NAOMI BECKWITH
CHAMPION | Guggenheim Deputy Director and Chief Curator
The Guggenheim deputy director and chief curator has made a career of opening museum doors for seminal and soon-to-be-seminal artists. On top of it all, she’s piloting the 16th edition of Documenta, the art world’s most scrutinized exhibition
WHAT DO YOU WANT TO SEE MORE OF INYOUR INDUSTRY? LESS OF? I’d love to put a halt to the phrase “art industry.” I’m not naive; there is loads of capital roving about the art world, and that is welcome and necessary. But to call this work an “industry” implies that its primary purpose is to produce financial value. I am not here for that kind of violence. I am here to bring artists’ dreams into being because their dreams enable us to imagine new worlds, test boundaries, experiment in democracy, upend reason, and turn value on its head.
NAME AN INFLUENCE OF YOURS THAT MIGHT SURPRISE PEOPLE. I look to athletes for influence more than anything: Bo Jackson, Michael Jordan, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Rafael Nadal. The lessons: Build stamina, work hard every day, and switch up your game from time to time.
“Being an incurable tomboy. Now, I’m just a taller version of that little tomboy.”
WHEN YOU WERE LITTLE, WHAT WERE YOU KNOWN FOR? Being an incurable tomboy. Now, I’m just a taller version of that little tomboy.
IF YOU COULD ATTRIBUTE YOUR SUCCESS TO A SINGLE QUALITY, WHAT WOULD IT BE? Tenacity. I was taught from a young age that the world will be unkind to women and to Black people, so when that happens—and it does happen—I’m empowered by that kind of resistance. I meet it head-on and move on, oftentimes with the help of kind allies.
in your life?
