Acknowledgments

Weiss, Daniel H.

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Acknowledgments

Daniel H. Weiss

Why the Museum Matters

I have been a dedicated museum person for most of my life, but I have learned the most about these remarkable places during my years at The Met, where I have been privileged to work...

Author

Daniel H. Weiss

PublisherYale University Press

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-23604

Acknowledgments

I have been a dedicated museum person for most of my life, but I have learned the most about these remarkable places during my years at The Met, where I have been privileged to work with a truly extraordinary group of colleagues. I am deeply grateful for what they have taught me, for their support of this project, and, most important, for the example of their passionate commitment to an idea that continues to matter a great deal. For assistance in matters large and small, I would like to thank Dita Amory, Carmen Bambach, Jordan Bean, Sharon Cott, Sarah Graff, Seán Hemingway, Max Hollein, Quincy Houghton, Alisa LaGamma, Griff Mann, Lavita McMath Turner, Elyse Nelson, Diana Patch, Joanne Pillsbury, Sheena Wagstaff, Ken Weine, and my indefatigable colleagues in the Watson Library, who found a way to support my research from inside a closed museum during a global pandemic. For advice and wisdom outside of The Met, I would like to express my gratitude to David Chipperfield, Sandra Jarva Weiss, Peter Osnos, and Philippe de Montebello, with whom I enjoyed many insightful conversations. I am especially grateful to Glenn Lowry, who took a lively interest in this project from the outset and has been a superb interlocutor. My mother, Leah Tchack, one of the world’s most insightful readers, offered much support and constructive advice.

This project has benefitted in myriad ways from Samuel Schapiro and Maria Fillas, both of whom served as superb research assistants, even when we were all homebound and otherwise preoccupied. I offer my gratitude to my agent and friend Karen Ganz, herself a devoted museum visitor, for her advice and enthusiastic support for this project. I would also like to thank Marina Kellen French and my friends at the American Academy in Berlin who invited me to give a lecture on the subject of museums during the early days of this project. My stimulating and entirely enjoyable visit there inspired me to proceed with this book, even as the Covid pandemic became a bleak and tenacious distraction in all of our lives. Indeed, I am deeply grateful to John Donatich and Katherine Boller at Yale University Press, who first proposed this project, which has provided a most welcome opportunity for reflection and learning while also serving as a heartening reminder of our shared humanity in the midst of much fragmentation and despair. I have received excellent support from the team at Yale University Press, including Heidi Downey, Laura Hensley, and Raychel Rapazza.

This project, like everything else in my life, is made possible by my remarkable family, who have supported me for as long as I can remember. I am grateful to my sons, Joel and Teddy, and especially to my wife, Sandra, more than I can say. Finally, I dedicate this book to my Met colleagues and to Bill Bowen, who was for me a beloved friend and constant inspiration. Although not exactly a museum person, Bill would have understood the point of this project and, I would like to believe, would have observed his influence throughout these pages.

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