February 5, 2024 • 12 mins
Sasha Suda is the George D. Widener Director and CEO of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. She was appointed in June 2022 and began her tenure in September. Bringing new generation leadership to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Sasha believes that the visual arts have the power to connect the past to the present, helping to forge a more inspiring, creative, and equitable future.
Born in Toronto to Czech parents, she studied at Princeton University before completing her Master’s degree in art history at Williams College and her PhD at New York University. Her professional career began at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, where she worked in various roles in the Medieval Department between 2003 and 2011.
She returned to her native Toronto to work at the Art Gallery of Ontario, first as an assistant curator, and eventually as Curator of European Art and the Elliott Chair of Prints & Drawings. In these roles, she led major international exhibition projects and spearheaded innovative digital initiatives that presented historical art to audiences in a new light.
From 2019 until 2022, she served as director and CEO of the National Gallery of Canada where she led the revitalization of its purpose, vision, and mission and first-ever strategic planning process, leading to advances in digital rebranding, exhibition planning, and external stakeholder engagement, with a focus on justice, equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility.
Born in Toronto to Czech parents, she studied at Princeton University before completing her Master’s degree in art history at Williams College and her PhD at New York University. Her professional career began at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, where she worked in various roles in the Medieval Department between 2003 and 2011.
She returned to her native Toronto to work at the Art Gallery of Ontario, first as an assistant curator, and eventually as Curator of European Art and the Elliott Chair of Prints & Drawings. In these roles, she led major international exhibition projects and spearheaded innovative digital initiatives that presented historical art to audiences in a new light.
From 2019 until 2022, she served as director and CEO of the National Gallery of Canada where she led the revitalization of its purpose, vision, and mission and first-ever strategic planning process, leading to advances in digital rebranding, exhibition planning, and external stakeholder engagement, with a focus on justice, equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
I'm the rain Ballad Moral with CEOsyou should Know, brought to you by
Comcast Business. I'm Sasha Suda,the George D. Widner Director and CEO
of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.Tell us about the mission of the museum.
The Philadelphia Museum of Art is hereto celebrate and educate, and expose
(00:21):
and inspire all of the communities thatit exists to serve in the Philadelphia region
and more broadly around the world.And it's an institution that is here to
provide a place of solace, ofintergenerational meeting and convening, and it's a
place that is really meant to evokeall that Philadelphia is and to inspire it
(00:44):
to be more. That's interesting youtalk about how it will help us the
city to aspire to be more.What do you mean by that exactly?
Well, I think that what artiststell us in the work that they do
throughout their lives is there's more andjust what you can see. There's more
than just what you can feel,And of course there's more than just what
(01:04):
we know. To the world andto all of the people around us.
Their work often it's something we canlook at and understand, right away.
But often there's more than meets theeye. And I think that's what the
PMA is there to do, isto show us that we should seek those
higher truths or callings to relate toone another and to understand history and to
(01:29):
think about what's possible in the future. Often what you see in the Philadelphia
Museum of Art is surprising in thatway, and so I think when I
say more, it's not necessarily better, but it's more. It's more than
what we know. Since you've cometo Philadelphia, you've made a concerted effort
to reach out to the community,and I wonder if you can talk more
(01:51):
about what your ideas are about makingthe museum continue to be relevant to not
only the city of Philadelphia, butto the next generation of individuals who would
come to see the museum. ThePhiladelphia Museum of Art is so unique in
the way that it's been sighted.You know, over one hundred years ago.
