(Editor’s Note: Patricia Watkinson, director of the WSU Museum of Art from 1985-97, has accepted a position as director of the Fort Wayne, Ind., Museum of Art, effective March 1. We have listed selected accomplishments of WSU Museum of Art under her 12-year directorship.)
Watkinson joined the WSU Museum of Art as curator of Special Programs in 1976. From 1978-84, she was curator for the museum. Watkinson also has taught modern art history for the Department of Fine Arts.
Said Provost Gretchen M. Bataille, “Patricia Watkinson has established the WSU Museum of Art as a center for the arts in the area. We will miss her enthusiasm and vision, and we wish her well as she assumes new responsibilities.”
* Competed successfully for 50 extramural grants, including highly competitive Institute of Museum and Library Services General Operating Support Grants.
* Established museum’s first main endowment 1987, now valued at $215,000, and six subsequent named endowments at $25,000 each for a total of $150,000, for future operations, education and exhibitions.
* Doubled membership’s annual giving in the last two years, to $33,000.
* Increased art holdings by 15 percent. The 2,000-piece collection includes four focuses: Art of the Northwest Region, American and European 20th century prints, Old Master Prints and American Art of the 19th and early 20th centuries as represented in the Holland Collection.
* Presented more than 100 changing exhibitions, ranging from “The Electronic Muse: Artists in the Information Age” to “A Song to the Creator: Traditional Arts of Native American Women of the Plateau.”
* Initiated wide-ranging collaborations with schools, scholars, Native American tribes and artists.
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