Sharon Lerner, new director of MALI, responds: How to avoid that the museums intimidate the visitor?

Assumes the position of director in full restoration of the perimeter of the Lima Art Museum (MALI), and that already has a symbolic value. For Sharon Lerner, it is a privilege to work in a building that turns 150 this year, and which is revealed as new after the works undertaken thanks to the European Union, the World Monuments Fund and the Municipality of Lima. A silent work started at the end of August 2020, which required half a million euros of investment.

To the renewal of the continent, it is now up to Lerner to do the same in content. Having worked for a decade at the institution as a curator of Contemporary Art, it has not been necessary for her to make prior diagnoses or analyze figures, since the now brand new director of MALI has known the horse very well before riding it. “I am formally assuming the leadership after a very strong diagnostic work within the team”, Says the researcher, referring to the introspection process of museum workers throughout the pandemic, with the address vacant for just over a year. “It was a transversal work, in which everyone participated. The institution was able to look within and recognize its strengths and weaknesses in order to adapt to the new reality ”, he explains. “The storm has not yet finished weathering, but the institution is in a much more solid and stable situation than a year and a half ago.”, he says.

Based on this self-diagnosis, what is the museum’s strongest point and in which should the institution work?

The annual plan foresees a very strong work in publics and hearings to improve the experience. MALI has always been characterized by having excellent content, great curatorships, a very attractive research work and a solid management of its collections, but perhaps the aspect in which it has been least emphasized is the experience of the public. How do you feel about the information? How to communicate? How does it move in space? What is the relationship between the museum and the park? Improving the experience should be a priority in the coming years.

I think you have to go back to basics. Likewise, there were a lot of public programs and activations that perhaps we did not value in all their dimension: MALI nights, concert Fridays, DomingueArte. The idea is to refloat them as a center of attention for the museum. And recover very basic things, too: reactivate the cafeteria and rethink all the income to make it more welcoming.

When I interviewed Bartomeu Marí, the former director of MALI, he told me that the museum was a “fragile” institution, insofar as the contributions from the board of trustees did not then exceed 18% of the total income of the institution. What has been done to strengthen it?

To say that it is “fragile” is relative. It would be if you think that all the museum’s income would have to come from its board of trustees .. But that cannot cover everything. MALI also has a self-managed system that has long served as a model for other institutions. Its sources of income come from its educational part, the management of its spaces, in addition to the box office and the search for sponsorships for projects. Having had many strategies has made the museum an institution with a very large projection. However, the crisis in recent years has been strong, and probably what we have to do is decrease a little until we stabilize, contain our ambitions a little until we reach a point of equilibrium. While taking risks on projects, naturally, but one step at a time.

How was the shock of the pandemic overcome?

With strategies in each branch. We have a very good management that does an ant job, attentive to the details of the institution’s economy. The team has made very strong sacrifices, projects have been cut and the members of the board of trustees gave their support in a determined way to sustain the institution, it must be recognized. And a lot was invested in transforming our sources of income. We have just closed an auction that exceeded our expectations, and now we are starting the VeraneArte campaign. We project expenses with a judicious perspective, adjusting each step and decision that is made.

Your profile is clearly linked to contemporary art. How to tune that profile to a museum whose public still considers to be especially linked to its pre-Hispanic and colonial heritage?

My profile does not have to define what the museum is going to do in the future. There are contemporary projects more and more present, a transversal work that is carried out in a natural way. The museum has a unique curatorial team in the national context, as there are not many institutions that have a pool of curators, with varied profiles, linked to the collections and the museum’s vision. We make all the discussions and decisions around the program collectively. And what we have talked about in the last year is that the approach should be more transversal. The fact that there is an emphasis on heritage does not mean that there is a contemporary look, and that there is contemporary work does not mean that there is a historical vision. It can be seen in our pre-Columbian samples, which always incorporate contemporary work, scientific advances, and technology. That is something that will not change.

So what if it should be changed in MALI?

The experience of the museum, which goes through the perception that people have of the institution. We have to work on opening that box.

How do you avoid making a museum intimidating?

As cliché as it sounds, the museum must become a meeting point, a place where people want to be. Let the patio be an extension of the park. That the gate is not a border. These are not new ideas, of course, but the big question is how to get there. The museum has achieved this at various times, but it is a continuous and sustained work. The great challenge is to achieve it after the pandemic.

This year’s museum plan includes a sample of the disappeared transgender artist Giuseppe Campuzano, How will MALI make visible artists many times overshadowed?

The museum has been working on it for a decade. The investigation and rediscovery of figures has been his banner. It is demonstrated by all the exhibitions of modern and contemporary artists that have been made. Giuseppe’s piece, “Línea de vida”, which we will present at the museum, was added to the museum’s collection four years ago, but there was never the space to display it. It is a summary of the project of its Transvestite Museum. For me, for people to see everything that has been done at MALI indoors, and making it naturally coexist with the usual collections, is like opening the treasure chest.

Will MALI resume its editorial line?

Yes, of course. The editorial projects will continue because they are associated with the exhibition projects. Although we had a time of great editorial activity, it has never been suspended. We have just released “Museo”, the book by Juan Enrique Bedoya, and the catalog by Sandra Gamarra, with the text by Luis Eduardo Wuffarden, just came out of the press. For next year we have the exhibition “The Incas: beyond the empire”, which comes with two major publications. Publishing projects are very expensive and it is increasingly difficult to finance them, but we are not going to stop. Only that the “coffe table” is going to have to be spaced out.

And the auditorium?

It is going to reactivate. But we are seeing with what tenor. Film and theater programs must be put together, rebuilding those relationships again. We have to find a point that can support the exhibition program and the more cross-cutting themes.

Mali has always had a global projection. How do you see the expectation that international museums have on Peruvian culture? I am thinking of the pre-Hispanic exhibition at the British Museum, for example.

There is a very good impression of the local scene from outside, and it is somewhat sustained. We are talking about large exhibitions, but also about the specific interest of international agents in local artists and producers. It has always been a dream, but we have not yet achieved regional exchanges. It is something that we have set ourselves a goal this year.