Q&A with James G. Leventhal, Executive Director at the Institute of Contemporary Art San José

During a recent call, I had the chance to catch up with James G. Leventhal, the newly appointed executive director of the Institute of Contemporary Art San José. Here are some excerpts from our conversation:

Adam Rozan: You’ve worked in the museum field in many different roles, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Contemporary Jewish Museum, MOAD, among other organizations. How have those varied experiences and very different experiences prepared you to run the new Institute of Contemporary art San José?

James G. Leventhal: Okay, well, that's a good question, I guess. Because I've just been doing this my entire life, my first job was at a Pizza Hut, but I worked as a paid teaching intern at the Baltimore Museum of Art. I went to NYU undergraduate for art history. While in school, I started working at galleries in SoHo. I worked as a registrar, primarily, and as an art handler and installer. It's also when I got to know many extraordinary people—Faith Ringgold, in her studio. My wife worked for Emma Amos. And probably the most memorable and impactful artist that I've ever met in my entire life Jaune Quick-to-See Smith. I got to know Beverly Buchanan, Hung Liu, and Miriam Shapiro, all now of Blessed memory. I got to have dinner with bell hooks and visited with Lucy Lippard.

I was a business manager for the following gallery. I also designed all of our promotional materials. Then I went back to graduate school, and then I started doing research at the Metropolitan, which eventually led to working in the development office. That had a significant technology component to it.

When I moved out here to California, it was like the internet had finally been invented, and then it was fun to get involved in social media. That's how you and I got to know each other. I spent a year or so on the Board of the Museum Computer Network. I was also on the Board of the WMA (Western Museums Association) for many years.

I got involved in fundraising and mid-level management financial matters, but also helped to inspire and spur the development of creative work in contemporary spaces. I worked at the Contemporary Jewish Museum for five years, and we worked on some incredible projects. I'm so proud of the work that we did during those years. And I think it's not unfair to say that I've helped with the turnaround of some organizations. So: organizational management.

I also draw at home pretty much all the time. Art is everything I do. It's why it's so wonderful to have this job. It's just about doing everything I love all the time; and sharing art with as many people as I can through systems, partnerships, and meaningful engagement with work that matters. And I hope that's what everybody takes away, because everybody matters.

Q: The museum field is ever-evolving, as are the past experiences of those in today’s leadership roles. What are the benefits and challenges of having a diverse resume of experience such as yours with your new role as the Institute’s executive director?

JGL: I might have detailed some of the benefits above. Namely, having a set of kinds of distributed experience and skills. But, to tell you the truth, I think one of the challenges is that our field is really about degrees and bona fides. It's about gatekeeping, and opportunities are limited.

A lot of what I have done is, in a way, undocumented; the work that I've done on the fly by way of helping curators, doing early research, or just having art be my greatest passion. Those kinds of things sometimes are hard to get on paper. While I think authorship is essential and that we list the names of curators, sponsors, and community voices, I can’t say that I’ve done the same for myself when included.?

On the other hand, I also think it's essential that people within the institutions can speak everybody's language. And that's one of the things that I think I bring to the table. I do have a terminal MBA degree. The work that I did in art history as a graduate student, I never quite finished that program. Though I studied with some of the best professors at NYU, I did not graduate with my degree in art history even though I'd entered the program early decision from high school, which was one of my earliest bragging rights. Educating others is a priority. See, you start overcompensating and trying to show off because you aren't formally a curator, and you don't have a Ph.D.

My hat is off to those who have successfully gone through so many years of research and demonstrated their success to a peer group. I've done that at a master's-level, but a Ph.D. is a whole other thing well enough about that. We can’t all be Helen Molesworth.

Q: You served as the interim director of the Museum of African Diaspora in San Francisco in your last role. Ultimately you decided not to run the museum as its permanent director. Why?? ??

JGL: I wanted to make sure that the organization had Black leadership. And that was important to me, and I thought that was my mandate there. That had to do with the Board, that had to do with the philanthropic base, and in the long run, that had to do with the executive leadership. I was working closely with Monetta. We ran a national search. She was the most qualified candidate. She's hit it out of the park. I was pleased to leave when I did. The pandemic was coming on, and I wanted to take my salary out of the mix for the organization's long-term health. We all did such good work together, and it's just getting better and better there.

Q: What’s the role of a contemporary art museum in 2022?

JGL: We have a mandate to create civic space. It's severely lacking in every corner of our world right now, not just because of the pandemic. It's also because of the fashion of how we live, whether distributed in our suburban homes or elevated in the urban environment. We’re so often now ordering our food from home in either case. Again, this isn't just because of the pandemic; it was coming on.

In terms of this new job and being in San José, I'm particularly interested in some of the challenges and problems that come along with both of those issues. San Jose has been built up and making a suburban approach to life: low and distributed; individual homes, neighborhoods; and often: gates, to be honest. Very Octavia Butler. And now, with all the development, it's going upward.

And you know that the nature of a lot of the way those people live is about mobile-based navigation of their living world, right? You know, what they're doing is ordering from their phones, eating briefly, and moving on.? It's the GrubHubdemic. Logging into their 24-hour gymnasiums on the same device. How do you get people to slow down and connect? And you also have to be able to adapt to the nature of today's attention.

I don't think that these are new problems. Because, if you think about medieval art, most of it was about storytelling to an overworked illiterate audience, right? We are so much more literate in today's world. But, at the same time, we are absorbing information in a way that panders to our most base selves.

These are the fundamental issues that art needs to be addressing today. We are, in a way, the new church. We need to be thinking about indigenous curatorial practices. We have power.

I don't think it matters whether you're a contemporary art museum, collecting, or otherwise. It's a mandate for our entire industry. Our society is fraying globally, and its most important issues need to be addressed locally. And art and culture have taken on an almost religious stature in our community. Not debatable: I mean, “Hi,” Jay-Z?

