Art integrates life Farnsworth museum’s new director broadens community perspective

Lora Urbanelli knows Mainers have busy lives. She knows they may have TiVo, a pleasure boat, a snowmobile, child care duties, elderly parents, two jobs, a subscription to the local performing arts center and/or tickets for the hockey season. But she wants to suggest that, in the course of all that activity, there is a place for art.

Art? What’s that got to do with a busy life? Urbanelli, the new director of the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland, plans to make it part of her mission to make sure the answer is: Plenty.

“I’m absolutely a new generation of museum directors,” said Urbanelli, who took over the post in January. “I absolutely feel that every citizen should be important to the museum. People’s lives are very busy. They have more and more entertainment possibilities. That competition became fierce just as museums were waking up to the fact that what they are doing is important to more than just an elite group. I really believe it’s not hard to combine the average person and an appreciation and love of beautiful things or creative experiences.”

Since 1985, Urbanelli has been at the Rhode Island School of Design Museum in Providence, first as curator of prints, drawings and photographs, then as assistant director and finally as interim director, a position she held for nearly three years while RISD conducted a national search to fill the position.

Urbanelli’s early roots in art, however, go back to Italy, where her great grandfather was a portrait artist in Rome. She never met him but his paintings hung on the walls of her childhood home in Philadelphia. Her sister is also an artist, but Urbanelli, who has dabbled in creative expression, heard a different calling.

When she was a student at Rutgers University, Urbanelli had a work-study job in the art gallery of the New Jersey campus. One day, a school group visited a hands-on sculpture exhibition, which allowed patrons to touch the works.

“A couple of kids just got it,” said Urbanelli. “They saw that there was nothing more to it than simple enjoyment. They didn’t care that the artist was inspired by another great artist or what kind of art it was. But those kids asked questions that showed they understood art could speak to them one way or another.”

That moment also spoke to Urbanelli. She knew her career as an administrator in the visual arts field would be dedicated to reaching the broadest audience possible. That goal dovetailed with the mission at the Farnsworth, which in recent years has been credited with helping to create a vibrant Main Street experience for vacation visitors and residents alike.

The Farnsworth board of trustees chose Urbanelli because it appeared that from that gallery moment at Rutgers to her work at RISD, Urbanelli was on a professional trajectory that led to Rockland.

“We chose her because of her experience with American art, her leadership strength, integrity and intelligence,” said Anne Jenkins, president of the board. “But it was because of her interest in community outreach and educational programs that made her a good candidate for us at this point. We’ve spent 15 years looking inward and putting together a collection. Now it’s time to use the collection. Lora has the skills to do that.”

As she sat in her new office last week with books stacked in piles and the walls still mostly bare except for works by Childe Hassam and William Kienbusch, Urbanelli was a model of administrative temperance and excitement. Her background is in American art – she has degrees from Rutgers and from Syracuse University – but her work as an administrator for the last 20 years has given her the insight and foresight to take over the helm of one of New England’s notable small collections.

“Lora has an enormous love of art, which permeates all her work,” said Hope Alswang, director of the RISD Museum. “She cares deeply about American art and about communicating that to her audience. If the Farnsworth is like most museums, it has huge issues to sort through and prioritize. Lora’s judgement is good. She’s clearsighted and she was always committed to serving the broadest audience RISD could develop. She was here during a time of key choices and she was a key participant in the growth of the museum. That’s her legacy here.”

Growth, said Urbanelli, is exactly the reason she took the Farnsworth position: growth for the museum and for herself.

“Everyone talks about how important the Farnsworth has been to the economic development of the area,” said Urbanelli, already enough of a team leader to beam with pride about the organization’s reputation. “That’s all true. But I want to make sure we don’t rest on that laurel. We want to keep that alive. It’s a constant process, and we all take that very seriously. I have found a staff really anxious to get cooking, a community that keeps asking me what our plans are and one that is having deep discussion about the creative economy. I want to jump into that with both feet.”

The biggest challenge Urbanelli faces, she said, is finding a way to replace the support provided by MBNA, the major credit card company which left the area last year. She also hopes to find national travel opportunities for the Farnsworth’s prestigious collection of American art – which would meet another of her goals: to expand the national profile of the museum.

In coming months, Urbanelli, her staff of about 28 and the board will study the mission and priorities of the organization, which has an annual budget of $2.5 million. “We want to ask the questions: Who are we? Are we doing the best we can to promote Maine’s place in American art? As we become more confident about the answers, we can become even more engaged with our community.”

For Urbanelli, the directorship, which primarily involves overseeing the museum’s financial health and implementing its vision, means more than just an opportunity to join an organization that shares her professional philosophy.

“For me, coming to Maine was a deliberate lifestyle choice,” said Urbanelli, who has spent vacations in the state. “I turn 50 this year. I’m proud of that. It’s shocking but I’m excited. I do love city life, but I’m really happy to be in a community that seems to be a little more in touch with what quality of life is all about. I really love the idea that one could make a life here in the natural world and still have a creative, sophisticated and active schedule. It seems unique to me in the country.”

Since taking over last month, Urbanelli has been busy both with learning about the position and area, as well as relocating from Rhode Island. But she has found time to walk among the paintings in the museum’s galleries. At the moment, her favorite piece in the collection is “The Teamster,” a 1916 work by George Bellows. Bellows, a member of the Ashcan School of artists who visited Monhegan Island at the beginning of the 20th century, depicts several men building a four-masted ship, their leader foregrounded and muscular. A placard nearby explains that the artist “puts a human face on the vast project by focusing on a vital young man in charge of a team of powerful horses.”

“I love it,” said Urbanelli, standing in front of the large canvas. “I love the color, his brushwork. It’s so luscious.”

It’s a painting about history, leadership, hard work and promise, necessary considerations, one might argue, for a boat builder and a museum director.

Alicia Anstead may be reached at 990-8266 and aanstead@bangordailynews.net.