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April 30, 2024 13 mins

In this episode, Chancellor May sits down to talk with Rachel Teagle, founding director of the Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art. Rachel came to UC Davis to help build the museum from the ground up. She shares her unique metric for success at the museum and her favorite work of art that she says has the power to change your life.

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(00:02):
Hi, everyone.
Welcome to “Face to Face,” a UC Davis podcast
featuring students, staff and faculty innovators.
I’m your host, Chancellor Gary May.
Stay tuned for my next guest.
Hi, I’m Rachel Teagle, founding
director of the Jan Shrem and Maria

(00:23):
Manetti Shrem Museum of Art.
I moved to Davis almost 12
years ago now for the incredible
opportunity to build this beautiful
museum for our campus.
Now that our museum is open and
a thriving campus partner,
my work has really shifted.
These days, I’m focused on
finding ways to connect to our
students and our faculty.

(00:45):
And that means we have to bring
in artists of all kinds of
different backgrounds, artists
who are working with different
materials, artists who are asking
different kinds of questions,
so that we can reach out to the
incredible diversity of students
and our colleagues here in
Davis.
We believe that art is just the
starting point.

(01:07):
Art at its core, and the purpose
of a museum, is about the open
exchange of ideas.
And on our very best days, when
we’re really hitting everything
right, our real goal
is to help students find their place
in the world.
Welcome to “Face to Face,” Rachel.

(01:27):
Thanks for being here with us.
Happy to have you on to talk about
the thriving art scene here
at UC Davis.
Thank you for having me.
I want to start with talking about
you. Tell us a little about
yourself. What drew you to UC Davis?
You know, what made you take on the
project of being the founding
director of our museum —
and what that’s like?

(01:49):
Well, that’s an easy question to
answer because it was a
once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
I had worked on
three different museums of new
buildings, and at UC Davis,
the opportunity was to build
something entirely new from the
ground up.
And I’m not just talking about
architecture.
It was an opportunity to build
community, to build a following,

(02:10):
to really build something new.
And I turned
the job down a couple times because
I didn’t think it
was really that wide open.
And at the end of the day, it was
like, no, this is an opportunity to
really invent what
works for this place.
And what more could anybody ever
ask for?
So I learned something today.
I didn’t know you had turned the job

(02:31):
down.
I’m glad we were able to change your
mind and persuade you to come.
It’s worked out wonderfully.
I’m like you. I like to build things
and make progress.
I don’t like to take over things
that are already baked and done and
just keep them maintained.
So I can relate to that.
What have been some of your favorite
or funnest experiences as the
director of the museum?
Oh my gosh, I get to have fun

(02:53):
experiences all the time.
That is a great pleasure of my job.
One of my personal
metrics for success for the museum:
I like to go in on weekends
and evenings — we’re open late on
Thursday nights — to
track the number of student dates
that are going on in the museum.
The more dates, I think the better
job we’re doing.
It’s great that we have classes come

(03:14):
and teach, but when students are
coming to have fun, that’s when the
museum is really rocking.
That’s interesting. Student dates as
a metric. I’ll have to remember that....
Yeah, yeah.
In addition to art, we also have
many incredible spaces for
performance, for theater, for dance
on our campus.
What would you tell people that
don’t know already about UC Davis
and the arts more generally?

(03:36):
Oh my gosh.
So first off, I’m just going to say
it.
Arts at UC Davis are making a global
impact.
And I feel like the work
that I need to do is to help more
people see the incredible
resources, the incredible richness
that we have going on right now.
And luckily, I have amazing
colleagues who are helping me do
that.

(03:57):
Later this month, the
biggest thing in the art world is

happening (04:00):
the Venice Biennale in
Venice, Italy.
And one of UC Davis’ own, professor
Beatriz Cortez, will be included
in that exhibition.
So Beatriz is elevating
the arts at UC Davis.
And she’s just one among many
indicators of people who are
taking it global in the arts at UC
Davis.
Beatriz is great. We actually

(04:21):
featured her in one of my “That May
Be the Chancellor” episodes.
And I think she came to us as
an artist-in-residence in the
beginning. Right? ...
Exactly through California Studio.
And like so many of us, once UC
Davis is on your radar, you fall in
love. ...
Yeah, that’s what happened.
Yeah. That’s great.
Many people look at UC Davis
as a STEM-focused university,

(04:41):
but why is the exposure
to art and art programs
something vital to our students?
Well, we’re going to change the
perception. It is a perception,
unfortunately, right now.
But that’s something we can change,
because
all of us need access to the arts.
All of us need access to the arts to
be more full humans.

