I came to the Walker in 1997 to manage a project with the unwieldy name Integrated Arts Information Access. IAIA was a multiyear effort to digitize and integrate the collections and archives of the Walker and Minneapolis Institute of Arts. On the web, IAIA would become known as ArtsConnectEd.
I was hired by Steve Dietz, founding director of New Media Initiatives. Steve and I had been colleagues in Washington, D.C., he as director of publications and new media at the National Museum of American Art (now the Smithsonian American Art Museum), and I was manger of the collection information system and website at the National Gallery of Art.
During my first 5 years at the Walker, I was a special projects manager, first for http://www.artsconnected.org/ and later http://www.mnartists.org/. I became director of NMI in 2003 after the Walker made the decision to downsize the department, eliminating the curatorial component, and making the focus the website and educational technologies.
The Walker’s NMI group is a great team, one of the best that I’ve had the pleasure of working with. I think we’re doing some amazing work, both online and in the building.