The Oberlin Review
<< Front page Arts February 24, 2006

Curator Borys to Leave Allen Museum

Stephen Borys, curator of Western Art at the Allen Memorial Art Museum since 2001, has been tempted away from Oberlin by the Ringling Art Museum, established by the Ringling family of circus fame. The largest university museum college complex in the country, the Ringling boasts an impressive collection of pre-20th century European paintings, as well as a soon-to-be completed renovation of the entire facility.

“It’s too good an opportunity to resist. It’s a great collection,” said Borys. The Ringling is located in sunny Sarasota, Florida, but Borys claims the weather has nothing to do with his decision to leave.

“I’m Canadian!” he exclaimed. “I’ve never been without snow.”

Before coming to Oberlin, Borys received his doctorate at McGill University and then worked as a curator at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa. During his four and a half year tenure at Oberlin, the AMAM saw increased national and international visibility, doubled attendance and a doubling of the number of objects on display.

Borys also taught art history courses and last year he organized an acclaimed exhibition, “The Splendor of Ruins in French Landscape Painting, 1630-1800.” He insists, however, that the work was not all his. He keeps the exhibition catalogue from “The Splendor of Ruins” in his office and is very proud of the fact that several student names are listed prominently on the title page.

Of his students, he said, “They’re the thing I will miss the most. I’ll miss the collection, but...” he shook his head. “Time and time again, students here have done work at the graduate level. They have become my colleagues.”

Since 2003, Borys has been the only collections curator at the AMAM. The other positions — modern and contemporary art and Asian art — have been vacant for four years. Due to a hiring freeze, neither position can yet be filled.

“My major regret,” said Borys, “is that for over half of my tenure, I did not have any curatorial colleagues.... Even with student assistance, you can’t possibly do everything when curating alone.”

The AMAM generally relies on package shows — traveling exhibitions from other museums — rather than on creating its own shows. Participation from the staff at the museum for package shows is mostly limited to installation. Borys says he often likes traveling shows, but he stated that they “do nothing to develop scholarship or help students.”

Borys referred back to “The Splendor of Ruins” which, besides the exhibition itself, also included a senior seminar, a symposium and a lecture recital series. “This is the sort of thing we should be doing,” said Borys. “The AMAM is one of the great college art museums, but it can’t just keep building on its old reputation.”

He also pointed out that at the time of “The Splendor of Ruins,” although the show was a success, the museum was 50 percent understaffed.

When Borys goes to the Ringling, he will be working with graduate interns from both Florida State and New College. However, the Ringling is not located on either campus, meaning it will lack the daily influx of students that Allen enjoys. Although he says he is looking forward to meeting his interns, Borys said, “I won’t be able to recapture the students I have here.”

Despite his reluctance to leave his students, Borys seems, in some ways, relieved to be moving to the Ringling. “I don’t want to be too negative,” he said several times, “But I do want to make some sort of statement about what needs to be done. I loved working here, but eventually you burn out when you don’t have the support.”

He has a great deal of faith in the museum’s director, Stephanie Wiles, commenting on her love of academic museums, and what that means in the context of the museum’s history. “The original mandate of the AMAM,” Borys said, “was as a teaching collection for students...if it functions well, everyone benefits, not just the students.”

Borys is leaving at the end of February, but according to Wiles, the position will probably not be filled until late spring. It is likely that the AMAM will be, for a few months, a museum without one, single curator.
 
 

   

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