Grant Holcomb:
A believer in the magical qualities of art

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Magical moments. Epiphanies. “Wow” experiences.
It’s the stuff the Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester is made of. Just ask Grant Holcomb III, director of the gallery. He speaks passionately of such experiences that he has witnessed, that he has been a part of. Indeed, that he has created for others.
“The gallery provides anyone in this community an opportunity for lifelong learning and enrichment,” he says. “It is also a place where whatever your background–religious or ethnic–you can come here and find part of your heritage and learn more about it and share it with others.”
Particularly for children, Holcomb says, the gallery can become magical. From simple expressions of wonder to awestruck exclamations, their fascination is “the great part of what life is, those moments in our life that become magical.”
Holcomb conjured magical moments for an entire audience–including for one of Rochester’s favorite sons–at an event he calls one of his most memorable experiences since coming to the gallery.
The occasion was a 1991 exhibit titled “Jacob Lawrence: The Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman Series of Narrative Painting,” and the accompanying program honoring the painter. When fellow artist Garth Fagan–whom Holcomb describes as “our Lion King”–and his dancers paid homage to Lawrence with a performance, Holcomb found it to be a defining moment.
“This place pulsated with pride in honoring this artist and pride in Tubman, pride in Douglass,” he recalls. “I thought, “That’s the type of programming, that’s what an institution can do.”’
Holcomb says there are even more opportunities for such experiences when cultural institutions–large and small–collaborate in a “commonality of spirit.” Among the organizations the gallery partners with are GeVa Theatre, George Eastman House, Writers & Books and the Visual Studies Workshop Inc.
“Collaborations are very rewarding in an artistic sense and a community sense,” Holcomb observes. “Any cultural place is a spiritual place (that can bring) epiphanies for people–aesthetic, intellectual and spiritual moments. (Rochester) is a wonderful city for things like this. It’s quite amazing.”
Holcomb, 52, sings the praises of the Flower City like a native Rochesterian. But he’s a Californian, born and bred, earning his bachelor’s degree in history at the University of California, Los Angeles in 1968. While pursuing his master’s degree in history at UCLA he decided to take a course in the history of American art. Holcomb calls it serendipity that he enrolled in the course that would be a turning point in his life, and that the course was taught by Robert Haas, a man who would be the key to opening the door of the art world for Holcomb–and become a dear friend.
Described by Holcomb as a renaissance man, Haas was friends with such literary icons as Gertrude Stein and Anais Nin.
“All creative lives were interesting to Haas,” Holcomb says, “and he brought it into the classroom.”
At the end of the term, Holcomb informed Haas that he wanted to switch majors and pursue art history and American art. Haas’ reply was an unexpected one: Go to Delaware.
Unbeknownst to Holcomb, the University of Delaware in 1968 was the place to be if you wanted to study American art. The university had six faculty members devoted to the subject, encompassing American architecture, sculpture and painting.
“I went based on that recommendation,” Holcomb says. “The four years at Delaware were wonderful years and it was a wonderful program.”
While in Delaware acquiring his master’s degree and doctorate in art history, Holcomb worked at the Delaware Art Museum as a curator, then moved on to teaching positions, first at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts and then SUNY at Stony Brook.
Another turning point then arrived in Holcomb’s life, this time brought on by personal turmoil. As he says, “life got in the way.”
He suffered the blows of divorce and the deaths of his grandfather and father within one month of each other. In the wake of this emotional upheaval, Holcomb felt it was in the best interest of his immediate and extended families to be together, so he and his children resettled in California. There, he moved from academia to a museum career.
That career began with a two-year stint as curator at the San Diego Museum of Art, then another two years as associate director at the Timken Art Gallery, also in San Diego. After those four, more stable years, Holcomb says, it was time to seize an opportunity to meet his professional needs, moving on administratively.
The Memorial Art Gallery presented him with just such an opportunity when in 1985 he was offered the position of director.
Although the transition from academia to museum administration was a difficult one for Holcomb, he could draw on the strength of the gallery’s board of managers for “key leadership at a critical time,” as the gallery was undergoing a capital campaign and a $7 million expansion.
But the position was a good fit, enabling him to work for an institution steeped in tradition.
“The match was a good one because of the university and city connection,” Holcomb says, “(and) the tradition of the museum (being) responsive to the educational needs of the community.”
The tradition began in 1913 when Emily Sibley Watson donated the funds for the building to house the art gallery. Holcomb quotes Watson’s mission for the gallery like a firsthand account: “for the edification and enjoyment of the citizens of Rochester to be held in trust by the University of Rochester.”
Another tradition emerged in those early years. It was the “Herdle tradition,” and to hear Holcomb tell it, the Herdle family’s heart and soul were poured into the foundation of the gallery right alongside the bricks and mortar.
An artist, George Herdle was the gallery’s first director, from 1913 to 1922, when there was no collection save for a few gifts donated in the first year. Herdle’s daughters, Gertrude and Isabel, would continue their father’s legacy, Gertrude taking over the director’s role and Isabel as chief curator, each holding those positions for 40 years. Isabel, now 91, still visits the gallery.
“The Herdle tradition runs deep and all of us are aware of it,” Holcomb says. “One loves them as people. Their gifts to the community run deep through the gallery in terms of their commitment to the community, education and outreach. We’ve taken that tradition and I hope we have enhanced it and established it to move well into the next century.”
