Changes and a discovery at the Cooper-Hewitt - Front Page - Company Brief

Briton Paul W. Thompson, 42, assumed the directorship the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in February 2001 with a mandate to enliven and update the museum's programming and image. So far the most conspicuous change has been a considerable loss of staff, through both voluntary departures and layoffs. Since earlier this year, more than a dozen administrators, curators, researchers and consultants have left the museum for various reasons, leading some critics to call the exodus a brain drain. In June, citing payroll cuts from the Smithsonian Institution, of which the Cooper-Hewitt is a part, Thompson announced the elimination of four positions, including the registrar and two top curators. The Smithsonian, which provides 40 percent of the museum's $10-million annual budget, cut its support by 37 percent.

Among those let go were registrar Cordelia Rose, who had been with the Cooper-Hewitt for more than 20 years, as well as prints and drawings curator Marilyn Symmes and applied arts curator Deborah Shinn, who had held their posts for 11 and 14 years respectively. As we go to press, the appointment of a chief curator is pending. A newly created position, the chief curator will oversee the museum's four curatorial departments: textiles, wall coverings, applied arts, and prints and drawings. Thompson told A.i.A. that certain departments are being restructured, and he expects to make related announcements in the near future.

Thompson came to the Cooper-Hewitt from the London Design Museum, where he served as director for eight years. That museum was founded by retail design guru Terence Conran and is known for its contemporary focus. Thompson is credited with eliminating the museum's $2.2-million debt and increasing attendance by 59 percent. The Cooper-Hewitt, housed in the Andrew Carnegie mansion on E. 91st St., has a collection rich in 19th-century design. Under former director Dianne Pilgrim, the Cooper-Hewitt had already begun to shift its focus in a more contemporary direction; its National Design Awards were initiated in 1997, and a Design Triennial followed in 2000.

The museum is also in the midst of a $3.2-million renovation, to be completed next year, that will feature a gallery for digital art in the basement, and a permanent ground floor gallery for rotating selections from the museum's collection, which will be curated by Thompson. Additionally, the board has expanded to 23 members from 18, and has more than doubled the amount of money expected from each trustee. Among the new board members is Murray Moss, owner of the cutting-edge design store Moss in SoHo.

Meanwhile, a work in the Cooper-Hewitt's collection landed the museum in the news again. In July, the museum announced that a Michelangelo drawing had been discovered in its archives by Sir Timothy Clifford, director of the National Galleries of Scotland, during a visit. The black chalk drawing, which depicts an elaborate candelabrum, is estimated to be worth in excess of $10 million. The piece had languished in the museum's collection since 1942, when it was purchased with a group of other decorative designs for $60. The museum is tentatively planning a lecture and viewing of the work for Nov. 1-3, before the drawing joins the traveling exhibition "The Medici, Michelangelo, and the Art of Late Renaissance Florence," at the Art Institute of Chicago [Nov. 9, 2002-Feb. 2, 2003]. The work is also the impetus for a joint exhibition on Michelangelo's decorative art being organized by the National Galleries of Scotland and the Cooper-Hewitt, scheduled for 2004.

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