THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, November 17, 1995 TAG: 9511180215
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 08 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY IDA KAY JORDAN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 169 lines
A NEWSPAPER REPORT about Peter Mooz, written when he was named curator of the Portsmouth Arts Center, mentioned his involvement in a Dallas show of objects owned by Catherine the Great.
``The very next day I received a telephone call from a man who said he had a collection of Russian art he would like for me to see,'' Mooz said. ``After we talked a while, I realized he knew what he was talking about.''
Mooz made an appointment to see the art the next day.
``It was the most stunning exhibit of Russian art I've ever seen,'' he said.
Within the week, Mooz had made arrangements to borrow some of the items for a two-part exhibit at Portsmouth's 1846 Courthouse.
Nothing illustrates better the importance of having a museum curator with a history of his own.
In the museum world, who you know and what you know are equally important. One without the other is not enough.
``It takes both experience and connections to make things happen,'' Portsmouth Museums director Betty Burnell said. ``We're excited about having Peter here. He will give the art center the credibility it deserves.''
Mooz, she said, ``knows the ropes of making things happen.''
Furthermore, Mooz said, he likes to make things happen.
``I've always wanted to do this,'' he said. ``I've been an executive director for 30 years and I'm now leaving that for someone else to do. This job is feeling so good.''
Mooz, 55, said he had ``never really worked as an art curator.''
``I think we'll be doing some exciting things that will be good for this community,'' he said.
The addition of the Russian show to this year's exhibition schedule is a good example.
The first part, featuring Russian icons, will open in December, the sacred side of a seasonal show.
``Then in the center of the gallery we'll have a Russian cabin with Father Christmas and a babushka,'' Mooz said. ``The cabin is being created by the Sugarplum Bakery in Virginia Beach.''
The second part, a survey of Russian art, will open March 1. Among the treasures that will be displayed is a Faberge egg never before exhibited publicly.
The owners of the collection, who have asked to remain anonymous, recently moved to this area from the West Coast. They came to America via Germany after fleeing Eastern Europe years ago. The art came with them.
Aside from the coup of the Russian art, Mooz already has added his own touch to things at the 1846 Courthouse.
At the recent opening of an exhibit of ultra-realistic sculpture by Marc Sijan, a live model sat motionless on a pedestal in the middle of the gallery. Visitors did double-takes when they passed and she winked or gave some other indication that she was not one of the sculptures.
It was a fun dimension to an exhibition that already had people talking.
Mooz does not doubt the validity of the notion that art is good for the economy.
In fact, he received the Emery Award in 1992 for ``doing the most to promote business and economic development in Dallas.'' The citation noted that the show of Catherine the Great objects brought 600,000 people to the museum in five months and resulted in a $140 million spinoff into the economy.
``Art in many places is the second largest industry, next to the leading business of each city,'' he said. ``Art generates an incredible amount of money. You don't see it, but you can trace it.''
Portsmouth, he said, can capitalize on what it has - an unusual group of houses in a small area, beautiful churches nearby, the Courthouse galleries and other nearby museums and attractions such as the Tidewater Community College's Visual Arts Center.
``We are going to do exhibits to draw people to Portsmouth because you have to experience this city to appreciate it,'' he said. ``I drive into work on High Street and it feels so comfortable. It's not out-of-date; it's just a pleasant place to be.''
The city, he said, had great foresight when it restored the 1846 Courthouse for art exhibits.
``I can't compliment the city enough,'' he said.
Actually, most of the gallery shows for the next year-and-a-half already are scheduled.
``We won't get our hands on them for a while but we're already working on them,'' he said.
One show he hopes to bring into town is an exhibit from the collection of Winslow Homer works he put together when he was director of the Bowdoin College Museum of Art.
``We want to know what people want to see,'' Mooz said. ``I feel they would be very interested in Homer.''
He believes local interests parallel his own special interest in American art.
``We can specialize in American and local painters, offer something different from the other museums,'' he said. ``We can create something here that is not in competition with others but an addition to the area.''
He said he intends to put together his own shows ``to get people in here.''
Mooz said he is ``thrilled that the TCC Visual Art Center is next door.''
``It's great to have a teaching institution next to an art gallery,'' he said. ``The students can come over here and see how the great painters did it.''
The arrival of Mooz to the art center is a milestone for the relationship between the school and the gallery.
Anne Iott, director of the school, has said she wants to establish an intern program which would place students at the gallery. Mooz has the academic qualifications to make the program viable.
In addition to an undergraduate degree from Wesleyan College in Delaware and law studies at Cornell University, he has a master's degree in art history from Boston University and a doctorate in art history from the University of Pennsylvania.
During his career with other museums, he has lectured and taught at many colleges and universities, including Mary Washington College and Bowdoin College and the universities of Virginia, Boston, Delaware, Vermont and Pennsylvania.
After switching from law and business to art, Mooz became a teaching associate at Winterthur Museum in Delaware. From there he went to Bowdoin and then to Richmond as director of the Virginia Museum in 1976, a job he kept six years.
During his tenure, the Virginia institution acquired the significant collections of Paul Mellon and of Sidney and Francis Lewis.
He was equally successful at several jobs in Texas.
``I built a really beautiful museum in Galveston for the Moody family,'' he said, adding that he worked four years for the Mary Moody Northen Foundation before going to Dallas in 1991.
For the past two years, he worked on developing the Texas State Museum of History, which ran into a funding snag and prompted him to think of moving back to Virginia.
``We loved Virginia when we were here and we built a house 12 years ago in Virginia Beach, knowing we would come back,'' he said. ``We love boats and we always wanted to be where we could have our own boat at our own dock.''
Mooz and his wife of 31 years, who holds a doctorate in biochemistry, decided to come back before they retired. To get a feeling of what was going on, they subscribed to The Virginian-Pilot.
``The first newspaper that came to us in Texas had this ad for this job in Portsmouth in it,'' he said. ``And, bang! Here I am.''
Museums director Burnell said that although the city had ``many qualified applicants for the job,'' Mooz stood out from all the rest.
His knowledge of art, his credentials and his contacts in the art world are not his only assets, Burnell said.
His experience in education is very important, she said.
Mooz agreed.
``We need to get more involved with the schools,'' Mooz said. ``Art is an avenue of expression for children. Many people understand their world through art.''
Everybody, he said, has personal pathways of expression.
``Finding oneself in art is a lifelong learning situation,'' he said. ``If we can broaden a child's frame of reference, we can redirect frustrations.''
In addition, Mooz may be able to bring the museum to the point of national accreditation, a designation many have coveted.
He knows what it takes after serving as accreditation commissioner with the American Association of Museums from 1980 to 1983.
``I don't think it'll take long to get us accredited,'' he said.
Mooz seems ready to rise to the challenges presented by a city art gallery, a far cry from entertaining the Queen of England at dinner in Texas and traveling to Russia to find items owned by Catherine the Great.
``We can do a first class job here with just a little more effort,'' he said. ``I have some rabbits I'm going to pull out of the hat.''
But he's not saying what until he's ready. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo on cover by Mark Mitchell
The galleries' new curator, former Virginia Museum director Peter
Mooz, shows Russian icons from a collection whose owners wish to
remain anonymous.
Photos by Mark Mitchell
"Russian Icon With the Virgin of the Living Water"...
Ultra-realistic work by Marc Sijan...
by CNB