal measures of knowledge and curiosity as a collector and treasured his friendships with artists. His passion shaped his life. The museum’s legacy is reflected in the spirit of our collection, which is partly related to the original collection and devoted to the work of living artists. The Hirshhorn opened in 1974 as the national museum of modern art. Fifty years on, we are still the nation’s museum of modern and contemporary art.
Mr. Hirshhorn had close relationships with Henry Moore, Willem de Kooning and many other artists whose works form the building blocks of our collection. More recent additions to the collection include Amoako Boafo, Loie Hollowell and Rashid Johnson, which stand alongside more historical works by John Singer Sargent, Georgia O’Keeffe and de Kooning. These are some of the constellations we created in the exhibition focused on our collecting history, which is currently on display. We also emphasize using technology to broaden access to the collection and the museum’s free public programs.
SEE ALSO: Katy Hessel Talks About Putting Women Artists Front and Center at Five Major Museums
Speaking of anniversaries, you’ve been with the museum for ten years now. What have you learned in that time?
By virtue of the Hirshhorn’s geography—we sit on and in the National Mall—the Hirshhorn has a front-row seat to American history and a role to play. Each day brings new lessons tied to the responsibility we have as the home of artists’ voices. We must be flexible in our thinking, our in-person and virtual outreach, and increasingly, the shape of our campus to support hundreds of artists including Laurie Anderson, Mark Bradford, Robert Irwin, Henry Moore and OSGEMEOS. And never underestimate the value of great wayfinding signage when presenting a full floor exhibition of Yayoi Kusama in the first showing of her infinity mirrored rooms back in 2017. Artists teach us to be flexible and forward-thinking!
What are some of your favorite shows that have been staged in your tenure?
That’s like picking a favorite child! I am proud to have started with a survey of Shirin Neshat’s work and to have connected our audience with work by artists such as Arthur Jafa, Yoko Ono and Nicholas Party during the pandemic.
What’s one accomplishment you’re the most proud of in your decade at the museum?
It’s ongoing, but the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to invite Hiroshi Sugimoto to reconsider the use of space and design in our Sculpture Garden and create a Sculpture Garden for the 21st Century. I’ve been involved for many years in an approval process and capital campaign, but I am pleased that it will open shortly.
You’ve just launched Studio Hirshhorn, a video series designed to take viewers behind the scenes from the earliest planning of an exhibition right up to the big reveal in the museum. What’s the thinking behind this initiative?
Studio Hirshhorn is special for several reasons. Firstly, the idea of a video series connecting viewers with artists as they plan their exhibitions came from an internal visioning program. The desire to share our work and demystify museum-making grew from our small, smart and focused team. We launched with nine shorts this summer that we made with artists Gustavo and Otavio Pandolfo, known as OSGEMEOS, in advance of their first U.S. museum survey opening this fall. We aimed to introduce this exhibition from their studio in the spirit of our public museum and in keeping with the transparency that contemporary audiences value. That is accessibility, too.
Accessibility has long been a goal of yours for the museum. What does accessibility mean to you?
We strive to be a resource for all, available on and off-site. The pandemic taught us many lessons. Within a week of our closure, we flipped our ethos to “Hirshhorn Inside Out” and streamed more than 100 real-time talks with artists. With Theaster Gates, I co-curated “Hirshhorn Artist Diarists” and received and shared almost 100 entries from artists in the studios who shared their worldviews. We initiated a partnership with the artist and thirteen other global museums to stream Arthur Jafa’s monumental “Love is The Message, The Message is Death,” a video artwork in our collection. We activated Yoko Ono’s “Wish Tree” virtually. We held performances by Laurie Anderson outside on our plaza and in our garden. We broadcast dozens of art-making videos to inspire our youngest art lovers. Accessibility is not just widening our front door on the National Mall (which Mr. Sugimoto has redesigned) but widening our digital front door. Artists are special. Our audiences are special. Accessibility is placing these two parties in conversation.
What advice would you offer to anyone stepping into a museum director’s role in 2024?
Listen to your audiences. Listen to artists.
