54 | SUNDAY BREAKFAST
HE ELEVATES CURATING TO A FINE ART
■ by david sweet
last month, Reed spent an hour walking the galleries. He watched carpenters work on an exhibit that opens Sunday Growing up in Lake Forest, entitled “Henri Matisse: The Cut-Outs,” showing the period Peter Reed loved botany, which late in life when the artist’s tools consisted of scissors and he demonstrated by plantpainted paper. He checked the space for “Robert Gober: The ing a garden in the backyard. Heart Is Not a Metaphor” — the sculptor wanted running Architecture captivated him, water in the gallery for part of the display, and MoMA was especially his grandmother’s spending many hours trying to figure out how that would work. house designed by David Adler on Lake Road. During the first portion of his 22-year career at the He played the piano and took a museum, Reed served as a curator in the Department of college course in world music that Architecture and Design. He put together major exhibiwas so eye-opening, it prompted tions, which take three or four years to bring to fruition, and him to take two around-the-world wrote books to complement them. After curating a show on trips — stopping in countries such as Finnish architect and designer Alvar Aalto — an artist so Indonesia and Afghanistan — before beloved in his country that his face once graced its currency he was 25. — Reed was knighted by Finland’s president. He points to Despite many creative pasa 2005 show he created called “Groundswell: Constructing sions, Reed admits that he the Contemporary Landscape” — which focused on sites reclaimed from obsolescence — as a highlight. was no artist in his youth and showed little interest in the “I was responding to what was going on in the world,” genre. So how did he end up says Reed, whose book on the topic is used as a textbook as the senior deputy director in schools. “No one had pulled together a show about postfor curatorial affairs at the industrial landscapes being turned into parks.” Museum of Modern Art After traveling the globe, Reed took a job at (MoMA) in New York, Peter Reed illustration by barry blitt The Art Institute in Chicago in 1978. He enjoyed an 85-year-old instituthe hard work and realized he wanted to be surtion whose collection is unparalleled? rounded by creative people and to help support them. Taking art history courses from Lake Forest College After earning both a master of arts degree and a PhD in professor Franz Schulze — who taught there for nearly 40 the history of art at the University of Pennsylvania, he lecyears — was a turning point in his life. tured at the Ivy League school before joining MoMA in 1992. “I ate up everything he taught us,” says Reed, a 1977 At the moment, Reed wears many hats at the museum graduate of the liberal arts school. “If you thought art was on 53rd Street. A liaison between senior administrators frivolous, he made you realize it’s a serious enterprise. It and six curatorial departments, he also oversees the conmade it powerful. It legitimized everything.” servation department, the publications department, digital MoMA — whose motto since opening in 1929 is “Art In Our media and more. He is proud to work for such a renowned institution. Time” and which focuses on everything from photography “The unbelievable support from our trustees and others to performance art — is constantly changing, and the Lake allow us to be global — and to dream,” he says. “I’ve never Forest native is there to help guide its evolution. One morning
worked at a place where, even if the idea is far-fetched, we will make it happen.” Though art museums once feared the digital landscape, worried that paintings themselves may be replaced by online images, Reed says MoMA has embraced changing technology.“Some of our innovative work is for online education courses, which is connecting people all over the world,” says the North Shore Country Day School graduate. “The hunger for art is also a social experience — it’s not an ivory tower. The digital realm is so interesting to us.” Being part of an esteemed non-profit runs in the family. Reed’s great grandfather, John G. Shedd, founded the Shedd Aquarium. “I love the place and its architecture. It’s pretty magical,” he says. “I’m somewhat jealous that Chicago has everything to help people explore the universe in one spot — under the sea (Shedd), the stars (Adler Planetarium), and the earth (Field Museum). If I could just retire tomorrow, I would go to Chicago and go to those museums all the time.” In his spare time, Reed loves listening to classical music, a passion fostered by attending Chicago Symphony Orchestra concerts with his mother, Marjorie, who is still a fan of the Friday afternoon performances downtown. For the last 15 years, he and his partner have enjoyed bicycling around places like Death Valley, another hobby that runs in the family — his father John and mother biked around France every summer well into their 80s. Reed also enjoys a country home in upstate New York, which is near the Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, Conn. Amazingly enough, a niece or nephew has matriculated there every year for the past 15, and their uncle makes sure to take them for Sunday breakfast to Chaiwalla, set in an old house in nearby Salisbury. Reed orders a waffle topped with sliced bananas, strawberries and blueberries drowning in syrup. And when the weekend is over, he can’t wait to return to work. “We have the most devoted, talented staff. We push each other,” Reed says. “I love my job.” ■