good morning and welcome to mosaic. i'm honored to be your host this morning. we're about to start in a wonderful conversation about the contemporary jewish museum and i would like to welcome lorie who is the new director of the jewish museum. lorie and karen, welcome. so lorie, you are about to start on this wonderful new position. welcome to san francisco and welcome to the museum. so tell us where you come from and what was of interest to you in actually saying yes to san francisco and the bay area. >> well, it's a return to san

francisco in some respects. 35 years ago i moved here to be a rock feller fellow and it was basically a training in all aspects of museum work but with a special emphasis on museum education and community art. that was proceeded by graduate work i completed at the university of virginia and i have a b.a. in art history from records university and i'm originally from new jersey. i completed my fellowship here in san francisco and moved to los angeles. i spent most of my career working in museums in the los angeles area. i went to the university of southern california and ran the visual arts program and continuing studies division and

then was recruited to work at the ghetty museum and the ghetty trust. with my great amazing experience in my career to be part of the team that opened the ghetty center in 1997 and work on the ghetty villa which opened shortly there after. >> what a which art career you've had and you most recently come from where? >> i moved from my family. my husband is an artist and we have two sons. we moved to toronto in 20067 after i had been for five years the senior vice president and museum director at the cultural center in l. a. that was my first position in the jewish cultural world.

i was recruited to be the director of an institution in toronto. >> what a fortunate can we say cue or otherwise we all said yes and have you now in san francisco. >> i'm happy to be back. i think my seven years in toronto was very, very descentive in terms of being able to take on this position. the reason being we were able to create out of a small community center what is now canadaest s' only -- canada's on the cultural institution. >> i think most think of museums as wonderful places to go to for inspiration, for maybe a sense of spiritual calm or stimulation to really

broaden their horizons and some actually build their personal resilience and i don't think a lot of people know from the mechanics of the museum. what's the difference between a cure rater of a museum and executive director and what as a cure rater do you do at the museum? >> first i would like to say thank you and we're delighted to have lorie on board. she brings great energy to our institution and the whole staff is looking to work with her. as you ask about the difference between executive director cur

cur ray torment they're there to help enrich and enhance and implement the division lorie will bring to the institution. >> we're going to take a quick break and come back in just a moment. please join us in just a moment. ,,,,,,,,

welcome back. i'm honored to be your host. we're in the mid-of a wonderful -- we're in the middle of a wonderful conversation. we're in the middle of a conversation about the museum

and the community and both the external aspects people see working for the museum. why are museums important? >> well, you know museums came about in a very different time in history. they started out as curiousty cabinets more less for kings and rulers of the world. it was only more resent times in the 18th century that museums started to become places of public engagement. you have some of the museums that started to engage with the public in a public round and public scare and become more of a place of ideas and dialogue and debate and less of a private secluded place where only the most privilege enjoy. in the last hundred years or

so, particularly the last 50 years, the museums have enjoyed a fantastic renaissance, not only here in north america but across the world. many museums have been built in the last 50 years of all different kinds. not just museums of western european art. there are ethnic museums, museums that celebrate cultures from all over the world. there's all kinds of museums. there's living museums like williamsburg where people are in costume reenacting the past. museums are important because they don't just give us a sense of where we confirm what our past is but it gives us a sense of what our future can be. >> karen, as museums evolve,

then what does the curator do with any particular exhibit depending on what the exhibit is all about. interactive qualities, the form of the exhibit itself, art form. how is the evolution of museum life if i can use that kind of a phrase influenced the work of the curator? >> interesting question. i think things are changing as lorie mentioned they open their doors wider and welcome a much broader audience. sometimes we do that through ipad, interactive engagements

and museum directors still be able to create a dynamic interaction between the historical artifacts, contemporary art work and make meaningful experiences to our visitors and i think it's more f a challenge quiet honestly that we find that the art is not supported as well in our community and education program and i see it as an important roll of the museums to help keep that dialogue going. >> our museum here is called the contemporary jewish museum. does that terminology dictate

the kind of exhibits brought in . >> art that is made more less in our time and in real time people are engaging with art. karen's point, i think, it's a very interesting dynamic has not only been a police officer proliferation of building of museums. now that we're in a world twitter and face book and other social media and ideas spring to mind and we can instantly share them, we can also challenge and ask questions and not necessarily take for granted or believe exactly the