(02:12):
It was chosen to be, insome ways from an urban planning point
of view, the apotheosis of theparkway, you know, the terminal point
of a cultural procession, and thatsense of height above the city is something
that has at times been perceived aselite or out of reach, and so
(02:32):
as several of my predecessors have tried, we're wanting to kind of metaphorically come
down from the steps and to bethe living room for the city of Philadelphia
and beyond, a place that youfeel comfortable in, that you can see
yourselves in or see oneself in,both on the wall, but also as
(02:53):
a place that you belong in regardlessof what's on those walls. And that's
something that we're doing through a varietyof different initiatives, and those initiatives we
hope just become part of who weare. We're really making a concerted effort
to partner with some amazing institutions andorganizations across the city. Father's Day Rally
(03:15):
Committee comes to mind, a MuralArts comes to mind, the NAACP,
and others who have done a greatjob of connecting with the communities across the
city and who we can learn from. So that's one way of broadening our
network, and I think inside themuseum, what we're trying to do is
just have a broader view of whatglobal means. You know, we've carried
(03:39):
the name of Encyclopedic for a longtime, but we've also for example,
never programmed with consistency. Any workthat concerns itself historically or in a contemporary
way with the continent of Africa orits dies for us. And we're in
a city that has a fifty percentAfrican American diasporic population, and so we
(04:03):
just founded, thanks to the visionarygift of Ira brind lifetime center city person,
community member, the Brand Center forAfrican and African Diasporic Art, and
we really believe that will be agathering place, a place where scholars and
members of the community and members ofthe artistic community will come together and kind
(04:27):
of try to imagine a new futurefor curatorial and work as it relates to
museums and scholarship and so on.I was very interested in what you said
about how the museum is geographically situatedsort of in a position of height looking
down on the city, and you'relooking to make it more accessible, just
(04:50):
a more important place integrated into thelives of Philadelphians. And sometimes I think
people think of museums as being dustyand old. I wonder if you can
talk about why the arts are socritical. I think we sometimes we think
about sports teams as being so importantto the city of Philadelphia, but I
(05:13):
wonder if you can talk more abouthow the arts contribute to the quality of
life here. Absolutely, So youknow, first of all, I think
art and sports are great pairing.It's the first time I've worked at a
museum where you can go to acollector's house for a night to celebrate an
artist or an exhibition and playing inthe background on a large screen TV as
(05:36):
a Phillies game or an Eagles game. I think that that's uniquely Philadelphia.
And I think that you know,we love arts and sports, but we
celebrate sports in more mainstream way,and it's what we advertise in part because
of what it contributes to the localeconomy and to the sense of local pride.
(05:56):
And I think that the fact isculture in Philadelphia contributes significantly to the
local economy. We don't often talkabout that as an institution because well,
we're arts people. We're non forprofit folks, and that's not part of
our practice and we have to bebetter at that. But I also think,
you know, the arts are inmany ways the highest expression of humanity.
(06:17):
There are no rules when it comesto art. There's no winner,
and there's no loser, and Ithink that that's widely accepted and within Philadelphia,
for example, if you go tovarious communities recently, I was visiting
Esperanza, for example, They're completelyself sufficient culturally. I haven't been to
(06:39):
a city where there are such established, large cultural institutions within neighborhoods, within
neighborhoods where people don't necessarily see aneed to come to center city because they
have what they need around them,and so I think we need to celebrate
that. I think we need toconnect better or with those institutions that are
(07:00):
serving communities beyond our traditional boundaries.We need to be more accessible from a
public transit point of view, butalso digitally. So for example, we
have this incredible program of digital learninginitiatives which we're supposed to go back to
in person after COVID, and allof the teenagers said, no way,
(07:23):
I don't want to come down there. I want to keep doing this online.
I want to talk to people fromacross the city in different neighborhoods,
and so I think accessibility means alot of things, but I think it
also means that it's a place aresource that people are aware is available to
them and when it comes to culturein Philadelphia, there's community, there's representation,
(07:45):
there's accessibility, and then you know, of course, there's just the
fact that we're world class institutions.These are collections that people pilgrimage to.
There are collections that are known aroundthe world, and like any great city,
we can take them for granted,which is part of the luxury of
having them in our backyards. Butof course, I think the most important
(08:07):
thing for us to do as asector, and we're working together across all
the cultural institutions very purposefully right now. To do this, we have to
be loud and proud of what itis that we have in our buildings and
make sure that we offer those thingsand don't expect or feel entitled that people
should know that we have those thingsright off the bat. And finally,
(08:31):
everyone has a moment in their life, a pivotal moment where something happens,
you meet someone, and it setsyou on a path. Right, So
for you, what was that pivotalmoment or if you can think of one
that sets you on the path thathas led you to where you are today.
