a community honors its philanthropic leaders
Rachael Blackburn, the new director of the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, has been exposed to art all her life. Both her parents were working on their master's degrees in painting at the University of California-Berkley when she was born. Even after the family moved to Forth Worth, Texas, her childhood took place in a bohemian world of artists and musicians.
She remembers her mother painting a thundercloud once, then stuffing it and suspending it from the ceiling at home. "I was embarrassed to bring anybody over," Blackburn recalls. "I just wanted my parents to be normal."
Blackburn says that while she has a deep appreciation for art, she is more business-oriented and ordered than her parents are. She gives as an example her need as a child to alphabetize her father's 36 Bob Dylan albums.
Still, hanging around the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth where her mother worked must have had an influence on Blackburn. She started there as a security guard when she was a teenager and made her way up to chief registrar. She eventually took a curator's position in Los Angeles, working full time and earning bachelor's and master's degrees in art history along the way.
The opportunity at the Kemper appealed to Blackburn because of the reputation of the institution, its size, and its emphasis on contemporary art. There she oversees all aspects of funding and acquisition. One of her goals is to diffuse the perception that this is Crosby Kemper's museum. "It's the community's museum," she says. She also wants to build stronger relationships with businesses in the area.
Aside from the temporary cow controversy—the auction of the Cows on Parade will benefit the Kemper Museum—Blackburn says she is surprised at the extent of support in Kansas City for its public, permanent installations. "The people here," she says, "have a very high regard across the board for the arts."