Dr. Anthony Bannon is appointed Director of the Burchfield Penney Art Center
http://www.buffalonews.com/city/article725872.ece
Bannon will return to lead Burchfield Penney as director
By Colin Dabkowski
Anthony Bannon, a former filmmaker and critic who made his name in Buffalo and served as director of the Burchfield Penney Art Center from 1985 to 1996, will return in May to lead the institution he helped build.
Bannon's appointment as Burchfield director, which was finalized in January by the Burchfield Penney board and its parent, Buffalo State College, ends a search that began two years ago when Ted Pietrzak, who had succeeded Bannon, announced his departure.
Jackie Culliton, chairwoman of the Burchfield Penney board, hailed Bannon as a visionary leader with the ability to integrate the museum more firmly into the larger culture of Western New York and, perhaps equally important, to lift its national and international profile.
"His expertise, his vision and his knowledge of our community are an absolutely perfect fit," she said. "We're going to be moving forward at a wonderful pace. He's got vision for the future. We think Tony is going to be able to take us to the next level that really brings recognition to Western New York -- and Western New York on a national level."
Bannon, 69, whose annual salary will be $170,000, has served since 1996 as executive director of Rochester's George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film, whose collection, community involvement and international stature grew significantly during his tenure.
He will begin his transition from the Eastman House to the Burchfield Penney in April and expects to be fully on the job in Buffalo by mid-May. In July 2011, he had announced his plans to retire from the Eastman House this July.
Bannon, who spoke with The Buffalo News Wednesday morning after meeting with Burchfield Penney staff, said he was lured back to his former post by what he sees as a unique opportunity to tie the mission of the museum to the civic good in Western New York -- on a grand scale.
"Museums in the past have been thought of as a repository for the cultural DNA of their communities. True enough," he said. "But they are also places where culture is made, for heaven's sakes. That's what we ignore, often. We're going to create culture here -- in partnership with the campus."
He brings a reputation as an ambitious, creative director equally at home launching bold curatorial and educational initiatives and trotting the globe to promote exhibitions, give talks and raise money.
"What attracted me was the idea of working with the Burchfield Penney at a very interesting plateau in its life span," he said. He added he was stirred by Buffalo State College President Aaron Podolefsky's 2010 inaugural address, in which he stressed the importance of marshaling the college's resources to benefit the entire community.
In his new position, Bannon will report directly to Podolefsky -- a new management hierarchy for the institution that will bind the complementary missions of the museum and the college even more closely.
"The Burchfield Penney Art Center is crucial to Buffalo State's efforts to improve the quality of life in our community through the arts, and Anthony Bannon will be an exceptional leader in these efforts," Podolefsky said. "I know he will be a tremendous force for good in Buffalo's cultural corridor and an able steward of the Burchfield Penney's many treasures."
During his original tenure at Burchfield Penney, Bannon oversaw its expansion beyond the work of its namesake, famed Buffalo watercolorist Charles Burchfield. A close friend of the late Lockport collector Charles Rand Penney, Bannon also was instrumental in bringing in an extensive collection of important Burchfield paintings owned by Penney and in adding Penney's name to the institution in 1994.
Bannon worked at The News from 1969 to 1985 as a critic of art, theater, dance and later film, video and architecture. He is a 1964 graduate of St. Bonaventure University and received a master's degree in English in 1976 and a Ph.D. in cultural studies in 1994 from the University at Buffalo.
The Burchfield Penney was housed on the second floor of Buffalo State's Rockwell Hall when it was founded in 1966 and moved into its $33 million new building in 2008. Since then, it has seen its attendance balloon to at least five times what it drew in its old space.
Even so, the board, college and Bannon want to involve more of the community in the cultural conversation.
"Museums, as a location, are perfect to engage a discourse or establish a laboratory, or both," Bannon said. "As a place to effect a transaction between the wisdom of the campus and the needs and opportunities of the community, the museum is the locus. The idea of working with this museum and the president and the board that are all eager to work hard and create a culture of success within the larger metro Buffalo community is very attractive."
Though not yet in the director's chair, Bannon already has a clear sense of how he wants to bring the Burchfield Penney into its next phase by finding new ways to exploit and improve on its strengths. Among these, he said, are its holdings of Burchfield's work and the work of curator Nancy Weekly.
"Nancy Weekly is the pre-eminent Burchfield scholar," Bannon said.
Local and national success for the Burchfield Penney, Bannon added, will be found not in any divergence from the museum's mission as a regional museum, but in our own backyard.
"We're going to use the Western New York commitment as a focus," he said, "because in Western New York and through Western New York, remarkable things have happened in literature, in music, in media. And we've got to be playing in those arenas."
Bannon, who will move here with his wife, Elizabeth Stewart, said he is heartened to be returning to his roots.
"The energy is to come back to a place that you know a little -- like, I know what's in some of the closets in Buffalo, I know where Buffalo keeps its cereal, I know where the guests hang their coats," he said. "It is heartening. It is lovely to have people say, 'So nice to have you come home again.'"
cdabkowski@buffnews.com