[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 187 (Wednesday, November 15, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7256-S7257]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    TRIBUTE TO EARL ``RUSTY'' POWELL

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, for 25 years, Earl ``Rusty'' Powell has 
served as the director of the National Gallery of Art, making him the 
longest serving director in its history. Rusty will retire in early 
2019, concluding a tenure that has marked growth and development at one 
of our Nation's great galleries.
  Rusty's life of public service began with 3 years of service in the 
Navy, during which he served as a navigator in Vietnam. Upon his 
return, Rusty embarked on what would become a decades-long career as a 
curator, historian, and aficionado, earning a doctorate from Harvard 
before beginning his first assignment at the National Gallery of Art.
  His experience there led to a 12-year tenure as the director of the 
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, after which he returned to the 
National Gallery for what would become the longest tenure of a director 
in its 75-year history. He has worked tirelessly at the National 
Gallery of Art to increase the accessibility of the arts by expanding 
the National Gallery's projects, exhibitions, and endowment.
  Rusty's approach to expanding and enriching the National Gallery has 
been as collaborative as it has been visionary. Rather than govern with 
a singular vision, he included his staff and board in moving the museum 
forward. From the construction of the stunning sculpture garden, to the 
renovation of the gallery's west wing, no detail has been overlooked 
throughout his tenure. He has also overseen several other projects that 
received less attention but are of no lesser value to the current 
success of the gallery. All these improvements have enhanced the 
experience of the more than 5 million visitors that pass through the 
gallery every year.
  Rusty's great passion for the mission of the National Gallery and his 
unwavering efforts to bring storied art collections to its millions of 
visitors each year are unparalleled. With his retirement next year, he 
will leave a legacy at the gallery that will never be forgotten.
  Marcelle and I have treasured the evenings we have spent with Rusty 
and his wife, Nancy, at exhibits and events we will always remember.
  I ask unanimous consent that the November 7, 2017, Washington Post 
article detailing Rusty's time and accomplishments at the National 
Gallery of Art be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

[[Page S7257]]

  


                [From the Washington Post, Nov. 7, 2017]

     The Quiet, Productive Tenure of Rusty Powell To Come to an End

                           (By Geoff Edgers)

