The new Bechtler curator wants to diversify programming and share untold stories

Anastasia James is on a mission to tell the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art’s story. As the new curator she wants to diversify programming and showcase narratives the Bechtler has yet to highlight.

She arrived in December amid multiple staffing changes at the uptown museum. The Bechtler also recently welcomed Bruce LaRowe as interim director following the departure of Founding Director John Boyer.

James’ arrival hearkens a new age of leadership with a renewed focus on telling the Bechtler collection’s story. The Bechtler is home to the private collection of the Bechtler family of Switzerland, a collection amassed over 70 years.

James is the museum’s third curator and faces the challenge of finding new ways to share the collection and tell its stories. The bulk of the permanent collection is specific to Western Europe in the 20th century, but is full of names to impress even an art world neophyte: Picasso, Calder, Warhol and Giacometti, an artist whose bronze sculpture “L’Homme au doigt” sold for a record $141.3 million at a 2015 Christie’s auction. The collection is valuable and impressive, but also restricted by time and place.

James earned an MA at Bard College’s Center for Curatorial Studies and most recently served as curator at the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles. She previously held positions at the Dorsky Museum at SUNY New Paltz, Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco, and Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh.

Bechtler board member Vivi Bechtler said James’ experience in L.A. and Pittsburgh are especially relevant. “Her wealth of knowledge on Andy Warhol and her experience at both the Andy Warhol museum and the Lucas Museum make her a wonderful addition as curator to the Bechtler museum as we enter our second decade, “ Bechtler said.

Why Charlotte?

For someone who has bounced coast to coast, Charlotte might seem an unusual choice, but James said, “After spending so much time in big cities I wanted my next step to be to a place where there was a strong, close-knit artist and creative community where opportunities were readily available for people.”

As for what attracted her to the Bechtler collection specifically, James said it was the well preserved archives and the museum’s existing programming. The architecture of the building was another draw for James, who is an admirer of Mario Botta. The only other Botta museum in the U.S. is the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, so his work is rare and revered in the art and design world.

As for programming, the Bechtler museum has served disadvantaged communities for years. James specifically cited programs geared toward incarcerated youth, the blind community, and those suffering from Alzheimer’s and dementia.

“For a museum to do this in a sustained way is phenomenal and truly changes peoples lives,” James said. She saw these efforts as authentic in an industry where many other institutions don’t always “walk the walk.”

Diverse, local voices

The Bechtler presents a unique curatorial challenge in that it houses a collection that is not currently growing; the museum has not acquired and does not plan to acquire more works.

This will not hinder James, who says “museums now more than ever are interested in telling more complex and inclusive narratives and that’s one thing I really look forward to doing here.” She cited shedding light on artists from classically under-recognized communities.

Another way to continue interest in the museum’s collection is through programming.

“I’ve worked for a number of institutions who, like the Bechtler, have a small but impressive collection and one way we’ve been able to expand on the holdings is through programming,” James said. “Programming offers a wonderful opportunity to bring in more diverse, local voices in a way that they can interact with the collection. For me that would definitely be a first step.”

New exhibitions

For now, she is hard at work on the upcoming exhibition. In December the Bechtler opened “Ten,” an exhibition that looks back at the museum’s first 10 years. On May 22, the museum will open “Multiplied: Edition MAT and the Transformable Work of Art,” which was developed in collaboration with the Kemper Art Museum at Washington University in St. Louis.

This exhibition looks at the concurrent rise of editioned and kinetic art and will include 100-125 works, with loans coming from a number of major institutions.

In the long term, James said visitors should look forward to exhibitions that answer the question: “How do we balance in-depth scholarly exhibitions with more playful whimsical ones?” Audiences await her promise to tell the museum’s untold stories.

This story is part of an Observer underwriting project with the Thrive Campaign for the Arts, supporting arts journalism in Charlotte.

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This story was originally published January 22, 2020 at 1:23 PM.