Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, January 24, 1995 TAG: 9501260029
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KEVIN KITTREDGE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Joanne Kuebler, a former employee of the Indianapolis Museum of Art and now a lecturer at Indiana University, will begin her duties at the art museum in Roanoke's Center in the Square on March1, museum administrators said.
Kuebler replaces Ruth Appelhof, who left in May.
Kuebler "was the overwhelming consensus choice of the search committee, the staff and the board,'' said the museum's chief curator, Mark Scala - who was not a candidate for the position. ``She was able to articulate a well-thought-out vision of the direction the museum should go in. We're all very excited about her coming.''
Museum board Chairman Joseph Wright, who led the search committee, said Kuebler demonstrated during a visit to Roanoke that she can get along well with people of various backgrounds. He also said the museum staff liked her.
``We had 55 or 56 candidates,'' said Wright. ``We narrowed it down to four. It really came down to who we felt would be the best match for our museum. We're looking for someone to lead us to the next level.''
Efforts to contact Kuebler were unsuccessful; but in a prepared statement, Kuebler said she was ``delighted to be moving to Western Virginia'' and spoke of its charm and ``rich cultural life. ... It seems like the kind of city you would want to invent for the 1990s if it did not already exist.
``I look forward to being part of the future of the museum as it continues to grow and gain national prominence as an important museum of American art.''
Kuebler, who graduated from Maryville College in St. Louis in the late 1960s, was a curator at the Bronx Museum of Art in 1972-73. She worked for 10 years at the Indianapolis museum, which has a $10 million annual budget and holds art objects from around the globe.
She left that museum two years ago to finish her Ph.D. in 20th century art history at Indiana University. Kuebler also holds an master's degree from Hunter College, and received a Fulbright grant in 1977 to study Egyptian art.
In addition to heading academic programs at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, Kuebler organized a major retrospective of the work of American abstract expressionist Richard Pousette-Dart, said the Indianapolis museum's director, Bret Waller. ``That was a crowning achievement'' of her successful career there, Waller said.
The Pousette-Dart exhibit was the inaugural exhibit for a new wing at the museum. The exhibit was reviewed in The New York Times, and later traveled to Detroit and Washington, D.C., Waller said.
Waller said Kuebler left the Indianapolis museum to pursue her doctorate and to find a position with larger responsibilities, ``and she's done that.''
Under Kuebler, the Roanoke museum will continue to emphasize education, Scala said. He also said the new director hopes to help the Roanoke museum - which has an annual budget approximately one-twentieth that of the Indianapolis museum - gain some national recognition, in part by organizing ``blockbuster shows'' occasionally that will tour the country.
The museum's chief curator also said Kuebler was favorably impressed by the museum's folk art collection, which includes works by Howard Finster, James Harold Jennings and others.
Scala said Kuebler is aware of the pending battle over proposed cuts in state funding.
``She'll come into a financially stressed situation,'' Scala conceded. ``Obviously, we're looking for someone who's going to be able to confront tough fiscal times.''
by CNB