way in which we present the works of art. we are all able to make up our own story about works of art. that creates a chance for the institution to be a police station of dialogue, not frontal knowledge but actually to create knowledge together. >> it's so interesting because we live in a country that sees itself as historic. we have as it happened a new director coming to the fine arts

museum. the museums have evolved as a place that becomes more active with the community at large. what's there in the context of richness of actual, the bay area. >> i think our vision for the contemporary jew herb museum is to -- jewish museum is to bring exhibition that wouldn't come to the bay area otherwise. in that respect our work compliments the work of the fine arts museum, the san francisco and other museums in the region. we also have the magnificent collection of the museum in burkely where the collection

itself is a credibly valuable resource. there's another example of how we work together and karen, you could describe that quiet well because it's an exhibition we're about to open soon. >> we're going to take a quick break and come back in a moment and pick up with karen. please join us in a moment. at farmers we make you smarter about insurance, because what you dont know can hurt you. what if you didn't know that it's smart to replace washing-machine hoses every five years? what if you didn't know that you might need extra coverage for more expensive items? and what if you didn't know that teen drivers are four times more likely to get into an accident? 'sup the more you know, the better you can plan for what's ahead. talk to farmers and get smarter about your insurance.

secondhand smoke affects everyone's health. it's not just irritating. it can cause heart disease and even death. speak up about secondhand smoke. your health and the health of your family depend on it. welcome back. i'm eric white. we're in the middle of a wonderful conversation with lorie. welcome back. karen, what's at the museum? >> well, we are in the next two weeks we'll be closing a

fabulous exhibition. it closes may 27th. it's a small jewel of an exhibition and very interesting. he's an african american that's traveled the world. the exhibition focuses on young men from isreal and an assessment is to be able to raise a profile of young black, brown men from street culture. i would encourage everybody to come see it before it closes the 27th. following that we have two

exhibitions opening may 23rd. it's a photograph type. it's entitled -- memories. it's taken with a second hand camera by his friend. this is when he was at 23-years- old and an up and coming poet. this is a personal photograph of his grandmother, 84-years-

old. >> were these intended personal expressions just coming to public eye? >> these are actually very personal photographs he took from the 50s to just before he died. here's the photograph of jack. many of these critical people that formed the whole beat poetry. this is a shot taken on the street of san francisco.

>> when is this opening and what's its duration? >> it's july 23rd through september 8. poetry by allen and other poets and we have our festival where we're having a north beach literary tour and two scholars and biographers that know his work will be speaking. bill morgan and our local san francisco poet. it's going to be very exciting as i say. it was in san francisco where he first wrote and compd

>> we'll take a quick break and come back here on mosaic. please join us in just a moment. ,,,,,,,,

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new incoming executive director. we were talking earlier about the ways in which the contemporary jewish museum is in collaboration with other art institutions. i know that the wonderful exhibit coming up in collaboration with san franciscos museum of modern art. >> we're collaborating with other institutions. especially through the lenses of judaism. we'll be exhibiting major work

by mark, photographs by major figures like alfred. the interesting thing for us is when you go to the museum. here we're mixing up the pot and looking at them in a different way that i think will be provocative and see how artist look towards spiritualty all the way from 1911 to contemporary artist to 2011.

>> looking like a jewish -- there is a bit of a story to it where they painted this image of the award to himself and making a funny jab at him at being a priest for the high arts. i think it really questions what the identities are. >> fascinating. believe it or not, let's talk a little bit about this photograph. believe it or not we only have a couple of minutes left. we need to start to say good- bye to our audience. >> this is a lovely delicate work by paul clay who is a well known artist. it's titled little angel. he's international known for images that touch on the intimate side of people and how

we saw angels as being an interface between the angels and our earthly beings. >> believe it or not we need to come to the end of our time together. it's a comment in the conversation. in just as we say good-bye in a moment can you let us know what attracted you to come to the contemporary jewish museum and say yes to us. >> it's expressive jewel of a building, just the architecture alone. it's sense of innovation and excellence. our museum is going to be celebrating its five year anniversary. of course, it's an old building. it's renovated and reinvisioned. our five year anniversary is coming up. it's in a city and region

that's all about innovation and imagination. that's why we're so happy to be here. >> lorie and karen, thank you so much for being with us here on mosaic. have a wonderful day and check out the contemporary jewish museum.

we have a big show for you today. if you have a show idea we would like to hear from you. click on connect and scroll down and you know the drill. she does it all and she's on a roll with her one woman show. i love being me, don't you. a living, breathing bond fire. say hello to sandra. how are you? >> i know you feel a little