College Museum Director Forced Out

College Museums abound throughout the United States. They are an important cultural phenomenon and their focus covers a variety of topics from art to archeology and from anthropology to science. The tension between their executive directors/curators varies. (Some museums have curators who have a twofold role: curator and director. Some curator/directors handle this role well; others flounder along without help. A recent incident at the Rhode Island School of Design came to flower or rot in the New England arts community…depending how you view it and depending on how the situation gets resolved. The Rhode Island School of Design’s 106 year old museum just completed a major high profile expansion led by its director, Hope Alswang. This was her fourth year as executive director. She helped raise close to $11,000,000. RISD just hired John Maeda as its new president. His previous position was as Associate director of MIT’s Media Lab. Esquire magazine had named him as one of the 75 most influential people of the 21st century. What had provoked him to send a letter stating that he was giving Hope a final warning? Conflicts like this usually end up with the institution/organization being threatened with a lawsuit; and the situation gets resolved through negotiation. Both parties usually commit to not discussing the settlement and the employee agrees not to libel the organization under the threat of suit. Thus, chances are that we will never know what happened. Of course, the agreement doesn’t stop other employees from making comments. Some staff have indicated that John was not tolerant of descent. Others admire him stating that he is smart, insightful, and at the same time awkward. Both individuals’ photos appeared on the front page of the December 6, 2009, Boston Globe. Hope Alswang’s photo says to me that she is a gregarious, tough, project focused, action oriented, no-nonsense individual. John Maeda’s photo says to me that he is a controlling, anal retentive, non-confrontational, passive-aggressive individual. If I am correct, here are two personalities not well suited to functioning together as members of the same team. Is this conflict just about personalities? It was reported that the museum project was taking money away from other RISD needs like money for scholarships, buildings’ capital needs. Thus we might recognize that the focus of their imbroglio was not only personal temperament, but also professional mission. One might assume that since 200 of Providence’s biggest names in arts and philanthropy gathered to celebrate Hope’s short lived tenure at the museum, they would have done the same for John if he had instead spear headed a campaign within the community to raise money for scholarships and maintain the buildings on campus. I doubt it, but now that this museum is on campus, perhaps a major marketing effort can be made to focus interest in RISD as a whole. John Maeda can show his board, faculty and the community how good he is for the college and the community and by how and whom he selects as the next museum/director. At this point, Hope Alswang needs to begin work on her transition and her vision. John Maeda needs to reflect on what he has to do to move RISD forward and what kind of academic climate he wants to achieve. Both of them could profit from a good executive coach. —Arnold Clickstein