It's a great question, and likemost people, it changes from time
(08:54):
to time. But one that reallysticks out for me and has stood the
test of time is a visit thatI made to the Gugenheim Museum as a
young person, probably I was aboutten or twelve, and I used to
visit Bayside Queens from Toronto often becauseI had a grand aunt who lived in
Bayside Queens, and because my parentshad immigrated from Czechoslovakia in nineteen sixty eight.
(09:18):
They were New Canadians and I wasa first generation Canadian. Of course,
Canada was my home, but visitingmy great aunt in New York was
as much a part of my identity. And we would go, particularly with
my dad, to the met tosee arms and armor, and then we'd
always go to see the Gugenheim acrossthe street, just because of the icon
(09:39):
of architecture that it was, andin many ways, I think it represented
kind of an American dream of sorts. So we went to see the arms
and armor. And that's so literal, right, It's about history, and
you can imagine a time, along, long time ago, and that's
why I ended up studying medieval art. It's an easy and not so easy
(10:00):
at times, window into the past. And I remember crossing the street and
going to the Guggenheimen walking up thatramp and seeing a Kandinski painting which was
lines and triangles and circles, andlooking at my dad and saying, I
just don't get it. You know, what is this? And he said
to me, sometimes art is justan idea. And that really blew my
(10:20):
mind that there was a place wherethings didn't have to necessarily make sense.
And I'm a very practical kind ofI like to square the box kind of
person, and I realized this wasa great place museums, the fine arts,
where you could be proximate to somethingthat didn't have to make sense,
and to that kind of not necessarilya higher truth or anything like that,
(10:41):
but an openness to interpretation. Andfinally, what message would you have to
our listeners something that you'd like themto walk away from in this interview about
the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Foreveryone that's listening, I would just want
to be sure that we're being asas clear as we can at the PMA,
that I'm being as clear as wecan that our doors are really wide
(11:03):
open for everyone. And while wewill not transform overnight, we are working
so hard to become the institution thatPhiladelphians can see themselves in and of so
that we can bring that Philadelphia tothe world. And of course we're right
now having two major projects I'm reallyexcited about, and one that people should
(11:28):
see for sure is the Korean Artafter nineteen eighty nine exhibition The Shape of
Time, which is this incredible lookat how we got to where we are
today with Korean culture, kpop andall the other things that make that part
of the world so intriguing. Theother piece that I'll say is watch this
(11:48):
space. We're about to hire thedirector of the Brin Center of African and
African Die Sportcard and we have someincredibly exciting programming on the way. Check
the website out once a month Fridaysis pay what you wish, and our
memberships make it really easy and affordableto come over and over again. If
(12:09):
people would like more information about thePhiladelphia Museum of Art, where did they
go for that? The website Philamuseumdot org. CEOs you should know brought
to you by Comcast Business, offeringthe complete connectivity solution, cybersecurity, Internet
and mobile all from one provider,Comcast Business, powering possibilities
I'm the rain Ballad Moral with CEOsyou should Know, brought to you by
Comcast Business. I'm Sasha Suda,the George D. Widner Director and CEO
of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.Tell us about the mission of the museum.
The Philadelphia Museum of Art is hereto celebrate and educate, and expose
(00:21):
and inspire all of the communities thatit exists to serve in the Philadelphia region
and more broadly around the world.And it's an institution that is here to
provide a place of solace, ofintergenerational meeting and convening, and it's a
place that is really meant to evokeall that Philadelphia is and to inspire it
(00:44):
to be more. That's interesting youtalk about how it will help us the
city to aspire to be more.What do you mean by that exactly?
Well, I think that what artiststell us in the work that they do
throughout their lives is there's more andjust what you can see. There's more
than just what you can feel,And of course there's more than just what
(01:04):
we know. To the world andto all of the people around us.
Their work often it's something we canlook at and understand, right away.
