Converging Cultures: Art & Identity in Spanish Americaexhibition design, The Brooklyn Museum, 1996
RF: While my experiences at both the Guggenheim and the Brooklyn Museum were amazing, I found that I was not well suited for these large organizations, and there was also an educator inside me that wanted to get out. When I first came to FAU, I curated several shows to reestablish my curatorial chops with my knowledge of the then current scene in New York, but I also needed to solidify the program, get resources outside of the university to do high quality exhibitions and in time, invite others to curate. While I have done plenty of curating over the past several years, I have mostly handled the regionally based shows and invited others to do the “out of New York” shows.
OV: Could you share some of the advice you give to your students and let us know if they have also taught you anything? RF: For artists, I highly encourage them to develop their ability to articulate their ideas about their OnV
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art verbally and in writing. Successful artists are really smart and generally, they can sincerely talk about their work intellectually, not just compassionately. For students that want to be curators, I tell them they better plan on getting a Ph.D. just to begin to be able to compete. Finally, diversity of skills is very important and in some ways, I believe computers have helped to make this more natural or easier, but there are also lots of hands-on skills that are not necessarily taught, like framing, installing artwork, etc. At FAU, I have developed the University Galleries program to be a learning laboratory, meaning that I have chosen to employ students rather than a more stable, longer lasting support staff. This creates an environment where we all learn from one another, including me! It is inspiring and fulfilling to see some of the students come into their own through their engagement with our operation. Recently, one of our long-time student employees became the paid full-time intern at the Margulies Ma
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