Glenn Lowry, director of The Museum of Modern Art since 1995, shares his transformative journey in the art world. He discusses how innovation has reshaped MoMA, increasing its visitor engagement both on-site and online. The conversation explores the balance of leadership and community engagement as museums adapt to contemporary challenges. Lowry emphasizes the value of patience in decision-making, the role of mentorship, and the intersection of sports discipline with creativity. He advocates for embracing discomfort in art to foster deeper connections.
53:06
forum Ask episode
web_stories AI Snips
view_agenda Chapters
menu_book Books
auto_awesome Transcript
info_circle Episode notes
insights INSIGHT
Problem-Solving Strategy
Glenn Lowry prioritizes solving the right problem by identifying who it affects and who needs to solve it.
Complex issues require diverse perspectives, and sometimes the best solution is simply not the worst one.
question_answer ANECDOTE
Listening Lesson from Sid Bass
Glenn Lowry learned the art of listening from trustee Sid Bass, who said, "You can't listen if you do the talking."
This skill helped Lowry understand situations better than being the loudest voice in the room.
question_answer ANECDOTE
Early Exhibition Influences
Early exhibitions at Washington’s National Gallery taught Lowry the blend of deep research and showmanship.
Documenta and Jackson Pollock exhibitions shaped his global and contextual thinking about art.
Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode
Professor of the History of Science Geoffrey Cantor
Jonathan Lethem
J. LETHEM
In 'Motherless Brooklyn', Jonathan Lethem tells the story of Lionel Essrog, a private investigator with Tourette's syndrome, who works for a small-time detective agency in Brooklyn. After his mentor, Frank Minna, is murdered, Lionel sets out to solve the crime, navigating through a complex web of gangsters, corruption, and personal relationships. The novel is praised for its unique protagonist, intricate plot, and Lethem's vivid portrayal of Brooklyn in the late 1990s. It won the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction in 1999 and the 2000 Gold Dagger award for crime fiction.
Glenn Lowry became the sixth director of The Museum of Modern Art, New York (MoMA) in 1995. He has overseen the physical transformation of the Museum’s campus through two building campaigns that have more than doubled the size of MoMA’s galleries, quintupled its endowment, created an education and research center, and inspired a new model for the presentation of modern and contemporary art. Lowry has championed innovation, both onsite and online, to grow MoMA’s annual visitation to nearly 3 million in the galleries and 35 million across moma.org. He expanded the Museum’s curatorial departments, with the addition of Media and Performance, and supported MoMA’s intellectual growth by creating new research programs like Contemporary and Modern Art Perspectives (CMAP). In 2000, he led the merger of MoMA with the contemporary art center PS1, and in 2015, he worked with Thelma Golden to introduce a joint fellowship program with the Studio Museum in Harlem for rising professionals in the arts. Lowry is a strong advocate of contemporary artists and their work and he has lectured and written extensively in the support of contemporary art, on the role of museums in society, and on other topics related to his research interests. He currently serves on the boards of The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, the Clark Art Institute, the Art Bridges Foundation and The Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, as well as on the advisory boards of the Istanbul Modern and the Mori Art Museum. Lowry is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a resident member of the American Philosophical Society. He and Zuckerman discuss courting risk, creating the time to think, controlling the process, professional guidelines, the goal for museums to be independent and private enterprises, thinking that opens possibilities, being fearless, passion, and why art matters!
About Art 
