Salvador salort pons biography samples

ROSENBAUM: What are your ideas about how art is presented in the museum?

SALORT-PONS: I think our installations are very successful, but some of them are better than others. I think our visitor-centered approach has been very well received by our community. But some installations in our European galleries need to be refreshed—for example, the modern and postmodern art.

ROSENBAUM: How do you think that those galleries need to be refreshed?

SALORT-PONS: I’m not in the job yet; I have things that I need to think through. We have a great team of curators and educators and we are a museum that involves our community in a thinking process as to how to install the art.

ROSENBAUM: Do you mean, “refreshing” in terms of what you own or in terms of how you display?

SALORT-PONS: I mean how we display it, what are the themes that we are going to treat in the galleries, what are we going to be talking about in these galleries. A technical issue would be, “Are we showing too many works of art?”

One of the things I would like to do in the future is bring more technology into the galleries. That is a priority for the museum. We will soon incorporate Beacon technology into the galleries; we want to create apps that would allow the visitor to have a different experience, not only when they come to the DIA, but also when they are in their homes.

ROSENBAUM: How will you be using the Beacon technology?

SALORT-PONS: One of the things is that you can track what the visitors are doing—how long they spend in one gallery, how long they spend in front of a painting, what are the works of art that they are downloading information from. We are going to use Beacon technology in the newly installed Ancient Middle East galleries. We are going to open them very soon [Oct. 2], but the technology will not be ready until next year.

ROSENBAUM: What projects were you w

Salvador Salort-Pons, the director of the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA), has been caught in the cross hairs recently, with news reports detailing the results of an independent inquiry into allegations of dictatorial behaviour and other missteps. The law firm that carried out the review found that Salort-Pons was intolerant when staff members voiced dissonant views and retaliated against those who disagreed with him.

Some employees of colour told the firm’s investigators that race “was a factor in the way Salvador engaged with them” and that he had “a lack of facility with race-related issues”. The investigation also revealed that women in managerial and professional positions at the museum were departing at a significantly higher rate than men. A recording of the law firm’s presentation of its findings at a board of directors meeting last November was leaked to the media last month.

The museum says it has taken steps since the inquiry to ensure that all employees are heard and that its workplace “fully embodies fairness, inclusion, consistency and respect”. It adds that its board of directors is monitoring Salort-Pons’s performance to ensure progress toward those goals. Six members of the board have resigned to protest the board's decision to maintain him as director.

Last year the director was also the target of a whistleblower complaint accusing him of a conflict of interest for exhibiting an El Greco painting owned by his father-in-law at the museum following the display of another work by him.

The Art Newspaper requested an interview with Salort-Pons about the furor over his leadership and his broader goals for the DIA, and the museum agreed to have the director respond to questions formally via email. Here are excerpts of the exchange.

The Art Newspaper: It’s been quite a tumultuous year for you, with questi

The new director of the Detroit Institute of Arts envisions a more prominent role for contemporary art at the museum, sees fund-raising potential in the museum's education programs, wants to transform the DIA into a more diverse institution and pictures a town square-like environment akin to city centers in Madrid and Paris.

In a wide-ranging hour-long interview on Monday, Bloomfield Hills resident Salvador Salort-Pons, 45, began to lay out his vision for the DIA, addressing priorities, possibilities, the financial and political challenges of the job and his personal history.

Born in Spain, Salort-Pons, who was appointed in September to succeed retiring director Graham Beal, was an inside candidate, rising from the curatorial ranks. He came to the museum in 2008 as a curator of European paintings. Most recently he has been head of the European art department and director of collection strategies and information.

Salort-Pons was wary of going into too much detail before he has a chance to discuss ideas with his staff, but it was clear that he wants to put his own stamp on the institution. Salort-Pons, who retains a Spanish accent, spoke in the airy atmosphere of the DIA’s Kresge Court. He doesn’t official start his new job until Oct. 15, and he refuses to move into the director’s office until then.

The DIA, Director’s Job and Politics

Question: Why did you want to be museum director? The life of a curator seems pretty great — you study art, do research, create exhibitions. But a director has to deal with all the headaches — fund-raising, management, politics and all the rest.

Answer: I wanted to be director of the DIA because this place has an unbelievable collection. It’s a place with an incredible history in terms of the history of American collecting. The DIA collected artists that no other museum collected. The first Van Gogh, first Matisse, first Beckman, first Bruegel the Elder, first Fuseli. It’s

By 4 p.m. Friday, Salvador Salort-Pons will be a true-blue American.

The 47-year-old director of the Detroit Institute of Arts, who grew up in Madrid, will take his oath of allegiance in the museum’s Rivera Court at 3 p.m., in a ceremony open to all DIA visitors.

Salort-Pons has a long history with the United States — while he didn’t move here till 2004, his family toured the East Coast when he was about 10. They landed in New York.

“We came in the summer,” Salort-Pons recalled. “I remember all the cars, and the heat they expelled. Another thing that caught my eye was the steam coming out from the manholes, like there was a dragon underneath the streets.”

His parents admired the U.S., Salort-Pons said, seeing in it a younger, more-vigorous nation largely unburdened by the history that weighed down European societies.

“They felt America was a great culture from which we could learn,” he said, adding, “I remember my father saying in America I would learn to have an open mind. He felt Americans were very flexible, and wanted to experience and explore new ways of thinking.”

It was an attitude the father wanted the son to acquire, Salort-Pons said. “He felt it would be a fantastic complement to my European education.”

In Friday’s ceremony, Senior U.S. District Judge Avern Cohn will administer the oath of allegience to Salort-Pons, who succeeded Graham Beal as DIA director in 2015.

In a best of both worlds kind of arrangement, the newly minted American won’t have to give up his European citizenship.

“In Spain, like here,” Salort-Pons said, “you’re allowed to have dual citizenship.” So in the future, he’ll be voting on both sides of the Atlantic.

Salort-Pons’ wife, Alexandra, grew up in Dallas. Both their children are American citizens.

Not surprisingly, the family is delighted with the decision.

“Salvador embraced this country years ago,” said Alexandra, “and we’re thrilled he’s making a permanent com