New Bechtler Museum leader marks his return to Charlotte after 20 years

The Bechtler Museum of Modern Art announced a new executive director Friday.

Todd DeShields Smith returns to the Charlotte arts community after 20 years of leading art museums across the country.

Smith comes from California, where he served as director and CEO of the Orange County Museum of Art for the past six years. He previously served as executive director or president of the Tampa Museum of Art in Florida, the Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston and the Knoxville Museum of Art in Knoxville, Tenn.

From 1997 to 2000, Smith was a curator at the Mint Museum.

“It’s a real opportunity for me to be coming to Charlotte again,” he said. “But 20 years later, it’s a completely different city with a lot of vibrancy around the arts, even in the midst of the pandemic.”

The Bechtler has been searching for a replacement for founding director John Boyer since October. Bruce LaRowe was hired as interim director in December.

Smith starts the new position Sept. 8.

He was chosen because of his track record at several of the nation’s leading art museums, Ted Garner, chair of the Bechtler’s Board of Trustees, said in a statement.

An appealing job

Smith said he’s been a fan of the Bechtler since it opened in 2010.

He said he appreciates the Bechtler’s sharp focus on modernism, which he thinks is an important movement to have in its own museum.

The Bechtler has hosted over 30 exhibitions, as well as held community outreach programs partnering with the Mecklenburg County jail system and the Metrolina Association of the blind. It also has worked with adults with intellectual and cognitive challenges.

Looking ahead, Smith said he hopes to continue the success of the museum’s exhibitions and outreach programs.

“The fact that it is such a spectacular collection in an iconic building makes it a very appealing museum for a director like myself,” he said. ”It’s a museum where I can bring my skills from the last 20 years of museum leadership to build on this for the second decade of the museum.”

Navigating through a pandemic

Smith said this is an important time for the arts across the country, and Charlotte.

The Bechtler is temporarily closed under guidance from Gov. Roy Cooper’s three phase reopening plan due to COVID-19.

Smith said while the museum will be mindful of the safety and health concerns of being in a public space, he hopes when the museum can reopen, it will be a public service to the community.

“Museums are a place where people can gather and be inspired and seek refuge and remind themselves what it means to be human and to be part of a cultural life again,” he said.

While the Bechtler has been closed, it has turned to delivering programs online and through social media.

Smith said this transition has comforted members of the art community by showing them people are turning to the arts to help them through a tough time, and give them inspiration for the future.

“It does make you sort of reassess how you’re going to introduce yourself to the community and become acclimated to the community at such an important job,” Smith said. “But I think every institution is going to be going through a reassessment of how they engage with their communities.

“So it’s sort of a nice opportunity to start fresh with an organization as they’re dealing with this new reality.”