One way the gallery continues its commitment to the community is by striving to expand its audience, reaching out to those previously underserved.
“The diversity of Rochester must be reflected in the diversity of the programs at the gallery,” Holcomb says.
Such diversity is visible in the menagerie of holiday-season events spotlighted at the gallery recently: “Festive Lights: Menorahs from Rochester Collections”; the annual Kwanza celebration; and a Three Kings celebration, marking the traditional Latino holiday.
Marion Hawks, an honorary board member whose association with the gallery spans more than 50 years, says Holcomb’s awareness of the community is one of his greatest strengths.
“He cares about the community as a whole and is interested in serving it, (including) all walks of life and for all people,” she says. “He has enhanced the museum as a community resource.”
To further expand the gallery’s audience, beginning with the upcoming exhibit “The Studio Museum in Harlem: 25 Years of African-American Art,” the gallery will make its exhibition openings truly open by welcoming members and non-members alike. Members attend for free, as before, and non-members may attend for $10 a person or $20 a couple, with the opportunity to apply the entry fee toward the price of membership.
The Studio Museum show also ushers in a yearlong series of exhibitions examining the variety and significance of contemporary international art.
Such special exhibitions complement the permanent collection, one that Holcomb feels the city should take great pride in. He describes the collection as encyclopedic, running from ancient to contemporary, noting that it has been called the best-balanced collection in the state outside of metropolitan New York.
Bill Buckett, a design consultant and Rochester Institute of Technology adjunct professor, has been involved with the gallery for more than 30 years and is the new president of its board of managers. He credits the hard work of Holcomb and his staff for the wide range of exhibits offered the community.
“We don’t have the money to put on blockbuster exhibits,” he says, “(but) working with the staff, (Holcomb) has brought very interesting exhibits that members and the community find to be valuable.”
The permanent collection is made up of 17th century Dutch paintings, 19th century French and British paintings, medieval and Asian art, and a substantial American folk-art collection that was one of the first such collections established by a museum in the country.
The gallery’s collection is filled with “pockets of strength,” Holcomb observes, dominated by his personal favorite, American art. That collection, he says, incorporates “pilgrimage pieces” or major works by major artists from 1800 to 1950.
While Holcomb regrets that it will be near-impossible to expand the American collection, due to financial constraints, the gallery instead will turn its attention toward an obtainable goal, a craft-art collection.
It is a particularly fitting collection for the gallery because “Western New York and Rochester has an enviable if not unique history in craft art,” Holcomb says. “We want to try to develop a collection that reflects the genius of this area.”
By continually adapting the gallery’s services, programs and collections to mirror the changes within its constituency, the gallery has been rewarded with staunch support.
Annual attendance at the gallery has grown during Holcomb’s tenure from 125,000 to nearly 300,000 today. He also cites the exponential growth rate of the Creative Workshop, voluntarism that is unmatched by any art museum in New York State, the increased viability of the Gallery Store as a source of earned income and the great success of the educational program, which the New York State Council on the Arts has made the model in the state.
The new Dorothy McBride Gill Education Center and an educational outreach program that Holcomb calls “one of the best-kept secrets in Rochester” enrich the central educational mission of the gallery.
All these accomplishments are that much more noteworthy, Holcomb says, because of the gallery’s place locally as the museum with the smallest operating budget among the four major museums, and one of the highest in attendance and members (more than 8,000), second only to the Rochester Museum & Science Center.
The gallery’s operating budget has remained in the range of $2.5 million for several years; Holcomb notes with pride that the budget has been balanced for six years, and that the gallery is just completing a $10 million endowment campaign.
He also notes that earned income and membership make up more than half of the gallery’s revenue, with UR contributing some 13 percent, painting a much different picture than other university museums.
But it is the faces behind the scenes, behind the numbers, that Holcomb repeatedly refers to as the gallery’s greatest asset.
“I can point with pride (to the) exceptional staff we have, matched by an active and supportive board,” he says. “The staff … are great professionals and equally great people. (They) run very fast and they run very far and they run very well.”
The 53 staff members are not the only ones running a good race, Buckett says.
“(Holcomb) really runs the gallery. As the board, we’re responsible for the decisions that are made, but he makes the plays run. He’s the pro at it (and) he makes sure the business side doesn’t take time away from the artistic side.”
Holcomb keeps pace in his home life, too, and with his four children ranging in age from 12 to 31.
“The kids are vitally important,” he says.
Holcomb also loves reading contemporary poetry and he loves basketball. Combining the two might seem unlikely. But there is such a thing as the poetry of basketball, as Holcomb proves, reciting a refrain from a poem about Magic Johnson in perfect cadence–“Take it to the hoop Magic Johnson”–while searching his office trying to locate the poem, wanting to relate every word.
Holcomb’s response to a question about his favorite artists is no less eclectic.
Nineteenth century painter Edouard Vuillard comes first to mind, followed by Winslow Homer, Edouard Manet and Paul Cezanne. But the way he sums up his favorites is like this: “from the architectonic monumentality of Piero della Francesca to the internal poetic rhythms of Paul Klee–from Piero to Paul–and a lot in between.”
Adds Holcomb, in a remark that perhaps best portrays himself and his take on art: “I’m open to all things.”