After eight years as director of the Anderson Gallery Museum of the Arts, Ted Potter on July 1 will become a collateral associate professor in the VCU School of the Arts.
A painter and art advocate, Potter directed the Anderson Gallery through 255 exhibitions since his arrival in 1997.
Amy Moorefield, the gallery’s assistant director and curator of collections, cites the more than 250 diverse exhibitions Potter attracted to the gallery and to Richmond as one of the director’s greatest accomplishments.
“What Ted has done is commendable,” Moorefield said sitting her in office adjacent to Potter’s. “He has been able to bring in significant artists with established exhibition careers to the gallery.”
Tim Carroll, senior painting and printmaking major employed by the gallery, said exhibitions such as that of Gregory Barsamiam, a kinetic sculptor who displayed his works at the gallery in winter 2003, represent some of the best examples of the diversity that Potter secured for exhibiton.
With Potter leaving for a teaching job Moorefield said it becomes the end of an era for the Anderson Gallery.
“He is a good model as a director,” she said. “He has given us lots of leeway and freedom, which has allowed the gallery to flourish.”
Working with Potter was like watching the Anderson Gallery return to its roots, the assistant director said, because Potter focused mainly on local and national artists rather than international artists.
Though Potter will no longer sit in the director’s chair at the Anderson Gallery, he will continue assisting the gallery as the first director emeritus, which Moorefield said reflects positively on her former boss.
“It’s a significant post,” she said, “and in a small way it still aligns him with the gallery.”
Potter, too, views the director emeritus position as a chance to stay involved. Nonetheless he said he’s now ready for his new position and he’s eager to begin teaching at VCU. But before he moves to the art school Potter plans to accomplish some goals for the gallery.
“We need more space to adequately respond to the needs of student and professional exhibitions,” Potter said, “and more funding to be able to show exhibits that include the use of computers, televisions and projectors.”
As director at several galleries around the nation since the mid-’60s, including the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art in Winston-Salem, N.C., the Atlantic Center for the Arts in Daytona Beach, Fla., and the Contemporary Arts Center in New Orleans, Potter said he finds himself wanting do something different that’s more involved with art students.
“Buzzwords like ‘diversity,’ are usually used to describe most schools,” he said, “but here it’s true. The student body is extremely diverse; it’s a model of what America is rapidly becoming.”
Moreover, Moorefield said Potter has been interested in teaching for some time.
“We are excited to see Ted moving over to the School of Arts,” she said. “He has wanted to teach for a while.”
Potter leaves his gallery position June 30. Although the gallery has yet to begin looking for a replacement, Moorefield expressed her idea about the type of person she would like to see in the position.
“It’s got to be someone who has a hand in what’s going on,” she said. “They have to have the ability to anticipate trends in contemporary art.”
For Carroll, who for four years has worked alongside Potter as a work-study student in the gallery, the person selected should be a director as well as an artist.
“Someone who is still practicing their art would be good, so they can participate as an artist as well as a director,” he said.
Until July 1, Potter will continue to sit in his seat at the Anderson Gallery as an accomplished, well-respected director.
“We want to wish Ted the best of luck in fulfilling his vision of becoming a teacher,” Moorefield said. “We’ll miss him.”