Staff Highlight: Robert Colburn ’96, Preparator

We are excited to welcome Robert Colburn ’96 as the new Chief Preparator at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art. In the following conversation, we discuss his trajectory into the field of museum preparation, his work as a practicing artist, and what it has meant for him to return to his alma mater. The transcript has been condensed and edited for clarity.

Amanda Skinner (AS): As a graduate of Bowdoin College, how does it feel to return and work in the museum you visited as a student?

Robert Colburn (RC): It’s pretty wild! I’ve lived in Midcoast Maine for 20 plus years, never that far from Bowdoin, but being back on campus in a professional capacity is an exciting new dimension to my relationship with the College. The timing of my arrival in August was interesting because it was right at the time new students were coming to campus, which brought up my own memories about arriving to Bowdoin as a first year and reminded me of that feeling of newness and change.

AS: Along those lines, were there specific campus experiences from your time as a Bowdoin student that shaped your interest in art and/or museum work?

RC: I was a Visual Arts major and, although I spent most of my time in the studio, the BCMA was inherently a part of the arts at Bowdoin. The woodshop on campus was where I first met José Ribas ’76, who is my predecessor as Chief Preparator. He was the resource if we had woodshop needs for our visual arts work—we could ask him to cut us a panel, for example. At that time, I wasn’t thinking consciously about pursuing preparator work but it was formative to be around it and to know there was someone at the Museum doing the hands-on things.

AS: I know you are still a practicing visual artist—can you tell me about your work?

RC: My grandparents were both commercial artists who worked for The New Yorker, and so as a young person, I thought of art as something designed to convey a message to other people. It meant that representational art was more appealing to me than not. At the time I was a student at Bowdoin, visual art classes also skewed very representational, though I did take a class on pop art taught by Professor Larry Lutchmansingh, which was inspiring.

Painting was always the thing I enjoyed doing most. My art is largely representational plein air landscape painting. However, the counterbalance to that area of interest is in Pop art and art with humor. So, I do have these two discrete bodies of work that fall into these spheres.

AS: So, given that museum preparator work was not consciously on your mind as a student, what first sparked your interest in the field, and how did you find your way into museums?

RC: As an artist, I’ve always liked working with my hands. While I was here at Bowdoin as a student, I was having summer experiences that were rooted in the trades and learning practical, hands-on skills. After undergrad, I landed back in the Boston area where I had gone to high school. I had a friend who was working as a security guard at the Harvard Art Museums, and he recommended I do that, which I did. It was there that I saw the work that the preparators were doing. The preparators were obviously the coolest people in the museum—they didn’t have to wear a uniform, they could go anywhere they wanted, and they had access to every door. I’d ask, “how did you get into this?” Each of them had a similar answer—that there was no formal training program for the job and that you could learn from working in galleries where you would get to try your hand at the different activities that are the core skills of a preparator. I happened to be working as a picture framer at the same time as I was working as a security guard so then I started looking for gallery jobs. I landed one at Pucker Gallery when it was on Newbury Street in Boston and I was off and running. I was so fortunate to have the best team to work with and amazing mentorship there. I got into the museum side of things much later as preparator at the Farnsworth Art Museum. By then I had done such a variety of things at a bunch of galleries, I had covered most of the basis of the practical skills needed to be a preparator.

AS: Now that you are a museum preparator, can you describe a typical day in your work?

RC: The joy of the job is that every day is a little different. There may be similar things that you’re doing—going into storage to look for artwork and thinking about upcoming installation and prepping for classes—but the day to day is different. This morning I’m pulling prints for an Italian class, Laura Latman, the BCMA’s Registrar, wanted to see a canvas, and Jo Hluska, the Assistant Preparator, is framing up some stuff for a show. We are surrounded by art and get to work with art every day.

AS: What skills are most essential for a preparator?

RC: Beyond any technical skill, it’s the ability to manage multiple projects all at once. There are always many things happening at a museum—one minute you’re having a conversation about exhibitions that may be two years from now, and other things are problems that need to be solved tomorrow. I also try to keep a positive perspective and a sense of humor—it’s important to me to be a good colleague and to bring humor and levity to keep ourselves in good spirits as a collective.

The other important skill is the ability to pay attention to detail. Details count. Most of the time it’s things people won’t notice, but the feedback I get is that people are moved by the overall presentation and that tells me that even if the visitor doesn’t quite know what makes their experience in a gallery or at the museum special, those details contribute to it.

AS: How do you see the BCMA as serving current students and the wider Bowdoin community, and how does your role contribute to that mission?

RC: When I was a student at Bowdoin, the BCMA was not a huge focal point for me. It felt even a little intimidating. Coming back and seeing how the Museum interacts with the students and Bowdoin community at large—it feels amazing to me. Part of the reason I wanted to come back was that I feel deeply that it’s a priority to bring students into the Museum and have them interact with this resource.

I think for a long time I thought of museums solely as collections of objects being preserved, places where you had to be quiet and careful. Now I see museums as a collection of objects that need to be interacted with to give them purpose and meaning. Museum spaces and collections should be seen as lively and dynamic resources for people and for learning and teaching.

AS: What advice would you give current students or emerging professionals who are curious about a career in art preparation or museum work?

RC: There are many ways to work in the arts and to support the arts. I’d suggest gaining practical skills, and being open minded to different ways of engaging in the arts. If you are naturally curious and artistic, certain skills will lead you into other skills or opportunities. Practical skills are the kind of skills that become valuable to other people.

AS: And finally: is there a particular tool, material, or installation technique you couldn’t live without?

RC: A decent power drill—something not too heavy but that has enough heft.

Amanda Skinner
Assistant Director for Museum Communications