March is Women’s History Month, and Boston has no shortage of strong women shaping the community we know today.
One of those women was Isabella Stewart Gardner, who spent her life traveling + building her art collection in the form of a museum, which guests can see and explore today. She lived on the fourth floor and installed her collection of paintings, sculptures, furniture, and rare books throughout the first three floors.
While the museum may appear frozen in time, a team of curators work to bring fresh exhibits and installations to the museum, including Being Muholi: Portraits as Resistance, which is on display now through May 8.
Let’s get to know another woman behind the art on display. We talked with Diana Greenwald, an assistant curator at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.
What are three things you want people to know about you?
I’m a native New Yorker. In addition to being an art historian, I’m also an economic historian, so I work on both statistics and art in my academic research. And a third thing you should know about me is that I’m passionate about French culture and language. I’ve worked on our American and French collections.
What is it like to work at the museum?
First, I’ll say that it’s a real privilege to work at this museum. I visited for the first time in the summer of 2018 and I loved it.
I think that it’s a marvelous, one of a kind place. It’s one giant exciting scavenger hunt to work here because there’s always something new to see in the gallery, and there’s always some object that we’re learning something new about for a place that’s been open at this point for more than 100 years.
Curators do a variety of things. Part of my job is research about our permanent collection. And we write things about the permanent collection, everything from books to blog posts to helping with Instagram posts.
A lot of my job is also organizing special exhibitions. The Gardner does three special exhibitions a year in our main gallery, called the Hostetter Gallery. My job includes pitching and then organizing shows for that, which we always try to link back to our permanent collection.
What is your favorite part of working at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum?
Oh, man, there are lots of them. I think one of my favorite parts is that there’s always something new to learn. No day is the same at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. I think that reflects the genius of our founder, and that’s as true for the staff as it is for our visitors. My other favorite part is that it’s just pretty cool. Isabella lived on the fourth floor of the palace — I’m speaking to you from her winter bedroom, where my cubicle is, so it feels like a real privilege to badge in and go up to this space that was actually inhabited by our founder on a day-to-day basis.
How would you describe the Boston art scene?
I would say it’s underrated and more vibrant than people think.
In the Boston area we have really fabulous world class museums, and I include the Gardner in that, of course, in addition to a really vibrant contemporary art scene. The Gardner has a series of programs to engage with contemporary artists who are here in Boston.
Boston is really a city of neighborhoods. It takes a little bit of time to get to know and to get into the different neighborhoods to learn about who’s working there and making art and all this fabulous stuff.
If you were taking someone on a tour around Boston, where are the three places you’re going?
Obviously, the first one is the Gardner. I think that the courtyard moment, whether you’re new to the city or you’ve been in the city for years, is always amazing.
I would also say a walk around the South End, which is where I live in the city. I think it’s one of the most beautiful neighborhoods anywhere in the US. There’s great food, and it’s just a wonderful place to stroll.
Then my last kind of hidden thing is seeing the John Singer Sargent murals. He’s an artist whose work we have quite a lot of in the Gardner’s collection. He was friends with Isabella + did these wonderful murals at the Boston Public Library. People don’t always know that they’re there and that it’s just free to walk in and look at them. I think that’s one of the hidden gems of the Boston art scene.
What’s something every new Bostonian oughta know about?
This question actually does point to another one of our programs, which are Neighborhood Salon Luminaries, and the French culture thing I mentioned. The best croissants in the city are at Cafe Madeleine on Columbus Avenue. My husband is French, and even he thinks they’re excellent.
Hana Quon— who’s the pastry chef there, was actually one of our Neighborhood Salon Luminaries for groups of creative people across domains. We worked with them over the course of a year to do things again like in pre-COVID times.
Hit us with your favorite piece of trivia about the museum.
Oh, that’s so hard. There are so many great ones.
One thing that is tied to a recent show is one of our most famous paintings, “Titian’s Rape of Europa,” which was the subject of a recent big exhibition at the museum. What people don’t always know is that underneath this huge Renaissance masterpiece, Gardner actually hung a piece of her own dress fabric, from the French designer Charles Worth. It’s this really fabulous example of what you can see throughout the museum, which has Renaissance masterpieces and these amazing works of fine arts, juxtaposed with her everyday items that she thought were equally important.
What do you think Isabella would think of Boston today?
It’s a great question, and we often ask ourselves at the Gardner, what she would have thought of today’s issues and concerns.
You never quite know, as she left behind very few written records that express her opinions, so you’re always kind of searching around for the best guess. However, I can say that she would think that Boston is vibrant, and I think she would love that it’s a city that is thriving.
I can’t decide if she would be thrilled that she was a pioneer in the area and how much has developed around her museum. She was one of the first people to build out here, and I think during her lifetime she had these unobstructed views everywhere. Now, there’s a bunch of hospitals that we can see from our windows.
I think she was a lover of this idea of Boston and really always sought to make it better. She had a real civic-minded purpose for the city. The fact that it’s thriving and growing, and there’s all sorts of cool stuff going on — she would be thrilled. She would be out there participating in the community.
What advice do you think Isabella would give to women of Boston today?
I think Isabella’s advice, in general, is to not put up with nonsense, whatever that means to you.
What exhibit have you found the most empowering?
This is something that traverses gender roles — I thought that Boston’s Apollo, which was a show we had here about the relationship between John Singer Sargent and his model, Thomas McKellar, who was a black man [was very empowering].
Where Sargent actually changed Thomas’s race, and sometimes his gender, in these finished murals, I think, is one of the most powerful examples of a museum engaging with really complicated questions about race, gender, and I should say also sexuality because of the possibility of a romantic relationship between the artist and his model.
I would say that this also applies to exhibits that are going to be about women and women artists. What can be empowering in a museum exhibit is providing space to not just show you these beautiful things, but to use art as a way to trigger and facilitate conversations about difficult issues that often have their origins in a past period. I think Boston’s Apollo was a show that really did that, and is a model to be followed.
What’s happening now at the museum + what’s in the works?
Keep an eye on the calendar. We’re always trying to do all sorts of programs, and we love for people to come out, whether that’s a performance that’s going on in our Calderwood Hall, or various studio activities in our education studio. I think as we’re adapting to this new normal, and everyone’s in-person programming is changing, we’re really trying to offer programs both online and in-person.
Here’s a brief preview, I’ll be organizing a show about more recent acts designed for opera and ballet. We’ve always been a music venue, in addition to being a museum.
I think the show is going to be a really cool opportunity to be open to families, but also show how what you might expect of the Gardner could be combined with some classical music and the paintings, and that could really be activating.
Ready to visit the museum like a pro?
During the first few weeks of spring, don’t miss seeing the hanging nasturtiums that the horticultural team has been growing for approximately nine months in the greenhouses. The orange flowers will hang from the courtyard balconies for two to three weeks.
While you are visiting, there might not always be information available about each work of art, so head to the blog Inside the Collection for a more in-depth perspective.
Pro tip: The museum is open on Thursday evenings, and the first Thursday of the month is free.
The museum is located at 25 Evans Way, which is accessible by the MBTA E branch of the Green Line. There is also a limited number of free + metered parking spaces nearby if you plan to drive.
The museum is open Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 11 a.m.-5 p.m., Thursday from 11 a.m.-9 p.m. and weekends from 10 a.m.-5 p.m.
