2023 Conference

SCHEDULE

Building a Culture of Care at the National Gallery of Art: New Approaches to Engaging Front-Facing Staff

4:15 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.

| Thursday, September 28

Staff from the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, will discuss the behind-the-scenes work they undertook to prepare front-facing staff in the months leading up to the opening of the 2023 exhibition “Philip Guston Now.” The celebrated American painter Philip Guston (1913-1980) was known for his abstract paintings and for his signature cartoonish depictions of white-hooded KKK figures, through which he explored injustice and the banality of evil. The National Gallery was one of four organizers of this major retrospective who ignited the ire of the art world in September 2020 by announcing that the exhibition, originally scheduled to open in 2021, would be postponed. The postponement allowed the organizing institutions to reconsider how best to present Guston’s powerful work, and the stories behind it, with the greatest possible care for the range of audiences who would interact with and be affected by it. Through listening to new voices and co-creating solutions and responses to the needs and experiences of the staff who are most central to the interaction of art and the public, a framework for a holistic culture of care is emerging.