Walker Art Center

Olga Viso. The Walker Art Center has named Olga Viso its new director effective January 2008. As director of the Hirshhorn since 2005, Viso has headed one of the world’s leading museums of international modern and contemporary art, whose collection includes artworks from the mid-19th century to the present. Viso has distinguished herself as a curator, scholar, and administrator at the Smithsonian… See full bio.

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Story: Formally established in 1927, the Walker Art Center began as the first public art gallery in the Upper Midwest. The museum's focus on modern art began in the 1940s, when a gift from Mrs. Gilbert Walker made possible the acquisition of works by important artists of the day, including sculptures by Pablo Picasso, Henry Moore, Alberto Giacometti, and others. During the 1960s, the Walker organized increasingly ambitious exhibitions that circulated to museums in the United States and abroad. The permanent collection expanded to reflect crucial examples of contemporary artistic developments; concurrently, performing arts, film, and education programs grew proportionately and gained their own national prominence throughout the next three decades. Today, the Walker is recognized internationally as a singular model of a multidisciplinary arts organization and as a national leader for its innovative approaches to audience engagement. (Source: http://info.walkerart.org/about/history.wac)

Evidence of Impact Summary:

The Walker Art Center has a long history of providing broad support for contemporary art performance on a large scale.
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Organization Strengths Summary:

Multiple experts consider the organization's leadership and staff as major assets. Others mention program design and operations as additional assets.
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Areas for Improvement Summary:

The most commonly mentioned areas for improvement involved program expansion and providing more collaboration.
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The Walker Art Center has named Olga Viso its new director effective January 2008. As director of the Hirshhorn since 2005, Viso has headed one of the world’s leading museums of international modern and contemporary art, whose collection includes artworks from the mid-19th century to the present. Viso has distinguished herself as a curator, scholar, and administrator at the Smithsonian and rose quickly to leadership at the Hirshhorn. She joined the curatorial department of the museum in 1995 as assistant curator, was named associate curator in 1998, and served as curator of contemporary art from 2000 to 2003. In October 2003, Viso was named deputy director of the Hirshhorn, working in the artistic direction, strategic planning, and daily management of the museum. She also played a key role in enlarging and reconstituting the museum’s advisory board of trustees and revitalizing the vision for the nation’s museum of modern and contemporary art. She was named the fourth director of the museum in September 2005, succeeding Ned Rifkin. Under Viso’s direction, the Hirshhorn has shifted its focus to present a decidedly more contemporary program of international art produced in all media. She has extended the museum’s presentations beyond the gallery spaces and engaged the public with artists and installations in the museum entry lobby, sculpture garden, plaza, on the façade of the building, and around the city. The museum has also embraced a more artist-focused and experimental attitude evidenced by timely exhibitions such as The Uncertainty of Objects and Ideas: Recent Sculpture that take the pulse of the moment. During her tenure the museum also initiated a number of programs to engage more directly with the Washington-area community, including the popular After Hours series, “Meet the Artist” lectures, and “Artist at Work” and “ArtLab for Teens,” programs for children and youth led by resident artists. During her 12 years with the museum, Viso has been instrumental in the acquisition of numerous important contemporary artworks and has organized or co-organized significant exhibitions of leading artists such as Ana Mendieta (2004), Juan Muñoz (2001), and Robert Gober’s highly celebrated installation at the 2001 Venice Biennale, as well as group shows, including Distemper: Dissonant Themes in the Art of the 1990s (1996) and Regarding Beauty: A View of the Late Twentieth Century (1999-2000). She is currently working on the major exhibition, Guillermo Kuitca: A Survey, which will tour in 2009 in partnership with the Albright-Knox and Miami Art Museum. While curator of contemporary art, Viso led the Hirshhorn’s Directions series—a showcase for emerging artists—spotlighting artists such as Dan Steinhilber (2003), Ernesto Neto (2002), Cathy de Monchaux (2000), Sam Taylor-Wood (1999), Toba Khedoori (1997-1998), and Beverly Semmes (1996) early in their careers. Prior to joining the Smithsonian, Viso was a curator at the Norton Museum of Art (West Palm Beach, Florida), where she helped develop a forum for the work of contemporary artists, and held several curatorial and administrative positions at the High Museum of Art (Atlanta, Georgia). Viso has served on the Federal Advisory Committee on International Exhibitions—the committee that selects projects to represent the United States in international biennials—and was co-commissioner for the U.S. Pavilion at the 2001 Venice Biennale. Born in Florida to Cuban émigré parents, Viso is well known for her expertise in contemporary Latin American art—making it a fundamental component of the Hirshhorn’s global perspective—and has introduced the work of Latino artists to new audiences through exhibitions, publications, and lectures. Viso received her master’s degree in art history from Emory University (Atlanta, Georgia) in 1992.

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