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So here\u2019s the real question facing the ICA\u2019s new leader: How can she sustain the museum\u2019s recent successes, while also expanding its profile as a bulwark for contemporary art in Boston and beyond?<\/p>\n
Abrams, who arrived here from the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, said there\u2019s no single response to the moment. But she\u2019s sure that any forward-looking strategy will involve collaborations with artists and other organizations. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere are moments in time where striking out on your own makes a lot of sense, and it\u2019s really savvy and strategic,\u201d said Abrams, who\u2019s settled with her family in Newton. \u201cThen there are moments where being in partnership is also really strategic and savvy. I think we\u2019re in one of those moments now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Abrams, 47, arrives in Boston at a moment of generational change<\/a> across the city\u2019s nonprofit arts sector, with new (or at least newish) leaders at the Museum of Fine Arts, Harvard Art Museums, Boch Center, Boston Ballet, and Boston Symphony Orchestra, among others. <\/p>\n But even by that measure, Abrams\u2019s arrival is striking: She takes the reins from Jill Medvedow, whose quarter-century tenure<\/a> at the museum still looms large today.<\/p>\n \u201cShe left the museum on really solid footing,\u201d said Abrams, originally from New York. \u201cThere are certain things that we are unwavering about: the relevance we have in the field as a producer of high-caliber exhibitions and a collaborator with artists.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s not to say there isn\u2019t room for growth. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s important to recognize that it is a totally different landscape\u201d today, she said, adding that \u201caudience behavior and expectations have shifted significantly\u201d post-pandemic. \u201cThere are ways that we can deepen our relevance in the city.\u201d <\/p>\n That was part of Abrams\u2019s charge at the MCA Denver, where as director she oversaw an ambitious exhibition calendar, while also spearheading initiatives to cultivate a contemporary art scene and expand the museum\u2019s influence in a city whose residents skew more outdoorsy than artsy. <\/p>\n At the Denver museum, where Abrams started as an adjunct curator in 2009, she produced exhibitions that featured works by well known 20th-century artists like Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring, as well as contemporary work by Tara Donovan and Dana Schutz. <\/p>\n Meanwhile, she launched the so-called \u201cOctopus Initiative,\u201d a program that commissions artworks from Denver-based artists then lends them out free to area residents. She also helped broker an innovative real estate deal for the museum to take over an old theater near downtown as a satellite space.<\/p>\n Sarah Kate Baie, program director at the MCA Denver, said her former boss embedded herself in the city\u2019s culture in a way that \u201conly someone who comes from outside of a community can.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNora really saw the possibility that she could realize her vision of expanding the museum beyond its walls,\u201d she said. Denver \u201cwas a place she not only loved, but that she wanted to champion and lift up. That includes her work with artists, and it includes her leadership here as the director\u201d to make the museum work as \u201ca catalyst and as a hub for creativity in the city.\u201d<\/p>\n Donovan, whose artwork often transforms everyday items such as Styrofoam cups into huge amorphous sculptural forms, called working with Abrams \u201ca career highlight.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI found her so smart and her enthusiasm so kind of contagious,\u201d Donovan recalled, describing Abrams\u2019s pitch to the established New York artist to do a show in Denver. \u201cI felt both challenged and safe working with her.\u201d<\/p>\n Those qualities are part of what impressed the ICA\u2019s board, which voted unanimously to offer her the director job late last year<\/a>. <\/p>\n \u201cWe were looking for somebody who would be a phenomenal collaborator and a thought leader in arts and culture,\u201d said board member Emmett G. Price III. \u201cThe moment I saw her in person and saw how thoughtful she was, her disposition, and how passionate she was … it became an obvious choice.\u201d<\/p>\n Six months in, Abrams has introduced her first initiative at the ICA: the \u201cICA Artist Pass<\/a>,\u201d which provides one year of free general admission to Massachusetts-based artists. But otherwise, she remains circumspect about future directions she may take the museum. <\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t come in with a particular agenda, because I want to be open to what the particularities on the ground are,\u201d she said. \u201cThe gift coming into this role at this time is that I can take time to be in conversation and really be listening with a lot of different stakeholders.\u201d<\/p>\n Nevertheless, Abrams must calibrate her emerging vision for the ICA to today\u2019s political realities. Gone are the days when the federal government supported diversity efforts writ large. Rather, President Trump is seeking to remake several high-profile arts organizations in his own image, while also promising greater scrutiny for regional groups. <\/p>\n As she passed through one of the ICA\u2019s upper-floor galleries, Abrams paused briefly in front of a self-portrait by Arcmanoro Niles. The painting<\/a>, \u201cI Look Just Like My Mama With My Father\u2019s Eyes (Can Time Heal the Guilty),\u201d is awash in color. It presents Niles, shirtless, as he regards the viewer, his luminescent brown skin set off against his hot pink hair, beard, eyes, and nipples. <\/p>\n It is not, in other words, a painting that\u2019s going to \u201cMake America Great Again\u201d any time soon. <\/p>\n But the ICA\u2019s response to the Trump era, and, Abrams suggested, the response of the field more broadly, must be bigger than any one artwork on the wall.<\/p>\n \u201cMuseums are targets,\u201d she said. \u201cWe have to be much more on offense strategically in terms of how we\u2019re talking about what we do and what our role is in making the city a healthy, safe, vibrant place to be.\u201d <\/p>\n Malcolm Gay can be reached at malcolm.gay@globe.com<\/a>. Follow him @malcolmgay<\/a>.<\/p>\n