The Art That Made Me: Michael Govan

Why It Matters

By redefining museum engagement through outdoor design, sensory perception, and living discourse, Govan’s model offers a blueprint for cultural institutions to stay relevant and financially viable in an era of evolving public expectations.

Key Takeaways

• Museums must reflect hybrid cultures and everyday material life.
• LACMA’s new galleries prioritize outdoor circulation and public gathering.
• Sensory experience shapes perception more than the artwork itself.
• Genesis Talks bring living visionaries to challenge static cultural narratives.
• Architecture by Peter Zumthor creates contemplative spaces for emotional engagement.

Summary

Ahead of the opening of the David Geffen Galleries at LACMA, director Michael Govan outlines his vision for a 21st‑century museum that moves beyond traditional categorization toward a community‑driven, culturally hybrid institution.

Govan argues that museums should embrace everyday material culture—surfboards, cars, and public spaces—reflecting Los Angeles’s interconnected world. He has re‑imagined LACMA’s circulation by moving entrances outdoors, turning the museum into an extension of the city’s streets and fountains, and he emphasizes that perception, not just the object, defines the visitor experience.

He cites a formative encounter at an Italian villa where a dark room illuminated by Maria Nordman’s light altered his sense of reality, and he credits architect Peter Zumthor for designing spaces that tease out emotional registers. The Genesis Talks series further illustrates his commitment to bringing living artists and thinkers into dialogue with the public.

Govan’s approach signals a broader shift in cultural institutions toward participatory, sensory‑rich environments, urging other museums to reconsider static displays and to position themselves as active forums for community reflection and future‑making.

Original Description

For The Art That Made Me, Michael Govan, Director and CEO of LACMA, sits down with curator and writer Ekow Eshun to reflect on the ideas and influences shaping his vision for what a museum can be in the 21st century.

Govan—who was born in North Adams, Massachusetts, and raised in Arlington, Virginia, near Washington, D.C.—is one of the most influential museum leaders of his generation. After roles at the Williams College Museum of Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Dia Art Foundation, where he served as president and director for twelve years, he has been director and chief executive of LACMA for twenty years and has overseen a fundamental transformation of the institution.

This is the second installment of The Art That Made Me, a new editorial series created in partnership between Genesis and Ursula magazine. The series initiates dialogues among leading artists and visionaries, illuminating the critical inquiries and reflections that are foundational to their practice. In this conversation, Ekow Eshun speaks with Govan about his expansive vision of the museum as a civic space shaped by community, dialogue and the exchange of ideas.

Ursula is a magazine of contemporary culture by Hauser & Wirth.

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Hauser & Wirth is an international contemporary and modern art gallery with spaces in Zurich, London, Somerset, New York, Los Angeles, Hong Kong, Gstaad, St. Moritz, Monaco, Menorca, Paris and Basel.

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0:00 Introduction

0:44 The Role of Museums

1:52 LACMA as a Community Museum

3:12 Formative Influences: Art & Perception

5:19 Learning from The Grove

6:32 The Genesis Talks