The
Bronzeville Center for the Arts has its first executive director and chief executive officer in
Robert Parker.
Parker, a North Carolina native, has decades of experience in leading the design and development of museums across the country. Most recently, he served as the executive director at The Chickasaw Nation-Chickasaw Inkana Foundation in Tupelo, Mississippi, leading the design and development of the new $36 million Chickasaw Heritage Center.
This included spearheading a fundraising campaign that raised $30 million in two years. In his new role at the BCA, Parker will be responsible for overseeing the planning, design, construction, community engagement and operation elements of the center’s two developments: Gallery 507 and the future destination arts museum. The project comes with
a $54.9 million price tag and a capital campaign is expected to launch next spring. The public will also be invited to a series of engagement workshops later this summer.
BizTimes Milwaukee reporter Ashley Smart caught up with Parker this week to learn about how he plans to tackle this massive project and what attracted him to this new role.
What attracted you to this new position at the Bronzeville Center for the Arts?
“I stumbled upon this opportunity in search of jobs in general. I was actively searching because I wanted to go back to a space that celebrated African American heritage, history, art and culture. As I was looking through Indeed.com, I saw one position that I was interested in and that position actually had an executive search firm managing the search. When I went to that website – you know how you sometimes go into a rabbit hole – I saw the same executive search firm was also seeking an executive director and CEO for the Bronzeville Center for the Arts. As I began to read that, I was like wait, this is more along the lines of who I am and what I enjoy doing. I actually started out in art as a museum professional in an undergrad program. My foundation began at the university art gallery on campus. It was the Mattye Reed African Heritage Gallery. I started there and then kind of moved into the history museum space. I got away from art, although art was still a part of the other collections I worked on. I just fell in love with this position and had to put my name in the hat.
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How have your past positions prepared you for this role?
“This is my third design/build project of this nature. Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historical Park located in Cambridge, Maryland was my first and then Chickasaw Heritage Center in Tupleo, Mississippi. In those places it was really exciting to work with a team to actually create the inaugural exhibits, create the visitor programming and to address the desires in terms of what they want to experience. Prior to that experience, I went to museums that were already established for 15, 20 years and sometimes you say to yourself, ‘We need to do it this way.’ Now you have the opportunity to get it done right the first time around. I want to do that here and we’re looking at what the best practices are right now across the country in terms of how art museums are connected to the public. We want to use those models and take it to the next level. We want to have more engaging experiences for our visitors – basically leave an indelible mark.”
What will be your fundraising strategy for this project?
“This will be my second capital campaign that I’ve managed. The first thing that I am looking at is bringing in a director of institutional advancement. I definitely need someone whose entire role is to help secure the funds – whatever that looks like. They’ll help the team strategize the best way forward to cultivate donors. I like to have what I call donor partnerships with corporations. We want corporations to be able to partner with us to be able to make these experiences a reality for the public. I also think it’s important to engage the community at various levels. Everyone can’t necessarily donate thousands of dollars but there are individuals that can donate a couple of hundred here, $100 or $50. All that adds up. But how do we make that impactful for that donor too? How do we make certain that they see themselves as making a tremendous impact on this project? We want to make certain that they feel as much like a VIP as any corporate or foundation donor. I also think about charter membership as an opportunity to give and participate.”
What are the differences between the Gallery 507 and art museum space?
“Gallery 507 is actually under construction as we speak and we anticipate that particular project being complete this fall. That doesn’t necessarily mean we’re going to start operating in fall. We’re building a plane by flying it. We’re still discovering the best way forward. Gallery 507 will be the initial office space for the BCA. That will also be our initial footprint and introduction to the community. From that space, we’re going to have curated shows and a smaller gallery. We’ll have public programming as well. There’s going to be a maker space and workshop and a small retail shop. It gives us a central operational space to further develop the property at 2312 (N. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive), which is the old DNR building. The plan is to do a redesign of that space. We’re still working on the design piece of that. We anticipate new renderings will come out late summer, early fall.”
What are you most excited about in getting to know Milwaukee?
“I’m planning to go to the beach. I’ve never been to a city where the beach is in the city. I love that. I’m ready for Summerfest. I’ve heard so many great things about Summerfest. I’ve heard there are some wineries around here – I want to experience that. There’s just so much culture and so many things to do that I can’t wait for the spring and summer.”
What is the long-term goal of the BCA?
“Art reflects history and art reflects cultural and political movements. To be able to have opportunities to interpret those stories is what we want to do. I think we’ll be able to do that well if we continue to be strategic in our planning.”
