A series of reflections on outgoing Walker director Kathy Halbreich from colleagues and friends.
“When I think of Kathy’s tenure, there are several different angles, all important, all unique to Kathy. Next to the partnership that created mnartists.org, which was certainly amazing, the one I think of most is the work that led to the creation of the Walker’s teen programs. Kathy pulled together a group of thinkers and community leaders to study, ponder, and argue about the place of adolescents in our community and society. That a leader of a contemporary art center thought this was an important thing to do was not only a singular and unusual act, but she was also open to having the results of that work impact the life of the institution and not live as a report on a shelf. Incredible!”
–Neal Cuthbert, vice president for programs, McKnight Foundation
“She anticipated the 21st century with enormous clarity and shaped the Walker to enter this century with singular creativity. Her vision has always been consummately modern.”
–Richard Flood, chief curator, New Museum of Contemporary Art
“Sometimes when the extraordinary is all that you’ve ever known, you take it for granted. That’s how I feel about having worked with Kathy Halbreich at the Walker for more than a decade. Starting my career as a young curator at the Walker, I was amazed at the incredible commitment to contemporary artists that Kathy fostered at all levels of the institution. What we later jokingly came to call the ‘Walker way’ was an attitude toward artists and audiences that helped realize the dreams of the former and helped us communicate those visions to the latter in a meaningful dialogue. All of us who worked with Kathy drank this Kool-Aid (and Kathy was definitely someone you worked with and not for) and carry it with us in our curatorial DNA as we have gone on to other things and other institutions. I feel honored to have been able to spend 11 incredible years in her company.”
–Douglas Fogle, curator of contemporary art, Carnegie Museum of Art
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