Meet Pierre Terjanian, the sword and shield expert who's leading the MFA into a new era

Boston Globe

12 hours ago

But even in his short tenure Terjanian had already become a favorite among the staff, and was encouraged by the board to apply for the top spot. He quickly became the clear front-runner, and on his first day on the job, received a standing ovation from the museum's employees.
Now Terjanian must lead the storied museum through a crucial moment, with the arts increasingly under attack and federal funding cuts upending the stability of institutions across the country. An expert in the field of arms and armor, Terjanian said his lifetime of scholarship has taught him a lot that might help along the way.
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'It certainly taught me about resilience,' he said. 'This is an important moment. There's a lot that is at stake.'
But also, Terjanian said in a Bold Types interview with the Globe's Janelle Nanos, his decade of experience at the Metropolitan Museum of Art will inform how he navigates the way forward here in Boston. As co-chair of a task force handling reopening the New York City museum after COVID, he said he was forced to rethink how institutions operate and how they can work together to share resources. A similar mindset is needed now, he said.
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'Institutions were struggling with a number of operational issues, but also more existential ones,' he said. 'No one knew what the future looked like.'
This led to unprecedented collaboration between small and large institutions, something the current challenges may call for as well.
'This is a moment, really, to think about how together we can address the needs of our time.'
Boston's Museum of Fine Arts has a new director, a French arms and armor expert named Pierre Terjanian.
David L. Ryan/Globe Staff/David L Ryan, Globe Staff
Top of mind for Terjanian is how to refresh the MFA's approach to its permanent collection in a way that creates more 'points of entry' for guests. The museum, he said, can do more to explore the
'emotions behind the objects,' both in how they were created and how they were received, in order 'generate a broader invitation to engage with the art.'
But that invitation, he said, has to go both ways.
If Malcolm Rogers was known for expanding the
physical footprint of the museum with its Art of the Americas wing, and Teitelbaum expanded the MFA's efforts to reach more diverse audiences, Terjanian said he hopes to expand the
MFA's presence beyond its walls and into Boston's neighborhoods.
'We need to work with community leaders of peer organizations,' he said, to both support their work and find ways to collaborate. He speculated that might look like loaning objects in the museum's collections, co-hosting programming with smaller arts venues, or sponsoring performances that take place far from Huntington Avenue.
It also means finding new ways to make the MFA more accessible and affordable to all. This fall, he said, the museum will announce an expansion of its occasional '$5 after 5″ p.m. program every third Thursday of the month. And the first year of the Boston Family Days program, he added, has shown how to bring in more residents from all corners of the city. He's hoping to build on the programs' successes.
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Wandering the galleries one recent Thursday morning, Terjanian stopped to marvel at a
One can imagine the soft-spoken Terjanian using a similar leadership approach. When museums like the Smithsonian are taking proactive measures to avoid attracting conflict — artist Amy Sherald recently
'We obviously want to be in compliance with all existing laws. But we always go back to our mission,' he said. 'And our mission is to be a place that engages by ideas with the richness of the human experience across cultures, across continents, recognizing that both communities and individuals have made contributions that we should want to celebrate.'
Now more than ever, he said, he wants to stress the importance that museums should play in civic life.
They are a 'place for reflection, for self-examination, for perspective-taking, for dialogue, for inspiration,' he said. 'We can provide a backdrop of thousands of years of human experience. And I think it's a resource.'
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"Appeal to the Great Spirit," outside the front entrance of the Museum of Fine Arts.
David L. Ryan/Globe Staff