Read Margaret Sullivan's blog today on the appointment of Tony Bannon as the Burchfield Penney's new director.
http://blogs.buffalonews.com/sulliview/2012/02/anthony-bannons-earlier-life-as-a-news-critic.html
SulliView: Adventures in media and pop culture with News Editor Margaret Sullivan
Before Burchfield Penney: Anthony Bannon's earlier life as a News critic
On my first day at The News as a student-intern in 1980, I suddenly was surrounded by -- and working alongside -- the writers whose bylines I had grown up reading. My internship assignment was for Gusto, The News’ weekend entertainment tabloid, reviewing concerts and plays and writing feature stories. (This summer job was a dream come true, I might add.)
A few desks from me, amazingly enough, was Buffalo’s legendary food critic Janice Okun. Not far from her was her cousin, the prolific and brilliant all-around critic Jeff Simon. A particular hero for me and my music-loving friends was pop music critic Dale Anderson, whose every word we had hung on during our adolescent years of concert-going.
The boss, seated in the midst of it all, was Terry Doran, Gusto's cerebral founder and editor, and also its theater critic. As bright and verbal as all these writers were, a special luster surrounded art critic Anthony Bannon. With his complex verbiage and high-flown thoughts, he seemed to be operating in a different sphere from the rest of us ink-stained types. In all honesty, I didn’t understand what he was writing about most of the time, and I know I was not alone in that. His work was brainy, but not especially accessible.
He left the paper -- and journalism -- in 1985 to become the director of what was then known as the Burchfield Art Center. From there, he went to the George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film in Rochester.
Today, his photograph is on The News’ front page as he returns to Buffalo and to the Burchfield Penney Art Center -- now a much expanded and more ambitious gallery -- again as its director. Here’s critic Colin Dabkowski’s story on Bannon’s return.
As Dabkowski's story makes cleark, the word “visionary” tends to come up when Bannon’s name is mentioned. As one longtime News staffer said to me today, “Tony’s thinking was always in the stratosphere.” Those of us who knew him in his Gusto days will watch his Burchfield moves with particular interest.