J. Carter Brown Interview (page: 5 / 6) Director Emeritus National Gallery of Art	Print Interview

Have you had any regrets about directions you didn't take, or opportunities you might have missed?

J. Carter Brown: One regret I had was that I'd always been intrigued about the opportunity to direct a play. I'd been in a whole bunch of plays, but I'd never directed one. I made a decision early on at Harvard that drama took too much time, it was open-ended. I could do the Glee Club, and there was a schedule, and I could plan it and do my studies, too. Then I helped found a theater group that was doing central staging. The first play was Richard II. It was one of my favorites, and they asked me to direct it.

The week before, I had been elected President of the Glee Club, and I felt I couldn't do both. I've often looked back and thought, if I had directed that -- because I had all kinds of ideas of how to do it -- ...and it had been a success, and I'd gotten turned on, that could have been a life-changing experience. I could have gone into that field. And so, the road not taken. What Churchill called "the ifs of history." It's always gnawed at me. It would have been interesting to do.

Are there other things you haven't done that you'd like to do?

J. Carter Brown: Lots, but I'm not sure that I'm capable. Directing a play is one thing. I did get a chance to direct a movie. Actually my boss at that time was so worried that I was really into that he was afraid I was going to change careers.

Get the Flash Player to see this video. The Gallery got some money to do a film on its American collection, and they hired somebody to do a script, and the director didn't like the script. So I went around to the filmmaker and said, "If, anonymously, I do a script, you submit it and it flies, then I get to be the writer, right?" So he said, "Great!" So, my boss calls me in and said, "Hey, this is a big improvement. Who wrote that?" Well, I had to confess. So, once I'd written it then it was ridiculous not to direct it, and I had a ball. And, we shot it in 35 (mm). We got Burgess Meredith to narrate it. Here I was in Hollywood, driving in a convertible with these big polygonal ICC cases behind, and sunglasses, and I thought, "Oh boy!" And so, my boss pulled me back and said, "No more movies! We're going to keep you in the museum profession."

Have you suffered any serious disappointments while working at the National Gallery?

J. Carter Brown: Oh, lots. You get somebody that would be just perfect as chief curator. He's a major professor at a university, and he comes down, house hunts, it's all locked up. Then at the very last minute he says, "You know, I really can't do this. I love teaching too much. I can't leave my students." It's just a blow in the pit of your stomach. You go all the way, and then start all over again. It takes a little picking yourself up off the floor and starting again after that kind of rejection.

During the course of this extraordinary career, did you ever suffer self-doubt? Fear of failure?

J. Carter Brown: Funnily enough, not. I don't know why, that doesn't seem to be in my chemistry.

Get the Flash Player to see this video. I'm just a sunny personality that has this idea that everything's going to come out all right. When I was diagnosed with cancer just this last year, I figured, "Okay, well that's what apparently is in the deck that I've been dealt, and we'll just do the best we can." Don't let it put you into a slough of despond. One thing I really fear is living too long and becoming one of these vegetables and a burden to everybody and to yourself. And so, I've had such a rich life, such fabulous opportunities, that I feel, "Okay, take it as it comes."

[ Key to Success ] Courage

How do you explain to someone, a young person perhaps, who has no idea what you do, why you do it, why it's important to you?

J. Carter Brown: I feel so strongly that if we possibly can, we should be doing something for our fellow humans while we're here in this short span. Because I have had the opportunity to find, personally, how immensely rewarding it is to plug into the riches of our cultural heritage and to all of the arts, I want to share that with people, and not just sybaritically bottle it up and enjoy it myself. I feel a kind of evangelical impulse to say, "Hey! Look what you're missing! You can get so much more out of your life if you just give a little bit of yourself to understand and tune into this fabulous material."

How important is it for all of us to have a connection with culture in our lives, a connection with art?

Get the Flash Player to see this video. J. Carter Brown: I have a very biased view of the relative importance of culture and things like just making money. I was very disappointed when I had dinner with an undergraduate at Harvard a couple weeks ago who said that over 50 percent of his class, he thinks, are just absolutely tunnel-visioned about how they can max out their income. And, I just feel that is a kind of corrosive aspect of American society that is doing us in. It's the result of the consumerism that is driven by this massive assault of advertising, by the "gold rush" mentality of the dot-com era, get-rich-quick stock options and so forth, which I think it's fortunate for this country that some of the bloom has gone off that peach. But, it distorts the values. It makes people aggressive and competitive, and they have no time for their families, for really mining the riches that are out there that could enrich their lives. And so, I hope that our education system can begin to deflect more attention to exposing the young to the arts, and to culture, and to their heritage, so that then we develop a demand side to culture that will make the whole thing happen. They will become the electorate, they will become the patrons by virtue of being the consumers of art. If some of them also are producers, that's great, but that's a very small minority. And if we can get the value system of the society turned toward that direction, we will have a much happier nation.

[ Key to Success ] Integrity

This is not a happy nation these days. Bob Hughes's Culture of Complaint is right on the target. Everybody wants to be a victim, or complains about being a victim. Fractionation into these "identity politics" sub-groups has lost sight of the e pluribus unum idealism of our Founding Fathers. That's why I feel so strongly about this World War II memorial. That was our finest hour. This country pulled together and took care of one of the greatest evils that has ever beset this planet. And it was so exciting. I was alive then, and, you know, from farms to factories to the front lines, everybody was focused on one thing. Now we're spoiled. Younger people have all of this affluence, and they get into drug culture, they get feeling that the world owes them. I think it's too bad. I think that we can do better.

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