Recent arts coverage:
- Evolutionary biology. Aesthetic determinism. Live action role playing. The Rude Mechs are making a new play again
- Suburban battlefield: Women fight invisible foe in Amie Siegel’s ‘Black Moon’
- In eerie paintings by Ana Fernandez, a house isn’t just a house
More arts coverage | Follow this blog on Twitter @artsinaustin | Read recent arts reviews
Austin360 blogs > Austin Arts: Seeing Things > Archives > 2007 > June > 18 > Entry
Blanton Museum director to retire
Blanton Museum of Art director Jessie Otto Hite announced today that she will retire in March 2008. Hite, 60, has been at the University of Texas art museum for 28 years. She said she plans to take a year off before making any further career decisions.
“It just seems like a good time for me and for the museum to make the move now,” she said.
Hite’s long tenure and tenacious leadership is credited with seeing the Blanton Museum of Art through some very tumultuous times that made the new $83.5 million UT institution a reality. Opened last year, the Blanton is the largest university art museum in the country with important collections in Latin American art , American art and prints and drawings.
A native of Houston, Hite joined the museum’s staff in 1979 as a part-time curatorial assistant. She then went to become an assistant curator then to assistant director of public affairs within five years.
Hite assumed the directorship in 1993 just as UT began in earnest to build a major new art museum. A highly publicized architect search led to the Swiss firm of Herzog and de Meuron, known for their ultra-modern style. But in 1999 the UT regents rejected the forward-looking building. Supporters of the design demonstrated on campus.
Hite decided to stick it out. “I knew that if I left, the new museum project might get put on the back burner — maybe even for good,” she recalled last year when the new museum opened. “I couldn’t let that happen. I couldn’t just walk away.”
Permalink | Comments (6) | Categories: Blanton Museum of Art
Comments
When commenting, we ask that you keep things civil and abide by our Visitor Agreement. To report comment abuse, click here.
By Mary Campbell
June 26, 2007 3:20 PM | Link to this
It would have been nice if Ms. Hite had managed to put together a decent exhibit or even snag a worthwhile traveling collectiond during her long tenure. As a native Austinite, I have always wondered why a university with more money than God has been unwilling to fork over the “necessaries” to acquire some decent art. The athletic program never seems to be in need nor does the recruitment of ” in demand’ professors. Sad- very sad.
By Joyce
June 19, 2007 12:09 AM | Link to this
Perhaps the University will take advantage of this opportunity to hire a director with vision, insight, and a commitment to the visual arts. For many years, it has been painfully apparent to many that Ms. Hite was way out of her depth, but didn’t have the sense to realize it herself, and was enabled by a university administration more concerned with appearances than substance. Ms. Hite’s assertion that the new building exists because of her determination and commitment is not only balderdash, it is a glaring example of the kind of self-glorification and chance-of-a-lifetime promotion that we have been treated to for the past 2-3 years. The completion of the new building is a very modest accomplishment for a university that aspires to be “first class”. By their talk, one might think they had built the Great Pyramid at Giza.
Let’s see JC van Ryzin report on Ms. Hite after she has had her “year off”, and see what she is on to next. Very little, I’ll bet. And while you are at it, look beneath the Blanton’s press releases and report on the numerous fiascos that the museum has muddled through under Ms. Hite’s tenure. The real story is about stultifying mediocrity and wasted opportunities.
By George Holmes
June 18, 2007 5:57 PM | Link to this
Personally I would rather have had the Swiss firms’ building. It would have been another landmark for Austin, and the Arts. Wasn’t it still to be made of limestone with a Spanish tile roof? It’s not as if the whole of UT Campus has stuck with the original design either. Just two cents from a former staff member of the Archer M. Huntington Art Museum.
By David Wyatt
June 18, 2007 5:51 PM | Link to this
I work in arts publicity/pr and this is a refrain that I have had to hear again and again from arts groups, “why does the paper keep harping on our mistakes and challenges?” Of course, the answer is that these are the significant facts - without which their reporting would be incomplete and, therefore, wrong. They can’t help if the truth hurts. Something that Jeanne Claire and others at the paper don’t get credit for are the damning and completely relevant facts they don’t print about the arts - probably in the name of cutting them some slack. Although the local media would be completely justified in taking many organizations/projects to task, they demonstrate incredible restraint. Besides, these are their columns - in this case, a blog - and they are entitled to their viewpoint. We program - they comment.
By diana
June 18, 2007 4:33 PM | Link to this
What is the general public sentiment regarding the design of the Blanton?
We were founding members, but dropped the donation the second year — we were disappointed with the architecture and didn’t enjoy visiting that building.
I expected something inviting, that made you want to come back, like a water feature and/or a lush courtyard (air conditioned would be fine). Instead, it feels like a cold cube to me. It’s not what I’d call a human scale. Well — I love the Frick Museum in NYC. That’s my model of perfection.
I’d like to read any opinion about it. Might make me want to come back.
By Bob
June 18, 2007 2:55 PM | Link to this
Why does not Jeanne Claire van Ryzin drop the issue of the original design of the Blanton. It was an ugly design. I say kudos to the regents who stood up to the design that was totally out of character with the UT’s master plan. Van Ryzin always cites as an example of the “controversy” over the rejected design yet the resignation of the Dean of Architecture who supposedly resigned in protest made his resignation effective six months later. So much for the outrage. If this Hite woman did not like the design maybe she should have left in protest. So much for falling on your sword.