Courtesy Department of Cultural Affairs
Though every museum on Santa Fe’s Museum Hill has proven popular for those who live here and those who don’t, the Museum of International Folk Art (710 Camino Lejo, (505) 476-1204) has to be one of the more major draws for the most museumy of all local hills. And yeah, it was a bit of a shock that longtime Director Khristaan Villela moved on to Los Angeles’ Getty Research Institute in May, but it’s in good hands with Interim Director Kate Macuen. Macuen also took over the director of collections position at the museum in November and comes to Santa Fe after 12 years with the Seminole-focused Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum in Clewiston, Florida. She stepped into the interim role in June. We spoke with Macuen to gather insight into her love of museums and her new role, including what the heck a museum director actually does.
OK, so what’s with you and museums?
I feel like I’m a bit of—well, I don’t want to say oddball, but I knew when I was 16 that it’s what I wanted to do when I grew up. It started with this class in junior high where we could study anything we wanted, we just had to find a community mentor to help us. I decided for some reason that I wanted to make this reproduction dress from the Civil War. My mom was a quilter, so maybe that was the influence. Anyway, my mentor was someone who worked at Colorado State University in the textiles department, and I remember walking in and her showing me dresses from the 1860s; and she gave me my own pair of white gloves, pulled out these dresses, and talked to me about how it could be a career—you can work for a museum, you can care for things that are important to people.
I remember walking away from that meeting and telling my mom, ‘That was so great!’ And my mom said I should reach out to our local history museum in Fort Collins to see if I could volunteer there. So I did, and they had an opening for their education program. I got involved and that was my first museum job. Loved it.
Give us an idea of what the interim job entails. For example, will you play a role in curation, or is it more about support and administration?
I’m still doing some director of collections work as I’ve stepped into the interim position, and it’s about being support for all departments at the museum, including collections, of course, so I’m still playing a role in some of the day-to-day collections work. It’s working with our curatorial team, with our education team and supporting their programs and initiatives. It’s really overseeing the day-to-day, but also looking forward as well. In an interim position, I feel like the job is to keep the boat steady and moving forward as best as possible until a new director is appointed, but we just did this really big strategic refresh for our next five years, and there are a lot of amazing things in that plan that the staff has developed and grown toward. Even in this interim position, I feel like it’s my responsibility to help move towards the new goals the staff has set out.
Before you work somewhere you think you have an idea of an institution, and now that I’ve been here for, well, not very long—since November—it’s been just so exciting. My colleagues are doing incredible work. They’re innovative and creative and it’s really fun to be a part of that. Being in this position, I get to see more of that because I’m working more closely with seeing people’s ideas come to life. There is so much to love about folk art, though, I think, it can be a really hard thing to define. I think what I love about folk art is that it’s so much of everything, and it can be...we’re talking about ghosts and demons in our Yokai exhibit, or you go into the Girard Gallery, and it’s this explosion of everything from around the world. I think everyone can find something that speaks to them in the space, and the support for MOIFA is incredible, from the volunteer base, the friend groups, the foundations that are huge advocates. It has this special place in people’s hearts.
Is there anything to which you’re particularly looking forward?
In January we have a new exhibit that’s going up called La Cartoneria Mexicana, and it’s about Mexican paper and paper mache, and this will go into our Hispanic Heritage Wing where we currenrtly have [the exhibit] Musica Buena. Not only are these pieces so incredible and bright and amazing, but we really pulled from our permanent collection, which I know seems kind of like ‘aren’t all exhibitions pulled from the collection?’ but a lot of our exhibitions are a mixture of loans or from private collectors, whereas this one is 100% from the collection. Only a small percentage of the collection is on display at any time, and that was one point we wanted to address. It’s going to be this bright and cheerful and amazing exhibition opening in January. The team has been working with advisors in Mexico for the design and vision for the exhibit. It’s exciting.ting.