(05:03):
One of my goals is to make sure
that every undergrad has an art
experience while they’re here at UC
Davis.
But more than that, if you want to
just think in practical terms,
there’s a direct correlation between
participating in any form of arts
and being more creative.
There’s been scientific studies.
It’s a proven fact, and

(05:23):
all of us need to be more creative
in our fields — even our STEM
colleagues.
And the arts are a vital resource
to help you advance your own work.
As one of the STEM colleagues, I
would agree.
... Good. ... I think I need art to
be a little bit more well-rounded
and holistic in my own perceptions
and
things I do.

(05:43):
We have the Arts and Humanities
Graduate Exhibition that’s coming
up.
Can you tell us about that
multidisciplinary exhibition and the
student work that’s gone into it?
June 6. Let me start there.Everybody’s
invited. Six o’clock on June 6
is when we open.
This is another one of the really
fun parts of my job — is once a
year, all of the students
in the design department and all of

(06:05):
the students in Art Studio who are
graduating with a master’s are
required to exhibit their art.
But the really fun part is we get
master’s students out of philosophy,
Spanish, Native American studies,
art history — have an opportunity
to showcase their work at the museum
— dance,
performance.
The opening is really fun.

(06:26):
And this year, it’s even better,
because at 7 o’clock right across
the street, the UC Davis chorus
is going to host its annual concert,
so you get a twofer.

Thursday, June 6 (06:36):
want everybody to
come out.
June 6 — two for the price of one.
That’s right.
This year,
and especially this month, is also
special because we’re celebrating
the anniversary — the 30th
anniversary of the Egghead
sculptures — Robert Arneson’s
great work on our campus.
Looking forward, what does the
future look like
for art at UC Davis?

(06:58):
The future is really wide
open. We’re at a place right now
where
so many people
are doing the kind of work that
Beatriz is doing — where they’re
reaching global audiences with their
art — that all we have
to do is connect the dots,
Chancellor May. I think when we get
the word out, when we connect those

(07:19):
dots, more resources
are going to be coming into UC
Davis. We’re looking right now for
more investors in the arts.
I think the next 10 years are going
to be transformational for us.
I think so too, and I hope so.
I want to change gears a little bit
and do something. We have a feature
that we do on “Face to Face,” which
we call “Hot Seat.” ... Uh oh! ...
And “Hot Seat” just means

(07:39):
I’m going to ask you some rapid-fire
questions. I’m looking for one-word,
one-sentence type answers.... OK. ...
You ready?
... I’m ready. ... All right.
Best museum you visited in the world
— other than yours, of course?
Yeah.
Isn’t Manetti Shrem Museum obviously
the answer to that?
Well, I have a lot of different —
it’s like children, how could you
pick one?
I’m going to go with Georgia

(08:01):
O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe.
It’s a beautiful, small experience
that features one of my favorite
artists in the world.
Wow. OK.
In a parallel universe, what job
would you be doing?
Astronaut. No-brainer.
... Is that right? ... Yeah. ... Iapplied
to be an astronaut back in the day.
Why aren’t — you’re an engineer.
Why aren’t you an astronaut?
There’s a story there that we’ll
save for a future episode.

(08:22):
...
OK. Gosh, now I’m going to have to
tune in. OK.
Favorite creative pastime?
I love fabric arts of all kinds.
I’m big into crafting.
Our student staff often embroider
or crochet while they’re on the job
at the museum, and that always wins
my heart.
OK, I didn’t know that one either.
Your favorite artist or work of art?

