Out & About
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
The patrons of the Jewish Museum took a trip to Paris Wednesday night, by way of the Waldorf-Astoria ballroom. Their destination, in honor of the 25th anniversary of director Joan Rosenbaum’s tenure at the museum: the “Rue Rosenbaum” metro stop – that is, a beautiful copy of one, serving as the entrance to the dance floor.
The highest praise for Ms. Rosenbaum came by way of Washington, D.C. “I have learned more about running an arts institution from Joan than from anybody else in my life,” the director of the Kennedy Center, Michael Kaiser, who worked with Ms. Rosenbaum on the expansion of the museum’s home, a Fifth Avenue mansion, said.
“This is embarrassing. It is also so great,” Ms. Rosenbaum said afterward. “Honestly, hiring me was a very risky choice. I’d never directed a museum, and I didn’t have a strong background in Jewish culture.”
Ms. Rosenbaum quickly found her footing. Rather than trying to repeat the museum’s high voltage contemporary art exhibits of the 1960s, Ms. Rosenbaum forged a new kind of exhibit, integrating art and social history to explore subjects such as the Dreyfus Affair. Along the way, the museum’s annual budget increased to $15 million from $1 million when she started in 1981.
What of the next 25 years? Upcoming exhibits on Eva Hesse and Louise Nevelson will be the artists’ first solo shows in America in more than 30 years. And the museum will continue to update its dense, two-floor permanent exhibit that, through art and artifacts, conveys the basic values and ideas of Jewish culture. Enhancing programming for families and general Museum Mile audiences is a priority, which may help the museum achieve its goal of increasing attendance by 50,000 within five years (it has been averaging 250,000 visitors a year).
Major fund-raising is also on the horizon. “The key to any museum’s future is increasing the size of their endowment,” Ms. Rosenbaum said. More special fund-raising events like the one Wednesday will also help. This year’s event raised $1.3 million.
The museum itself makes its case best. “It’s a jewel-like institution,” Ms. Rosenbaum said, noting that the renovation and expansion of the early ’90s has changed the visitor experience.
“We made a very beautiful place. When people walk in, they’re drawn in.”