But often there's more than meets theeye. And I think that's what the
PMA is there to do, isto show us that we should seek those
higher truths or callings to relate toone another and to understand history and to
(01:29):
think about what's possible in the future. Often what you see in the Philadelphia
Museum of Art is surprising in thatway, and so I think when I
say more, it's not necessarily better, but it's more. It's more than
what we know. Since you've cometo Philadelphia, you've made a concerted effort
to reach out to the community,and I wonder if you can talk more
(01:51):
about what your ideas are about makingthe museum continue to be relevant to not
only the city of Philadelphia, butto the next generation of individuals who would
come to see the museum. ThePhiladelphia Museum of Art is so unique in
the way that it's been sighted.You know, over one hundred years ago.
(02:12):
It was chosen to be, insome ways from an urban planning point
of view, the apotheosis of theparkway, you know, the terminal point
of a cultural procession, and thatsense of height above the city is something
that has at times been perceived aselite or out of reach, and so
(02:32):
as several of my predecessors have tried, we're wanting to kind of metaphorically come
down from the steps and to bethe living room for the city of Philadelphia
and beyond, a place that youfeel comfortable in, that you can see
yourselves in or see oneself in,both on the wall, but also as
(02:53):
a place that you belong in regardlessof what's on those walls. And that's
something that we're doing through a varietyof different initiatives, and those initiatives we
hope just become part of who weare. We're really making a concerted effort
to partner with some amazing institutions andorganizations across the city. Father's Day Rally
(03:15):
Committee comes to mind, a MuralArts comes to mind, the NAACP,
and others who have done a greatjob of connecting with the communities across the
city and who we can learn from. So that's one way of broadening our
network, and I think inside themuseum, what we're trying to do is
just have a broader view of whatglobal means. You know, we've carried
(03:39):
the name of Encyclopedic for a longtime, but we've also for example,
never programmed with consistency. Any workthat concerns itself historically or in a contemporary
way with the continent of Africa orits dies for us. And we're in
a city that has a fifty percentAfrican American diasporic population, and so we
(04:03):
just founded, thanks to the visionarygift of Ira brind lifetime center city person,
community member, the Brand Center forAfrican and African Diasporic Art, and
we really believe that will be agathering place, a place where scholars and
members of the community and members ofthe artistic community will come together and kind
(04:27):
of try to imagine a new futurefor curatorial and work as it relates to
museums and scholarship and so on.I was very interested in what you said
about how the museum is geographically situatedsort of in a position of height looking
down on the city, and you'relooking to make it more accessible, just
(04:50):
a more important place integrated into thelives of Philadelphians. And sometimes I think
people think of museums as being dustyand old. I wonder if you can
talk about why the arts are socritical. I think we sometimes we think
about sports teams as being so importantto the city of Philadelphia, but I
(05:13):
wonder if you can talk more abouthow the arts contribute to the quality of
life here. Absolutely, So youknow, first of all, I think
art and sports are great pairing.It's the first time I've worked at a
museum where you can go to acollector's house for a night to celebrate an
artist or an exhibition and playing inthe background on a large screen TV as
(05:36):
a Phillies game or an Eagles game. I think that that's uniquely Philadelphia.
And I think that you know,we love arts and sports, but we
celebrate sports in more mainstream way,and it's what we advertise in part because
of what it contributes to the localeconomy and to the sense of local pride.
(05:56):
And I think that the fact isculture in Philadelphia contributes significantly to the
local economy. We don't often talkabout that as an institution because well,
we're arts people. We're non forprofit folks, and that's not part of
our practice and we have to bebetter at that. But I also think,
you know, the arts are inmany ways the highest expression of humanity.
(06:17):
There are no rules when it comesto art. There's no winner,
and there's no loser, and Ithink that that's widely accepted and within Philadelphia,
for example, if you go tovarious communities recently, I was visiting
Esperanza, for example, They're completelyself sufficient culturally. I haven't been to
(06:39):
a city where there are such established, large cultural institutions within neighborhoods, within
neighborhoods where people don't necessarily see aneed to come to center city because they
have what they need around them,and so I think we need to celebrate
that. I think we need toconnect better or with those institutions that are
(07:00):
serving communities beyond our traditional boundaries.We need to be more accessible from a
public transit point of view, butalso digitally. So for example, we
have this incredible program of digital learninginitiatives which we're supposed to go back to
in person after COVID, and allof the teenagers said, no way,
(07:23):
I don't want to come down there. I want to keep doing this online.
