Today we’d like to introduce you to John Ravenal.
Thanks for sharing your story with us John. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
Art has been central to my life for as long as I can remember. My mother was an art historian and a painter. She taught both for many years at the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence and American University in Washington, DC. I entered college as a studio art major and then discovered art history for myself.
It felt like a familiar tongue and I really took to it. We, undergraduates, had the privilege of curating an exhibition from a famed contemporary art collection that was on loan to the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford. I never knew there was such a thing as curating, but this experience really excited me—researching, writing, and working directly with objects and living artists.
Then I had the good fortune to have an internship at that museum in Hartford working with the same collection, given and lent by the artist Sol LeWitt. I loved the job in every way and stayed three years before going to grad school. After six years, I happily landed back in the museum world, as a curator at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, working with world-class art and colleagues.
My next move was to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, to head their modern and contemporary art department. I thought I’d stay a few years; seventeen years later, before returning to New England, I was able to look back on a proud record of building the holdings of contemporary art by women, African Americans, and artists from around the world; organizing groundbreaking exhibitions; authoring publications; and cultivating audiences for new art.
When the directorship at the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum became available, it seemed like the perfect opportunity—an esteemed contemporary art museum and sculpture park in a beautiful location on the outskirts of a major northeast city. I’ve been here now for three and a half years.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
My path looks linear and deliberate but I can’t claim to have been especially planful.
Doors opened at the right time, though I also recall angst about next steps and do think doing your very best at any given time is usually the most effective strategy.
deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
DeCordova is both a sculpture park and a museum. We’ve been around for nearly seventy years and focus on modern and contemporary art, especially work by living artists. We have an excellent staff creating exciting, relevant, and memorable exhibitions and programs for some 80,000 people a year.
One program we’re well known for is commissioning the new sculpture. We invite early- and mid-career artists to make outdoor work that responds to our particular setting, whether the landscape, our history, or some other aspect of deCordova. Each commission is meant to last for one to two years.
We also own a number of outdoor sculptures and have others on long-term loan. Some of our visitors come just to enjoy the experience of a beautiful landscape, and we also welcome that.
What are your plans for the future? What are you looking forward to or planning for – any big changes?
One new project is a permanent commission of an outdoor work by the acclaimed British land artist Andy Goldsworthy. Working with his team of Scottish stonemasons, Goldsworthy will make a beautiful drywall granite shed through which water from an upper lot of the museum will pour during rainstorms.
The idea is to create an experience for viewers that illuminates a usually overlooked environmental phenomenon—the flow of surface water in our built landscapes. The work will be completed in late 2019. On a different scale, we’re planning for an integration of deCordova with a larger organization, The Trustees of Reservations.
This is the outgrowth of several years of intensive study on how to best sustain deCordova well into the future. We’re very excited about the relationship, as The Trustees share many of our values and goals, and also bring new expertise and capacity to the table. Implementation of the plan is pending a vote by the Town of Lincoln in March 2019.
Pricing:
- Adults: $14
- Seniors (65+): $12
- Students: $10
Contact Info:
- Address: 51 Sandy Pond Road, Lincoln, MA
- Website: decordova.org
- Phone: 781.259.8355
- Email: ekowalski@decordova.org
- Instagram: @decordovaSPandM
- Facebook: facebook.com/decordovaSPandM/
- Twitter: @decordovaSPandM
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