Former Hood Director Brian Kennedy left the College in September to become the president and chief executive officer of the Toledo Museum of Art, The Dartmouth previously reported. Kathy Hart, associate director of the Hood and curator of academic programming, is currently acting as interim director.
Taylor said that as director, he hopes to increase student interaction with the Hood, citing his work with Penn students as an inspiration. Although he acknowledged funding concerns, Taylor said he wants to provide students with more opportunities to curate exhibits and plans to create seminar-style curating classes on campus.
"I don't think students anymore want to be passive consumers of culture," Taylor said. "I don't think it's enough for museums to stand back and say, These are magnificent works of art, you should come here, it's good for you.' In the future, we're going to have to really have a way of saying, You can play a role in this. This can be your museum.'"
Taylor added that he would like the Hood to provide funding for students to travel abroad to meet artists firsthand. If a student were curating an exhibit on Australian aboriginal art, that student should be able to travel to Australia to study local art and meet artists there, he said.
Taylor said he began to search for the next step in his career because he had accomplished his goals at the Philadelphia Museum of Art during his 15 years as curator. Working with Penn students on a highly attended Picasso exhibit was an "epiphany" and convinced Taylor that he wanted to work at a teaching museum, he said.
"I just never thought this job would be available," Taylor said. "I think [the Hood] is one of the leading teaching museums in the world."
Taylor emphasized the importance of opening up the Hood to students and increasing student awareness of the museum. He told a story of Dartmouth students in 1811 who threatened to blow up the Hood with cannon fire because they were not allowed to walk through the museum as a shortcut to their residence halls. The story can serve as a metaphor today by warning college museums against becoming too disconnected from the students that surround them, he said.
"If we don't let the students through the door, then they're not going to love the place," Taylor said. "It's not like they're going to destroy it today, but many of them will feel, I didn't see the museum during my time at Dartmouth, but I didn't really need to.'"
Taylor first heard about the position at the Hood in November and came to visit the College in December with his family. After observing "the flow of the space" in the museum and getting a sense of the staff and the museum's role on campus, the visit "strengthened [his] resolve" to apply for the position, Taylor said.
