Julia Weber
Staff writer
Columbus Museum of Art Executive Director and CEO Brooke Minto will deliver the annual Leon and Gloria Plevin Museum Director Lecture at 6:30 p.m. tonight in Hultquist Center for Chautauqua Visual Arts.
“I’m honored to participate in the Plevin Museum Director Lecture Series and plan to reflect on the role of museums today as dynamic civic institutions — spaces for reflection, dialogue and transformation,” Minto said.
Minto said she intends to share insights from her work at the Columbus Museum of Art and other arts institutions across the country and world. She will focus on exploring ways in which museums can connect with the communities in which they operate, while simultaneously staying responsive to an evolving cultural and social landscape.
“(Museums) must be more than repositories of objects — they need to serve as third spaces where people can reflect, connect and engage with the most pressing ideas of our time,” she said.
In an increasingly polarized world, museums are charged with acting as spaces that foster inclusion and dialogue amongst the communities they serve. Minto will discuss the challenges museums face and how the field can rise up to meet these challenges and continue to serve public discourse and accessible knowledge.
“(Museums) have a responsibility to be relevant, responsive, and rooted in their communities while also contributing to broader, global cultural conversations,” she said.
This idea reflects Minto’s own relationship with museums.
“Growing up, I was surrounded by art and culture, and I came to see museums as spaces of both discovery and belonging,” she said.
Minto’s academic studies in art history helped to “solidify that passion,” she explained, and an internship at the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College confirmed that very passion, thus leading to a more than two decades-long career in the field at many lauded arts institutions.
Before joining CMA in 2023, Minto was the inaugural executive director of the Black Trustee Alliance for Art Museums, a nonprofit membership organization working to “transform art museums into more equitable and excellent spaces of cultural engagement by helping Black trustees direct their institutions toward a more equitable and inclusive future,” according to the alliance’s mission statement.
Previously, she has held senior leadership roles at art institutions including Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa, the New Museum, New Orleans Museum of Art and Pérez Art Museum Miami.
Minto serves on the board of advisors for the Hood Museum of Art and the board of directors for Print Center New York.
