Santa Fe Arts and Culture Magazine: View Article

Bueno Bye: A Candid Chat with Laura Steward Heon

By: Rachel Ray

It’s only around artists that Laura Steward Heon, SITE Santa Fe’s new director and curator, feels “most myself”

Photos by Sara Stathis

Laura Heon

RACHEL RAY: You’re only 35 years old. Did SITE Santa Fe specifically want a new director who was so young?

LAURA STEWARD HEON: The reputation of SITE Santa Fe is to show artists who are really on the cusp of something great. We wouldn’t show, for example, Jasper Johns—who is a brilliant genius—because he’s very well established. We show artists who are, quite frankly, a little closer to my age. But rather than youth or age, it’s really staying current with what’s happening in art. My being hired was likely a coincidence with my age, but it wasn’t necessary to have someone my age.

What were the driving forces behind your career in art?

I grew up in a small town in Arkansas, and I didn’t fit in that well. I’ve just found, my whole life, that it’s with artists that I feel most myself. I had an art teacher who would tell me, “You know, there’s a whole big world outside Sherwood, Arkansas. You might wanna go check that out.” I figured that doing well in school was my fastest route out, and that proved to be correct.

What are the things that are always on a curator’s mind?

Right now I’m in a lot of meetings. I wish I were in more books. That’s where a curator’s research is done—in journals, in exhibition catalogs. But also in traveling to see studios.

What is the most satisfying aspect of being a curator?

Working with artists and finding an artist that I really believe in—an artist who I think is making something absolutely thrilling and expands my understanding of the world. Artists, for me, are people who are just outside my conceptual reach. For them to be with me and let me spend time in their brains is such a privilege. That’s the thrill: the conceptual work.

You’re viewed in the art field as being a risk-taker. Why is it important to take risks in art?

What’s the point, otherwise? For me and for SITE, our mission is to show the work that is the most innovative work of our time. It expands a person’s capacity for thought and pleasure. Risk-taking work introduces people to experiences that they’ve never had before.

Do you think that people are appreciating contemporary art more?

It fluxes. It’s like any other industry—there are times when contemporary art is more hip. Contemporary art is associated with a lot of chic things. Possibly, people come to contemporary art because of that. Anything that is a matter of taste, like art, is going to flux.

How should a viewer prepare herself to appreciate a contemporary art exhibit?

At SITE Santa Fe, we’re so lucky because we have guides, instead of just guards who interact with you by saying, “Don’t touch that.” All of our guides here are very well-trained educators. When you come to SITE Santa Fe, someone will say to you, “Hi, how are you? Do you want to talk about this picture?” And everyone should do that. Looking at contemporary art is like fly-fishing. It’s a super-complex, dense thing. The more you know, the better prepared you are to enjoy it. Unlike almost any other field, contemporary art museums, places like SITE, present the outermost edge of what is possible—the most vanguard, most sophisticated, most demanding visual art—to the public. So my job, and the job of the art museum, is to make a space and a way for people who are curious and intelligent, but not informed, to take this risk. It’s such an honor to me and to the museum that people come here. I think it’s peculiar to contemporary art that we put these outer limits of what is possible in our field on public view.