Organizing new and exciting exhibitions, drawing millenials to the arts and expanding Spanish programming–all in a day’s work for the Phoenix Art Museum’s new director Amada Cruz.
Cruz began her time as director of the Phoenix Art Museum at the beginning of last month. She replaced James Ballinger, who retired after 33 years as director.
Cruz came to the United States from Havana, Cuba when she was nine months old. She grew up in many cities, including Chicago, the outskirts of New York and Washington D.C. As a young adult, she made her way back to New York to attend New York University.
“I was actually going to be a pre-law major,” Cruz said. “But I was always interested in art and took a lot of art history classes.”
Related: Phoenix Art Museum director James Ballinger to step down after 40 years with museum
Cruz said she went to museums a lot as a kid and was always interested in art. An internship at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Cruz said, helped her decide to change course and go into art history and museum work.
Since the Guggenheim Museum, Cruz worked at the Lannan Museum in Florida, the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington D.C., the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College in New York. Just before coming to Phoenix, Cruz was the executive director at Artpace, a non-profit art gallery in San Antonio.
Out of all her time in the art world, Cruz said her biggest influence was Félix González-Torres, a fellow Cuban-born artist that she worked with at the Guggenheim Museum. She collaborated with him on a big show that took about two years to organize.
“He used to say that, ‘You’re only as good as your last exhibition,’ and I think that’s very true,” Cruz said. “You can’t make mistakes. You need to do your best every time.”
Ballinger announced last April his intent to retire. The museum’s executive committee searched for a new director over a seven-month process. Cruz discovered the position at the Phoenix Art Museum through a search firm. She was the consensus pick of a group of strong candidates, according to Chairman Jim Patterson of the Phoenix Art Museum’s Board of Trustees.
“(Amada stood out because of) her awareness of the changing demographics of art museum audiences, her experience with things like social media (and) certainly her diverse experience, including her ability to speak Spanish as a second language,” he said.
Cruz said she really liked Phoenix and the museum organization.
“It’s a strong collection and also the board is just very good. They’re very engaged and they’re very committed to the organization,” Cruz said.
Amy Austin, who worked with Cruz at Artpace as the manager of the director’s office, said Cruz is wonderful to work with.
“She is not a micromanager… She trusts you and your opinions and she trusts you and your instincts and that allows you to grow as an employee,” she said. “She’s very positive and gave really great constructive criticism and feedback and was also equally able to give positive comments and be complimentary towards your work, so working with her I never really felt like I was working for her, it felt like I was working with her.”
Her first month as director included the museum’s annual gala and the opening of both the Leonardo da Vinci’s Codex Leicastor and the Power of Observation and Andy Warhol: Portraits exhibitions. Cruz said it has been very busy, but exciting.
Related: Explore the world of pop art with Phoenix Art Museum’s new Warhol exhibit, coming March 4
As the director, Cruz’s main duties are to provide the overall vision for the organization and to be the chief fundraiser. She said she hopes to bring in younger audiences and to do more bilingual programming.
Austin said Cruz will probably make the Phoenix Art Museum focus more on the contemporary collection.
“(This) is great because the world is nowhere without contemporary art,” Austin said.
Patterson said Cruz’s first few weeks as director have been an affirmation of all the reasons they hired her. Under her direction, Patterson said, he hopes the museum becomes a destination of choice in the Southwest.
“James Ballinger did some phenomenal things at the museum for 40 years,” Patterson said. “Amada is just building on what Jim Ballinger got started over his 40 years.”
Contact the reporter at Hbosselm@asu.edu
