S2:E5 What's in a name? – Linda C. Harrison in conversation with Adrian Ellis

The Three Bells

Summary:

In this episode, our host Adrian Ellis speaks with Linda C. Harrison, Director & CEO, about her bold leadership agenda to transform the Newark Museum of Art into a relational organisation that not merely sits in, but belongs to its community. They discuss the evolution in the Museum’s organisational culture instigated by Linda, both internally and externally – from a significant name change, to an ambitious real estate development plan that aims to diversify income as well as to support downtown Newark’s emergence as a vibrant creative hub.

After, Adrian is joined by fellow host Stephanie Fortunato to discuss key takeaways. They reflect on the benefits of hiring cultural leaders from outside the sector, and the need to build an organisational culture that actively embraces cultural change.

External references:

• The Museum of the African Diaspora is a contemporary art museum in San Francisco that celebrates Black cultures, showcases the rich stories and cultures of Africans who have migrated throughout the world.
• The City of Newark is New Jersey’s largest city and its industrial centre.
• The Newark Museum of Art is New Jersey’s largest museum that holds fine collections of American art, decorative arts, contemporary art, and arts of Asia, Africa, the Americas, and the ancient world.
• John Cotton Dana is the founding director of the Newark Museum of Art. Together with a group of public officials, prominent businessmen and local collectors, he established the Museum in 1909 at the Newark Public Library.
• Museum Parc is Newark Museum of Art’s real estate development strategy. It consists of two apartment buildings – a six story structure with 90 units and an art gallery on the first floor, and a 12-story high-rise with 2,400 square-feet of retail space on the ground. 50 of the residential units will be set aside as affordable housing.
• Peter Drucker is an influential Austrian-American author, mentor and consultant, and is also known as the founder of modern management.
• New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) is one of the anchor cultural institutions for the city of Newark and the state of New Jersey
• Talent Justice Initiative is an initiative by Fund the People, that helps funders and nonprofits invest to advance intersectional racial equity in the nonprofit workforce

Guest bio:

Linda C. Harrison is the Director & CEO of the Newark Museum of Art – a large, complex, urban museum campus. Strengthened by her experience outside the cultural sector, Linda plays a strategic and unifying role for the organisation and the city of Newark. Linda’s corporate experience includes consulting, strategic planning, and technology applications for large corporations (IBM, Apple), Universities (Columbia, Stanford), and entrepreneurial companies (Wired magazine, Business for Social Responsibility). She lectures at seminars and workshops across the country to organisations developing new strategies to advance their business. She was previously Director and CEO of the Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco.