Arts France Saint Francis Universitys Artist Residency Program in Ambialet France

• Laura Domencic started every bit executive director of Erie Art Museum on Feb. 8
• As institution'south permanent chief, she succeeds Joshua Helmer, who abruptly left in Jan 2020 after concerns raised about conduct
• John Vanco, retired Erie Art Museum executive director, pleased with hiring of Domencic
• Annual Spring Prove, which starts March 19, is her first big event equally head of the museum

Laura Domencic, the new executive director of the Erie Art Musuem, is a visual artist — a painter and sculptor. But terms more usually used in the musical arts best describe another surface area of her expertise.

Throughout her career, the 48-year-old Domencic has likewise acted like a conductor of an orchestra.

She has brought artists and artworks together as a curator.

She has brought students together in French republic every bit the director of an artist residency program affiliated with Saint Francis University in Loretto, nearly Altoona.

And Domencic, a Pittsburgh native, has brought together resources and educators and ideas as the director, for 11 years, of the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, office of Pittsburgh Filmmakers/Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, now known as the Pittsburgh Eye for Arts and Media.

"Orchestrating or curating is really quite beautiful when you do it well," Domencic said. "You kind of disappear, and so this issue or this experience can just happen.

"I really love working with others and with artists and other educators and in all dissimilar disciplines and areas that are inquisitive," she said. "I have done a lot of different types of work inside the community. I think it all ends upwards tying together."

Domencic, who started her new job on Feb. 8, takes over as Erie Art Museum'southward permanent executive director — its head curator or conductor — as the storied downtown institution is nearing the terminate of i of the most turbulent periods in its 123-year history.

New hire:Arts consultant, curator Laura Domencic named Erie Fine art Museum executive manager

In January 2020, the Erie Art Museum's previous executive manager, Joshua Helmer, left abruptly under pressure level over questions about his behavior toward women at the Erie Art Museum and at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, where he was an assistant director earlier coming to Erie in 2018.

Helmer was 31 when he departed and 29 when he was hired, making him ane of the youngest heads of an art museum in the U.s.. Helmer succeeded John Vanco, who retired as the executive director of the Erie Art Museum in 2017, after nigh l years in that position.

On March 9, 2020, the Erie Art Museum hired an interim executive managing director, Pam Masi, the former head of the Red Cross of Northwestern Pennsylvania, to aid the museum regroup as its board of directors searched for a permanent executive manager.

Two days later, on March eleven, 2020, the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a global pandemic, forcing museums and other organizations everywhere to shut temporarily before reopening with express chapters and reduced hours.

As she starts as head of the Erie Art Museum, Domencic said she is concentrating on reopening and also strengthening and expanding the museum'southward ties with Erie and the region — a goal that involves orchestrating a myriad of concerns and suggestions and working with artists and donors and educators and community organizations.

Domencic also aims to develop the museum's "eclectic" collection, which totals almost viii,000 pieces — approximately 1,000 of them framed — and includes everything from works by iconic Erie artists such equally Vitus J. Kaiser and Joseph Plavcan to etchings by Goya and letters past Georgia O'Keeffe.

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"Long-term there's and so much potential to mine the drove and to actually see how that intersects with the community in dissimilar means," Domencic said. "I call up that museums are very much about engaging the community in a dialogue and an exchange."

Her first major event as executive managing director of the Art Museum is the almanac Jump Testify, which opens Friday and runs through June 25. Viewing is by appointment but due to the pandemic.

Domencic said the Art Museum, which received two Paycheck Protection Programme loans, is in "decent shape" financially and will apply for any funding available for museums under the newly passed American Rescue Plan Act. The museum's endowment is nigh $3 one thousand thousand, Domencic said.

The museum has a nine-member staff, inclucing Domencic, with 5 total-fourth dimension and 4 part-fourth dimension employees. The museum has one office-fourth dimension staffer on furlough due to the pandemic, which crushed revenue from admission, rentals and fundraising events. Virtually other staffers are on reduced hours, Domencic said.

Domencic said no further cuts are planned. She said the museum is looking to rent a full-time marketing director and a part-time employee for the front desk.

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"I feel like we're in a skillful place," Domencic said of the museum's finances. "As we motility forward and really start to call up about reopening and seriously programming again and doing these collaborations, it's ever in rest with budget and with funding.

"Fortunately, there is such a huge amount of corporate and private support and foundation back up for that here. I feel similar we're in a fresh start in many means."

'Stability is extremely important'

In Domencic, the Erie Art Museum found the right person at the correct fourth dimension, said Patrick Fisher, the executive manager of Erie Arts & Civilization, the nonprofit that runs the United Arts Fund entrada, distributes grants and coordinates arts-related events and initiatives.

"She is a calming presence," Fisher said. "I remember stability is extremely important. I think accessibility is extremely important and relatability is extremely important. I think they have found that in the new executive manager."

Fisher said he has met with Domencic and sat in on her presentation when she was interviewed for the executive managing director's job. He said he agrees with her emphasis on collaboration with other organizations and said her calm and steady temperament will serve her well in building relationships.

"A stiff but not overpowering presence in the community is the balance that any executive director has to strike," Fisher said.

John Vanco, who over v decades became synonymous with the Erie Art Museum, said he was pleased with Domencic'southward hire.

"She seems like a great person," he said.

Vanco was sharply critical of how the Fine art Museum'southward board handled the situation with Helmer — the lath said "no issues" arose with Helmer in the groundwork checks the board reviewed before hiring him — and Vanco chosen for the lath to find a new permanent executive director with experience.

"I hope they will become an actual museum person in there soon, who knows well-nigh museums, which has not been the instance for some fourth dimension, unfortunately," he said in May.

About Domencic, whom he said he had briefly met previously, Vanco said, "I'1000 hopeful she volition restore the museum to the active place it used to exist."

The Art Museum board highlighted Domencic'due south experience and collaborative efforts in announcing her appointment in Jan.

"We are all impressed with Laura'due south track record of working with artists and engaging the customs in cultural and educational programming," Andona Zacks-Jordan, president of the Erie Fine art Museum lath, said in a statement.

After Helmer'south departure, the Art Museum lath pledged to brand improvements to ensure the Erie Art Museum "is a swell place to work, and that the staff feels prophylactic in voicing their concerns." Masi, the acting executive director, said in an interview in May that the Art Museum board had been "meeting with HR firms, reevaluating the bylaws and making sure that the prophylactic of the staff is a No. ane concern."

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Domencic said she was not in a position to comment on the state of affairs with Helmer because she was not at the Erie Art Museum at the time, but she said the museum has made changes.

Abrupt cease:Erie Art Museum chief departs amidst report about conduct

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"I know that the board has worked very difficult on creating a new employee handbook that we're still just about to finalize," she said.

She said she recently attended "an equity inclusion preparation session that Erie Arts & Culture had put together, which was really quite wonderful. In my opinion, of course, being very aware of all kinds and inclusion is incredibly important. Having a very welcoming space for everyone that'south respectful is essential."

She also said of the museum board: "I have seen this kind of sense of wanting to professionalize a lot of policies and such that it's just much more sustainable on a lot of levels. That has been an important goal."

Attracted to 'the grassroots'

Domencic said she applied for the top chore at the Erie Art Museum partly considering of its connection to the customs.

"There'south something really special virtually smaller arts museums and organizations, and I'thousand really attracted to that," Domencic said. "I think in that location is something that happens uniquely within that space. Oftentimes it's a very organic kind of growth from either just out a need from the guild and the customs.

"I love that kind of grassroots evolution that happens, which is very much the story of the (Pittsburgh) Center for the Arts, started by artists and the city entrepreneurs," she said. "I recollect in that location's something so special about that sort of volunteerism and borough duty."

Domencic said she is committed to bringing different kinds of fine art to Erie and to expose Erie artists to a wider audition. During his tenure, Helmer brought works past well-known artists to the Erie Art Museum on loan — "Paul," a portrait by celebrated American artist Chuck Shut, was exhibited for vi months in 2019 — as part of a new grant program with the Philadelphia Museum of Art and other institutions nationwide.

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The program, a project of the Arkansas-based Art Bridges and the Chicago-based Terra Foundation, provides funds to loan major works from big art museums to nine Pennsylvania regional art museums, including the Erie Fine art Museum. Domencic said she is preparing to bring fine art to Erie under the same programs.

"It's such a fantastic idea to exist able to share these larger collections with smaller museums," she said. "I'grand thrilled to have those conversations and also the idea of somewhen long-term vision of being able to export our regional artists to other locations so it gives them better exposure."

'Space for everyone'

Since she left the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts at the start of 2017, Domenic has worked as an independent curator, consultant, creative person and educator. For the past three years she has directed Saint Francis University'southward artist residency plan in Ambialet, in southern French republic.

She received her bachelor's degree in fine arts from Carnegie Mellon University, with a concentration in painting, cartoon and printmaking. She received her primary'south degree in visual arts from Lesley University, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Domencic and her married man, James Barns, a stay-at-home dad, have three children, 21,14 and 12 years one-time. Domencic is staying in a apartment in Erie as the rest of the family prepares for the movement from Pittsburgh.

The Erie Art Museum's gradual reopening from the pandemic remains Domencic's near immediate focus. What she learns through that process, she said, will aid in guiding her larger initiatives.

"The big goal correct now is opening back upwardly, welcoming people, getting to know the customs more and actually exploring ways that we can engage people and kind of come up together," she said. "I think there's a craving for that correct now.

"With such a difficult past year and several years, I call back there's an opportunity to reflect on how nosotros interact with each other and how we tin practice that, what we can bring to the table. But also make sure in that location's space for everyone at the table."

Like a conductor, Domencic said she is happy to be able to bring people together — and learn from them as they work together.

"It's very healthy to know how to share and to also be aware of what yous don't know," she said. "I think those are things that I'thousand pretty expert at. I attempt to be, at least."

Contact Ed Palattella at epalattella@timesnews.com. Follow him on Twitter @ETNpalattella.

Almost the museum

Due to the pandemic, visits to the Erie Art Museum are by appointment, with hours on Fridays from 2 p.m. to eight p.thou. and Saturdays from x a.1000. to 5 p.1000.

Starting the weekend of March twenty-21, in conjunction with the March xix opening of its annual Spring Testify, the museum volition resume Sunday hours from 1 p.1000. to 6 p.yard

Admission:

• Members — free
• Adults — $10
• Seniors citizens and students — $viii
• Visitors sixteen years old and younger — free

More information: Erie Fine art Museum, twenty E. Fifth St., 814-459-5477, erieartmuseum.org.

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Source: https://www.goerie.com/story/entertainment/arts/2021/03/13/new-erie-art-museum-chief-aims-reopen-collaborate/6907803002/

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