Worcester PowerPlayer: Matthias Waschek

Thursday, April 02, 2015

GoLocalWorcester News Team

Matthias Waschek

Each week, GoLocalWorcester shines the spotlight on one individual who is making an impact on the community. This week, we sat down with Matthias Waschek, Director of the Worcester Art Museum about his role and some of the challenges facing the museum.

You have an extensive resume of involvement with the arts across the world. Can you tell us a bit about your past experiences and how you have gotten to your current position as Director of the Worcester Art Museum?

My career path towards becoming a museum director began 35 years ago when I enrolled as an art history student at Bonn University in Germany. After living for some time in Paris, doing research for my Ph.D. and obtaining a scholarship about French 19th century ceramics, I had the opportunity to work at the Louvre for more than a decade as the Head of Academic Programs. 11 years later, a friend connected me with Emily Pulitzer, founder of the Pulitzer Arts Foundation in St. Louis, where I would become Director in 2003. Seizing these opportunities, however, required the desire to learn outside of my comfort zone and embrace new areas of knowledge and familiarize myself with other areas of the art world: I studied in Germany but worked in France and the US; I started as a specialist of French 19th century, and later spearheaded an institution dedicated to contemporary art. That track record has broadened my perspective as a museum director, enabling me to become a successful candidate of a long and thorough search process in Worcester.

Worcester is a diverse city in terms of ethnicity, age, and socioeconomic status. What efforts have you made to make the Worcester Art Museum an inclusive space? What have your efforts been to extend your reach beyond Worcester?

"Access" continues to be one of our biggest priorities at the Museum. In 2012, we re-opened the original Salisbury street entrance, which symbolizes our efforts to welcome visitors and make the Museum as accessible as possible. We are currently working on a “bridge” (to open at the end of this summer) designed by Kulapat Yantrasast of wHY architecture, which will significantly enhance access for all visitors, and we are in the process of thinking through further modifications to improve the museum experience. But physical access needs to go hand in hand with being relevant to our audience, defined by the intellectual impact of our programming and the Museum being a socially inclusive environment. The "Knights!" exhibition is one of many examples, as is the upcoming "Samurai!" project, for which we’ve brought together a group of contemporary artists with distinctive perspectives on this mythical and historic figure.

As the encouraging data since the Higgins integration shows, we are increasingly attracting audiences beyond Central Massachusetts, notably from Middlesex and Norfolk counties. We’ve found the best way of diversifying audiences is via schools, as we are not only attracting the kids, but also their families.

There is no doubt that the Worcester Art Museum has increased its presence since you have taken over as director. What have been the biggest challenges in gaining more traffic to the museum?

Challenges and opportunities are mostly synonymous. The Higgins integration was and continues to be both, as is our need to position WAM within the highly competitive cultural offerings of our region.

Can you talk to us a bit about the Higgins' Collection and what this means for the museum and for Worcester?

The Higgins integration has been a game changer for the Worcester Art Museum, as it allowed us to realize parts of our ongoing "reinvention" in a much shorter amount of time, making us more family friendly and expanding the type of objects on view in our galleries. The collection being on par with Philadelphia and second only to the Met has also given us tremendous clout and visibility - and Worcester, thereby has benefitted, too, further substantiating that we are on an upswing.

In your experience so far as director of the museum, what has been your proudest moment?

The successful first steps of the Higgins integration - transferring the collection and opening "Knights!" in a very short amount of time - would definitely qualify as proud moments. But there are many others, such as the growth of our audiences via increasingly strong exhibitions and programs, or the happiness of each of our visitors.

What is your favorite thing about Worcester?

The city's quirkiness, which is based on its fast and unplanned industrial growth of the past, in the midst of a gorgeous New England countryside.

If you could have coffee with anyone in the world, who would it be and why?

Stephen Salisbury III, the initiator of so many great things in Worcester, including our museum. I would ask him about what made him "tick."

Best thing you ever ate in Worcester?

Sechuanese Aubergine. I never had a better Chinese dish outside of China!

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