Like LeBron James, Thom Collins is Miami-bound. But he won”™t be dribbling for the Heat.
Collins has resigned as director of Purchase College”™s Neuberger Museum of Art to become executive director of the Miami Art Museum (MAM), effective Aug. 16. He will be taking the reins of the organization ”“ a repository for modern and contemporary art of the Western Hemisphere ”“ at an exciting turning point in its history. MAM is in the midst of creating a new home in the $220 million Museum Park.
Overlooking Biscayne Bay in the downtown area, the 29-acre complex will also feature the Miami Science Museum, a branch of the Historical Museum of Southern Florida, public gardens and sculpture installations. The park also happens to be adjacent to the American Airlines Arena, where a certain forward will be playing.
“Just say we”™re both young, witty ”“ and tall,” said the diminutive Collins, whose impish sense of humor is a worthy sidekick to a quicksilver brain that can range in mesmerizing conversation from American politics to Platonic philosophy to the art market to the domestic habits of opera stars and yes, to pop culture.
Here”™s Collins on another connection to James: Both have paid their dues in Ohio, Collins less famously as chief curator of the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati.
“Although I have to say,” he added slyly, “that Cincinnati is the Marseilles of Ohio while Cleveland is its Paris.”
Touché.
Collins won”™t have too much time to contemplate his psychic bond with LeBron. The Miami Art Museum is scheduled to break ground on its new building later this year, with an opening slated for 2013. With $140 million already raised for Museum Park, Collins can concentrate on the two areas in which he cemented his reputation in Westchester County ”“ programming and engaging the public. Among the thought-provoking Neuberger shows that took place on Collins”™ watch were exhibits on postwar British artists; women artists from the permanent collection and the controversial Cuban-born Tania Brugera, who conjured everything from the ancient Sumerian goddess Inanna to dictatorial regimes in installations that featured dripping pieces of raw meat, rotting sugar cane, fake guns and real nudity.
Indeed, the museum ”“ which began in 1974 with 108 works from the collection of investment specialist Roy R. Neuberger ”“ hit the trifecta with Brugera, Collins said, garnering the cover of Art in America as well as coverage in ARTnews and Artforum.
The commitment to Latino art and audiences was also reflected in the hiring of the brilliant, personable Patrice Giasson as the Neuberger”™s first curator of Latin-American art.
This fall, the museum will celebrate the 80th birthday of African-American artist Faith Ringold with a major retrospective of her works from the 1960s. Then over the winter, the Neuberger will mount an exhibit that explores the interrelationship of women, power and the mass media. Collins, who”™s keeping his apartment in Manhattan, will be back for both openings.
The Miami Art Museum has an operating budget ($8 million) that”™s double the size of the Neuberger”™s and a staff (30) that”™s about a fourth larger.
“I thought it was a great opportunity to grow my skill set,” Collins said.
After five years here, he says he leaves the Neuberger ”“ now in the hands of an interim director, Lea Emery ”“ on solid financial footing, its profile and collections riding high. During Collins”™ tenure, the Neuberger added more than 750 African, modern and contemporary works to a collection of more than 6,000 pieces.
All that remains now is for him to pack up his office here, wing down to Miami to find an apartment and pose for a photograph for this article. He can”™t, however, resist one more dig at Miami”™s most prominent new resident:
“Maybe (the editors) can Photoshop LeBron James into the picture.”