So it's also vital that we keep an eye on popular culture because it is culture. And I think that's important as well. I think it's about creating a place for dialogue and connecting. I like the word Institute. I think that's a particular way of looking at it.

Q: You are known for your exuberance; how do you maintain your energy?

JGL: People. What can I tell you? It's about helping to make other people happy. I'm very dedicated to framing things in terms of a kind of servant leadership; and truly getting satisfaction out of knowing that you made the world a better place, that you've left it better than you found it.

My father just died. We were standing at his graveside. You could see his four children, his seven grandchildren, his loving girlfriend. We were all surrounding the site where he would be lying with his late wife. He left the world better than he found it. And I'll tell you something, at that moment I felt energized. You have to be Zen about it all. Be empty. Be water. Mildred Howard read me a poem. I’ll try to find it. It says a lot about how we need to carry on, individually and collectively.

I’m enthused by writings like The Chalice & The Blade that try to unlock the secrets of our deep pasts to inform the collective potential of our now and near futures.

AT THE END

By Quincy Troupe

of every sentence

a period

occupying space

as molecular energy

a point to make

another point

in space the end is

the beginning

of another end

recurring cycles

occupying space

& death being

only a period at the

end of a sentence

earth

a point

that starts

another point

& at the end

there is space

to begin again

always space

at the end to

begin again

Q: James, I’m sorry to hear about your father, and I appreciate you sharing these thoughts with me.

JGL: Of course.?

Q: To say the Pandemic and this period then has been challenging to you personally and professionally is an understatement. What lessons are you taking from the past two years of the pandemic as you move into your role?

JGL: Well, I think we still really don't know what we're doing for one thing. And I think that's happening at every level of these organizations, our world even; that's a big challenge.

How are we presenting programs effectively? How are we maintaining these relationships with their audiences without draining their energies by continuing these online relationships? How do we keep people safe? If we're not out of there helping school children, are all of our education programs still necessary? Of course, they are. And some of those are coming back for sure, but still, many education programs survive on the earned income the field trips can provide. I know that, like everything, they are doing it better in New Zealand.

At the same time, the other thing is that we've been coming at this time for a long time in our field. This is a time where we've been working on. Creating The Commons, people like Mike Edson are doing that early on. George Oates now is back at Flickr, and she's on the job. That's what she's doing.

It's exciting to see the way things are coming together. At the same time, again, I think we have this mandate to create civic space. I think we have to figure out ways to engage people. I believe we need to be more outside if that's what it will require. Things aren't going away anytime soon; I don't think.

So at the same time, we have to think about how we create meaningful engagement online, making that a hallmark of the programs we present. We also have to think about ways to engage within our communities.

All of these have been perennial challenges, all the more so now during this pandemic. We have to be brave. We have to let certain things go. We have to be relevant, the most important thing. And we need support.

Q: And, what changes need to occur in the broader museum field?

JGL: Okay, well, I think the most important problem or challenge is that we need to be hiring more women of color into the C-level leadership roles. I think we're seeing that it's clear that these organizations are being run better than other organizations when that's happening. I'm not sure if this is a reasonable or popular opinion to share, and frankly, it doesn't reflect well back on me. At the same time: honestly. I still want to dedicate myself to improving the field. Equity needs to be upfront and on the table. I think we need to be explicit about this work from my perspective.

I might also like to add that I’m a big fan of research if I can. I think it's an area that needs to be funded funded funded. We need brave, brave people who are stepping into these museum fields, in volunteer and investment-level roles, with an understanding that they help guide practice and make room for what is necessary. Research: art history, culture, science, the audience – all of it. It’s the Archives. What we know from dying societies is that maintaining Archives is essential.

I think it's so important that people are working on things like the Internet Archives – that has required a fearless investor, its founder Brewster Kahle. We must build relationships and have leadership on the professional side that understands how to nurture and care for the organization and those who care for it if you know what I mean. We have to figure out ways to maintain extraordinarily high levels of patronage.

You can feel a general sense across the world of a kind of bathos, a feeling that there's grinding down. These are also magical times. Right? We are so intensely connected that it's just unthinkable. We have an opportunity, a responsibility to address the need for meaning.

Q: What is your hope for the institute of contemporary art San Jose?

JGL: I want to change people's lives for the better and engage people in participatory dialogue with a particular activist approach. There are always essential models for me.

The Oakland Museum of California is always on my mind. Lori Fogarty is incredible and leads a team of people who work with change models. Everyone needs to look at what they are doing.

Adam Lerner, and the work he did at the MCA Denver, are the gold standard for me by its explorations of the various cultural intersections of the postmodern world.

The Happy Museum movement in the U.K. that I know best through Tony Butler, who runs the Derby Museums. Their focus is on social betterment, measuring the happiness quotient, creating a positive context for learning and satisfaction.

And there are people out there doing things that I am just infatuated with. Right now, it’s mostly Legacy Russell, whose embrace of Glitches, like Sontag and Camp. I mean, she thinks on an epic scale, and she is running one of NYC’s most extraordinary spaces and making independent kick-ass curating in the commercial space, retelling art history, writing books, creating essential frameworks. She’s amazing.

I feel best when I learn, and I want to share that feeling with as many people as possible. Shared learning is one of the most deeply bonding human experiences. I want to be part of helping to make the world a better place. I feel like we can do that.

Right now, we have a young, lean team, so I want to be sure everyone feels empowered, safe, and supported. I am fired up about what’s cooking. We are looking at things on a project basis and working with independent scholars and curators. We also want to mentor talent at every level. Uplift people. As a couple of weeks in at the ICA and heading the ground running, I am just now starting to lay down plans.

Help us, and come back and check on me in a year?

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