I want to talk to people fromacross the city in different neighborhoods,
and so I think accessibility means alot of things, but I think it
also means that it's a place aresource that people are aware is available to
them and when it comes to culturein Philadelphia, there's community, there's representation,
(07:45):
there's accessibility, and then you know, of course, there's just the
fact that we're world class institutions.These are collections that people pilgrimage to.
There are collections that are known aroundthe world, and like any great city,
we can take them for granted,which is part of the luxury of
having them in our backyards. Butof course, I think the most important
(08:07):
thing for us to do as asector, and we're working together across all
the cultural institutions very purposefully right now. To do this, we have to
be loud and proud of what itis that we have in our buildings and
make sure that we offer those thingsand don't expect or feel entitled that people
should know that we have those thingsright off the bat. And finally,
(08:31):
everyone has a moment in their life, a pivotal moment where something happens,
you meet someone, and it setsyou on a path. Right, So
for you, what was that pivotalmoment or if you can think of one
that sets you on the path thathas led you to where you are today.
It's a great question, and likemost people, it changes from time
(08:54):
to time. But one that reallysticks out for me and has stood the
test of time is a visit thatI made to the Gugenheim Museum as a
young person, probably I was aboutten or twelve, and I used to
visit Bayside Queens from Toronto often becauseI had a grand aunt who lived in
Bayside Queens, and because my parentshad immigrated from Czechoslovakia in nineteen sixty eight.
(09:18):
They were New Canadians and I wasa first generation Canadian. Of course,
Canada was my home, but visitingmy great aunt in New York was
as much a part of my identity. And we would go, particularly with
my dad, to the met tosee arms and armor, and then we'd
always go to see the Gugenheim acrossthe street, just because of the icon
(09:39):
of architecture that it was, andin many ways, I think it represented
kind of an American dream of sorts. So we went to see the arms
and armor. And that's so literal, right, It's about history, and
you can imagine a time, along, long time ago, and that's
why I ended up studying medieval art. It's an easy and not so easy
(10:00):
at times, window into the past. And I remember crossing the street and
going to the Guggenheimen walking up thatramp and seeing a Kandinski painting which was
lines and triangles and circles, andlooking at my dad and saying, I
just don't get it. You know, what is this? And he said
to me, sometimes art is justan idea. And that really blew my
(10:20):
mind that there was a place wherethings didn't have to necessarily make sense.
And I'm a very practical kind ofI like to square the box kind of
person, and I realized this wasa great place museums, the fine arts,
where you could be proximate to somethingthat didn't have to make sense,
and to that kind of not necessarilya higher truth or anything like that,
(10:41):
but an openness to interpretation. Andfinally, what message would you have to
our listeners something that you'd like themto walk away from in this interview about
the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Foreveryone that's listening, I would just want
to be sure that we're being asas clear as we can at the PMA,
that I'm being as clear as wecan that our doors are really wide
(11:03):
open for everyone. And while wewill not transform overnight, we are working
so hard to become the institution thatPhiladelphians can see themselves in and of so
that we can bring that Philadelphia tothe world. And of course we're right
now having two major projects I'm reallyexcited about, and one that people should
(11:28):
see for sure is the Korean Artafter nineteen eighty nine exhibition The Shape of
Time, which is this incredible lookat how we got to where we are
today with Korean culture, kpop andall the other things that make that part
of the world so intriguing. Theother piece that I'll say is watch this
(11:48):
space. We're about to hire thedirector of the Brin Center of African and
African Die Sportcard and we have someincredibly exciting programming on the way. Check
the website out once a month Fridaysis pay what you wish, and our
memberships make it really easy and affordableto come over and over again. If
(12:09):
people would like more information about thePhiladelphia Museum of Art, where did they
go for that? The website Philamuseumdot org. CEOs you should know brought
to you by Comcast Business, offeringthe complete connectivity solution, cybersecurity, Internet
and mobile all from one provider,Comcast Business, powering possibilities
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