Polina Smutko
After roughly six years as Director of the Museum of International Folk Art, Khristaan Villela has accepted a position as the Associate Director of Dissemination and External Affairs at the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles, California. Villela plans to exit this June, and it’s a pretty big loss for the community. But life goes on and we wish him well—so well, in fact, that we thought we’d see him off with the following three questions.
Your new title sounds impressive. Can you demystify what it is you’ll be doing?
So, the director of the Getty reorganized the Research Institute, and created three new positions. One is over the library and curators and the provenance index, and another is over the research program and knowledge. The piece I’ll be doing includes the [Getty Research Institute Publications], it also includes the exhibition program, digital media and content strategy; public programming, development and all communications. It’s going to be my challenge working with the other teams there at the institute to help us unify all of the different voices at the research institute so we can understand and be better able to present the stories we’re telling. There are some remarkable projects in motion now, and this new position will allow a little bit more communication for storytelling and how we get the word out about the programs and exhibitions.
Is there anything at MOIFA of which you’re particularly proud? In other words, now’s the time to brag, Khristaan.
I’m very proud we bought the traveling exhibit about Alexander Girard, that was organized by [Germany’s] Vitra [Design] Museum. The Girard Wing will be 40 years old this year, and that’s a significant anniversary. It was an amazing accomplishment that our team here, including our in-house curator, Laura Addison, were able to work with the Vitra to bring those remarkable objects of contemporary mid-modern design to Santa Fe. It was kind of mind-blowing to me to see the connection between the pieces of folk art on display and how it had an afterlife in Girard’s design practice.
I think also putting a renewed attention on the Girard Wing. People will come to certain museums in Santa Fe no matter what you have on view and in changing exhibits, but the Girard Wing has its own standing in the museum world as a unique experience. I like to say it’s like Meow Wolf, but circa 1960. We spend a good bit of time and resources to continually clean the wing, be more energy efficient, and those are ongoing. We also have a Girard book in the works that will be half about his design work and half about his folk art collecting.
We’ve had a long string of really excellent exhibitions that have been well-researched by the curators. Eighty% of our visitors are from out of town. The 20% who live here in New Mexico, that’s a highly desirable audience segment we’re trying to reach. The Gallery of Conscience that has been around since 2010 has been a place for us to live our social justice mission. Our founder believed in what today we’d call cultural diplomacy, and social justice is foregrounded in different ways in every exhibition. But it’s something of concern to the current team that we continue to shine a light on these issues and that artists get to keep telling their stories, that we don’t tell the stories for them. We have an exhibition up now that’s on the pandemic, and it’s a mix of local and global work. We put some new lucha libre masks up, and they’re hanging next to a wonderful textile by a Hispanic Chimayó weaver. I think we’ve done a lot here, and we’re Santa Fe’s favorite museum. You can see that when you come through the door, whether it’s kids or adults.
I’d add that the pandemic was a very difficult time for all our museums, and I just want to acknowledge that when our doors were closed to the public, the team here pivoted really quickly and produced an astonishing amount of digital content that has been an enduring contribution during those dark years. It’s addressing people who can’t come to the museum, whether they’re from a far-flung part of the state or Afghanistan. We distributed literally thousands of art kits to [Santa Fe kids]. I think around 5,000.
Can you tell us you at least felt a little tortured over taking the new job?
You bet. I’ve lived in Santa Fe half my life, and I always wanted to live here and I’ve worked for some great institutions. I wouldn’t live here if it weren’t for the richness of the arts and culture that both is here historically, as well as in institutions that are more recently founded. It’s attractive—the music, visual arts, literary arts, Hispanic and Native arts. It’s a unique place and the folk art is so good. It’s bittersweet. [My family] loves it here.