       National Gallery of Art Director Earl ``Rusty'' Powell, 
     whose tenure has been marked by the collection's growth, the 
     renovation of nearly every space and a startling lack of 
     controversy, will retire in early 2019 after more than 25 
     years in charge.
       Powell, 74, planned to tell the National Gallery's staff 
     Tuesday during informal meetings. Next year, the trustees 
     will begin the process of finding a successor for the 
     longest-serving director in its 76-year history.
       ``I think I have run a pretty good race here, and it seems 
     sort of a logical time,'' Powell said in explaining the 
     decision. ``I turn 75 next year. And this will be after that. 
     I still have some gas in the tank. I'm not particularly 
     interested in sitting on the porch looking at sunsets.''
       What he'll do, he said, is not clear. But what he has 
     accomplished at the National Gallery is easy to chart. Over 
     Powell's tenure, the institution, with a $200 million 
     operating budget and 5 million visitors a year, has been 
     reshaped, from the addition of a sculpture garden in 1999 to 
     the dramatic renovation of the East Building, completed last 
     year to add stunning galleries devoted to Mark Rothko and to 
     Barnett Newman's ``Stations of the Cross.'' Powell has also 
     overseen projects less buzzworthy but just as essential.
       Six years and $19.3 million were spent renovating more than 
     three acres of leaky skylights in the West Building, part of 
     a deferred maintenance disaster once considered so dire it 
     inspired a local TV news series titled ``Gallery of Shame.''
       Powell's tenure has also been notable for something it 
     lacked: controversy.
       ``He's had that balance between being able to make 
     decisions and yet not offend everybody,'' said John 
     Wilmerding, the former National Gallery deputy director who 
     later served as chairman of its board of trustees.
       Powell would never use words such as ``consummate 
     leadership,'' as his supporters do, to describe himself. He 
     can be witty, have strong opinions, but these often come as 
     asides, spoken softly and without naming names. He is not one 
     to call out other museum directors, even though he does note 
     that he doesn't agree with everyone in the field. About what? 
     With whom? He won't say.
       This is in contrast with J. Carter Brown, the blue-eyed 
     impresario he replaced in 1992. Brown loved blockbusters, 
     mingling with royals--he brought Prince Charles and Princess 
     Diana to the National Gallery in 1985--and tended to spend 
     less time on issues such as infrastructure. Wilmerding 
     remembered that when Powell started, he noticed a stiffness 
     when Powell had to speak in front of groups.
       ``He relied too much on his notes,'' Wilmerding said. ``I 
     remember saying to him, `You've got the personality--do more. 
     Wing it. Tell jokes. Be yourself.' That awkwardness rapidly 
     began to change.''
       Born in South Carolina, Powell was just 4 when his father 
     died of injuries sustained during World War II. The family 
     moved to Rhode Island, and his mother eventually remarried. 
     Powell went to Williams College, where he played linebacker 
     and, after struggling to conquer chemistry class, found 
     himself studying art history.
       As a boy, he had fond memories of hanging around his 
     grandfather's lithography business. In college, he found 
     inspiration in S. Lane Faison Jr., a legendary professor who 
     would help train many members of the ``Williams mafia,'' a 
     group of graduates that included future museum directors 
     Glenn D. Lowry of the Museum of Modern Art; James Wood of the 
     Art Institute of Chicago; and Powell's onetime roommate, John 
     Lane, who led the Dallas Museum of Art and San Francisco 
     Museum of Modern Art. Other Williams graduates to become 
     directors include Michael Govan of the Los Angeles County 
     Museum of Art and Joseph Thompson of the Massachusetts Museum 
     of Contemporary Art.
       Powell credits his next stop--three years in the Navy, from 
     1966 to 1969--with helping him develop the skills to become a 
     leader. Lane also went from Williams to the Navy. The time 
     served helped them step into directorships while only in 
     their mid-30s.
       ``We had already had the happy burden of being responsible 
     for a huge piece of machinery and a lot of fellow 
     shipmates,'' Lane said. ``And in what were particularly 
     dangerous circumstances. You were well equipped to take on 
     responsibility.''
       The service also, unexpectedly, led Powell to Harvard. One 
     afternoon, Powell stopped by the art history department at 
     Harvard to ask for a course catalogue. Professor Seymour 
     Slive, a World War II veteran, noticed he was wearing his 
     Navy whites, struck up a conversation, and then urged him to 
     attend graduate school in Cambridge. This started a long list 
     of opportunities that opened up for Powell, who noted that 
     ``I've never had to apply for a job.''
       In 1976, not long after Powell earned his PhD, Brown hired 
     him for his first stint at the National Gallery as a curator 
     and special assistant.
       And in 1980, Powell took his first trip to California to 
     interview for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art's top job. 
     At 36, he began a 12-year tenure marked by tremendous growth, 
     with the museum's budget jumping from $8.5 million to $31 
     million and attendance more than doubling to close to a 
     million visitors a year.
       Comedian Steve Martin, who served on the Los Angeles County 
     Museum of Art's board of trustees, marveled at Powell's 
     ability to embrace a wide range of art, his cordial nature 
     and his ability to understand how to manage the many 
     perspectives on the board. What's more, Martin found it 
     notable that Powell's tenure was conflict-free.
       ``I never heard anybody say an unkind word about him,'' 
     said Martin, an art collector.
       Powell, when asked about his leadership style, gives credit 
     to others--curators, other administrators, staff--for making 
     him feel comfortable delegating authority. He uses email but 
     says many of his meetings are informal, taking place as he 
     walks from his car to his office in the morning.
       ``I've always believed in a collegial, organizational 
     structure,'' he said. ``I think communication is a really 
     important thing. I learned to look at the big things. Not get 
     bogged down with the little things. We make collective 
     decisions about most of the things we do here. Our 
     exhibitions program. It's not `Rusty says we'll do this, 
     we'll do that.' We talk about it. We meet and discuss things 
     rather than do things from the top of it.''
       Powell can be so understated, it's hard to know when he's 
     asking for anything. Even millions. That's what longtime 
     board president Victoria Sant found when the National Gallery 
     was raising money for the renovation of the East Building.
       ``You sort of don't know when Rusty's put the touch on 
     you,'' she said. ``He's not an aggressive fundraiser. He 
     tries to bring things to people that they want, that was in 
     their interest area. And I think one of the things that Rusty 
     has stressed is that when you give a gift to the National 
     Gallery, you're really giving a gift to the nation.''
       Sant and her husband, Roger, ultimately gave $10 million to 
     the East Building project, which added more than 12,000 
     square feet of gallery space and an outdoor sculpture terrace 
     overlooking Pennsylvania Avenue.
       That was just one of the most recent accomplishments during 
     Powell's tenure. The list of art acquisitions, exhibitions 
     and building projects that have taken place since 1992 runs 
     for pages, from the construction of Dutch cabinet galleries 
     in 1995 to the endowment campaign launched last year after a 
     $30 million matching grant from the Andrew W. Mellon 
     Foundation.
       Powell's announcement means there will no longer be a 
     director who spent time with Paul Mellon, the late 
     philanthropist who stood next to President Franklin D. 
     Roosevelt when the family's money and art collection sparked 
     the National Gallery's opening in 1941.
       It was in Powell's first week as director that Mellon 
     invited him for lunch. Later, the philanthropist shared his 
     passion for a proposed sculpture garden. Powell remembers 
     showing Mellon the plans.
       ``How big are the trees?'' Mellon asked.
       ``We're going to have them as big as we can get them,'' 
     Powell said.
       ``Good, because I don't have that much time left and I'd 
     really like to see this,'' Mellon said.
       ``Mr. Mellon, we're not going to give you a starter kit for 
     the sculpture garden,'' Powell said.
       The garden, in fact, opened in May 1999, four months after 
     Mellon's death at the age of 91.
       Powell said he never considered leaving the National 
     Gallery, even when headhunting firms called to see whether he 
     might be interested in other jobs. (Powell's total 
     compensation was comparable to those at other major 
     institutions. He earned $1.17 million in the most recent 
     public filing available, compared with the $1.44 million 
     earned by then-Met Director Thomas Campbell.) He appreciated 
     not having to spend so much time trying to raise money, as is 
     the case when you're running the Metropolitan Museum of Art 
     or Boston's Museum of Fine Arts. Nearly three-quarters of the 
     National Gallery's $200 million annual operating budget comes 
     from the federal government.
       He also feels a deep connection to the District.
       ``If you do what I do, it's the best job in the field,'' he 
     said. ``The standards are very high. The collections are 
     exemplary. The programs are great. You're not out with a tin 
     cup raising money to keep the building open. The federal 
     funding obligations are to keep it maintained. It's got a 
     center for advanced study. I came out of the academic side, 
     and this is the most academic place that can exist. It's a 
     unique place in the context of American museums.''

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