(08:44):
Well, favorite work of art has to be
Velázquez’ “Las Meninas” in
the Prado in Spain.
It’s just one of those works of art
when you — if you’re so lucky as to
see it in person, I’m
actually the kind of nerdy art nerd
who believes a work of art can
change your life.
And that one can.
OK. Wow.
This is a question I ask all guests

(09:04):
on the “Face to Face” show:
What music is at the top — music or
artist is at the top of your
playlist right now?
Khruangbin, Khruangbin, Khruangbin.Do you
know them? ... I don’t. ...
They’re amazing.
They come out of the school
of Pharoah Sanders and Alice
Coltrane — but
no lyrics.
It’s all vibe, and it’s

(09:25):
excellent vibe.
I’m borderline obsessed.
Sounds like I should know them,
because I do like Pharoah Sanders.
Now it’s your turn.
You can ask me anything.
What would you like to know?
Well, do I get to know what’s at the
top of your playlist?
My playlist varies a lot.
Today I was listening to,
I was listening to Bob James on the
way to work this morning.

(09:46):
Nice. ... Yeah.
... I like that you listen on the
way to work. That’s good.
Get in the right headspace for work.
I want to know the most fun you’ve
ever had in a museum.
You know, I’ll give you two
anecdotes. One, when I was a kid,
I went to the Museum of Science
and Industry in Chicago,
... Famous. Yes. ...
which was one of the reasons I got
interested in science and

(10:07):
engineering and things that I’ve
done in my career.
I just thought the exhibits were so
cool. They were interactive, and you
got to not just look at them, but
you got to play with them, and
so that really piqued my interest.
And then more recently, I
was at the grand opening of the
Museum of African American History
and Culture in Washington, D.C., ...
Wow. ...
because my former boss

(10:28):
was the secretary of the Smithsonian
when the idea was conceived.
And so he got invited, and he was
kind enough to invite LeShelle and I
to go to the grand opening.
So not only did we get to see all
the exhibits —
very moving exhibits — we also got
to meet a lot of celebrities.
It was a pretty cool experience.
That is also an incredibly beautiful
museum. What a stunning piece of

(10:48):
architecture.
It is. It’s an impressive — when you
drive by it, you can’t help but look
at it.
Well, I want to circle back to
creativity, because I think a lot of
times when I talk about
creativity, people think
it’s something soft, not something
to be taken seriously.
But I really do believe that
it’s a fundamental skill set for the
21st century.

(11:09):
And I want to know, how do you
nourish your own creativity?
I actually used to draw a lot.
... Wow. I learned something important. ...
When I was — I think I kind of
trailed off in high school, but at
one point I was going to be an
architect.
And I used to draw my comic book
characters and things like that.
But it became less fun

(11:30):
when it became an assignment,
so I stopped.
But I also used
to write a little bit — creative
writing, not technical
writing.
So from time to time, I’ll
indulge those passions.
Did you ever develop your own comic
book characters?
Yes and no. ...

(11:51):
I like that answer. ...
I had a few ideas that I sketched
out, but I never developed them
fully into a story.
I love it.
What is a time
when you’ve been moved by a work of
art? And it can be performing —
we’re talking the arts broadly.
And “Star Trek” could count, but
let’s be a little more traditional.

(12:12):
I’ll stay away from the science
fiction. I’ll tell you, an artist I
used to think was really cool — I
didn’t know his name at the time
when I started looking at his work —
was Ernie Barnes. ...
Oh. Of course. ...
So, Ernie Barnes, for
those — our students are too
young to remember the “Good Times”
sitcom — but he
was the artist who really did the
painting that J.J.
was given credit for in the sitcom.

(12:33):
And he also painted a real famous
Marvin Gaye album cover.
And I just thought the
characters, the way he
drew or painted the proportions
of the people, and the way they were
depicted was just very, very cool,
inspiring.
Well, I’m happy to tell you that
Barnes is on the hot list these

(12:54):
days.
Last year,
blew out of the water auction
results.
The sales of his work now are just
sky high.
He’s finally getting his due
as not just a creative artist
but an artist who really impacted
generations of kids.
I have a piece of his work.
I’ll have to go Google, see how muchit’s worth. ...
It’s time to get it reappraised.

(13:15):
There you go. That can be its own
kind of art experience.
I think it’s just a print, but ...
Still counts. ...
we’ll figure it out.
Rachel, I want to thank you for
sitting down and talking with us on
“Face to Face” today.
I learned a lot, and we enjoyed the
conversation.
Thank you for all the work you do
promoting arts at UC Davis.
I mean, I think you’ve done aphenomenal
job, and I’m glad to give people
a chance to meet you on our show.

(13:41):
Thanks to everyone for listening.
Tune in next time on “Face to Face.”
Go, Ags!
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