LSU Museum of Art welcomes new curator

The Friday before Katie Pfohl started her new job, she was defending her dissertation at Harvard. Right after that, she boarded a plane to Baton Rouge to begin work that Monday as curator for the LSU Museum of Art.

“It was major culture shock,” she says, laughing.

Pfohl’s experience runs the gamut of working at big name museums across the Northeast, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Philadelphia Art Museum. She interviewed for the Capital City position because she wanted to try something “totally different” and likes the appeal of Southern art, a topic she’s studied and published research about.

“It seems like a unique chance to work with a museum that’s on the cusp of doing some unique work,” she says. “[I want to be] a part of a new vision of what Southern art could be and what a Southern art museum could be.”

Though she hasn’t been in town long, she’s already seeking out local artists. In July, she’ll serve as an Art Melt juror and get even more exposure to Louisiana’s current crop of artists.

“It’s a cool chance to see what’s going on with the sensibility of young Louisiana artists,” she says. “I’m open to what that’s going to be.”

Though she’s full of energy and has an infectious positive attitude, Pfohl realizes the job isn’t without its challenges. The museum’s main goal is still getting more people through the door, she says.

“My overwhelming sense is that people just don’t know this museum is here,” she says. “It’s an incredible resource for this community. We’re hoping to bring out the fact that this is a place where you can learn and have a lot of fun. It can have beer tastings and special events. We want this to be a place that belongs to the community.”

One of Pfohl’s first shows will be showing the work of sports illustrator LeRoy Neiman, who is known for his colorful expressionistic paintings of athletes and events such as the Super Bowl and the World Series. She sees it as an opportunity to tie in the community’s love of sports with the museum’s collection.

“We have to figure out what people are doing, what they like, where their energy is and how do we design a program that capitalizes on that and entices people into the museum,” she says. “I think the exhibit [with Neiman’s work] will be a real chance for people to come into a place they may not know and get excited about thinking about this community in new ways.”