The museum is delighted to welcome its new Interim Director, Katy Smith Abbott, who began her tenure on March 3. Eloise McFarlane ’24.5, the museum’s new Sabarsky Graduate Fellow, sat down with Katy to get a glimpse into her aspirations for the museum and her driven, whimsical mind.
Katy received her M.A. and Ph.D. from Indiana University in Bloomington, where she wrote her dissertation on Titian and the development of portrait painting in Venice. She began her time at Middlebury in 1996 as a faculty member in the Department of History of Art and Architecture, guiding students through visual culture, and offering courses spanning the Italian Renaissance and beyond. She engages with her students in a deeply dynamic way, inviting them to participate in workshops, collaborate on exhibitions, and spark meaningful discussions, an energy she doubtless brings to the museum.
Katy has approached her new role with graceful leadership, educational passion, and a bright presence.
What are you most excited about in terms of taking on the new role as museum director?
I am excited about a lot of things. I would say top of the list for me is building on the strengths of the museum while also recognizing the potential we have to try new things. As we look towards moving into the new museum, I’m thinking hard about how we position ourselves in terms of exhibits and programming, but also in terms of our outreach to the campus and local communities.
What role do you feel the Middlebury museum plays in our community?
I would like to think that for most people, it’s a place for rich discussions about art and its place in the world. I would love for the museum to become the default answer when people think about a place they want to go for intellectual and creative inspiration. It should ideally hold surprises in store! And while it is an art museum, I hope that it’s a place where people come expecting various forms of cross-disciplinary inquiry. I think a lot about how we can be invitational to students who aren’t taking art history classes or don’t think of themselves as “artsy.” I would like to make the museum a place where all students want to spend time, where they meet up with friends or expect to bump into faculty they know from other disciplines. And it should also be a place where families, alums, retirees and newcomers think of coming when they have a free afternoon.
What elements of your teaching experience are you going to bring to the museum?
There are lots of ways to answer that question, but I’ll give you just one. Throughout the last 10 years of teaching, my most satisfying experiences were those in which there was some type of experiential component to my class. That ranged from doing really ambitious role playing games in my Italian Renaissance course to having students deeply involved in the curating of an exhibit. Taking risks in my approach to teaching so that students were deeply involved in their own learning ultimately brought the material to life for me and my students. This is in my mind as I think about what we are offering in the museum. How can the exhibits we curate and host speak to students so that they’re not just passively absorbing but taking on an active, engaged role in their own learning?
Lots of people are curious about the new museum, if you could describe the new museum in three words, what would you say?
Dynamic, invitational, and irresistible.
If you could live inside one piece of art what would it be?
I could dream-travel in and out of a lot of incredible works. But I’ve settled on this one, which I’ve loved since I was an undergraduate. Perhaps it’s because we all need something a little soothing and a little hopeful right now, but my choice is Dining Room in the Country by Pierre Bonnard.
The idea if a “new” museum: open-ended, dynamic and full of ideas will broaden the appeal of exhibitions. Excited to see what’s upcoming in the next months.