‘All of my dream jobs in one’: Polk Museum director Alex Rich’s life is centered around art

One of Alexander Rich’s prized possessions is a letter from the late Roy E. Disney.

Rich recalls wanting to be a Disney animator when "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" premiered in 1988. He sent off a drawing of Roger Rabbit to Disney and received a letter from Roy Disney in response.

“He wrote back and said, ‘I understand you are interested in a position with our company in the future,' and he said, 'While our standards are very high, with hard work on your part any dream can come true,’” Rich said.

From an exceptionally young age, Rich was driven and shaped by art, a passion that would lead him eventually to Lakeland and his role as the executive director and chief curator of Polk Museum of Art at Florida Southern College.

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Manhattan born and bred, Rich, 41, started as a cartoonist at the age of 2. He remembers drawing for his stuffed animals as a little boy.

“The earliest drawings that we have to this day are ‘Sesame Street’ drawings made in crayon in the middle of the night. I was drawing for my stuffed animals and I was so precise I needed to mimic what they actually looked like,” he said.

Rich’s paternal grandfather was a physician and art lover. They spent their bonding time going to museums in New York.

“Whenever he and I got together on these sorts of playdates, or any get-together at all, he would take me to the museum," Rich said. "So, from the time I was 4, 5, 6 I was going to the Met, the Whitney Museum, going to Guggenheim, going to Frick Museum."

Rich said that by the time he was in middle school, he was unintentionally becoming an art historian because he saw the world through the lens of art. He began writing history papers on artists and the way artists represent history.

“In ninth grade, I wrote a paper on the Spanish Civil War through Picasso’s Guernica and Weeping Woman paintings. I didn’t know at the time that what I was doing was basically an art history paper. It just made sense to me logically,” he said.

At 16, Rich worked in a high school apprenticeship program at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. In hindsight, he said the apprenticeship set the stage for him to become a museum director and professor.

“It was like a dream come true,” he said. “At that point, I was in my métier. I knew that that was the world I loved, working at the museum, working around art and especially educating others about art because my position there was to lead day camp group tours, at 16 years old at The Met. Which still blows my mind to this day that I had that opportunity to do so.”

His path to Lakeland

Rich graduated from Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, with a degree in English with modified art history in 2003. He then received his doctoral degree in art history at the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University in 2013.

Rich joined the Florida Southern College faculty in 2014 as head of the art history program while also serving as director of the college’s Melvin Gallery. In 2017, Rich became curator of the Polk Museum of Art, and in 2019 he became executive director and chief curator. He also serves as the art history and museum studies chair at Florida Southern.

“I moved down for one position, and while I still retain that position it has changed in many different forms and I have appended new responsibilities to it,” he said. “It’s something I could have never imagined I would have the amazing opportunity to do here in Lakeland just by moving from New York City, but it’s a whole different job than it started as.”

“It’s a lot on my plate, but I love every single aspect of it. I get to lead the museum, I get to curate its exhibitions and I get to teach my students and learners of all ages in the classroom and the museum. It’s literally all of my dream jobs put together in one.”

‘It’s amazing to be able to do this’

Rich is a businessman who likes to keep his personal life private.

“I try to keep my private life private. I have a nice life here in Lakeland. I am married and have a nice puppy named Wilkie, a 3-year-old schnauzer,” he said.

When Rich is not focused on art, he spends his time walking the dog, watching a TV show or going to the movies. Rich’s one activity he preserves for himself is swimming one hour each day.

“That is my relaxation time. That’s where I start working on exhibition ideas. It’s my solo time,” he says.

Outside of fine arts, Rich’s favorite activity centered around the arts is enjoying musical theatre. He calls it his “escapist art moment.”

“As a native New Yorker, I love seeing Broadway shows. I’m a musical theater fan, and so for me sometimes the richest arts experiences are sitting in an audience and watching a performance,” Rich said.

Though he has experienced Broadway shows and museum exhibitions throughout his life, Rich is partial to the exhibitions hosted by the Polk Museum.

“I think we really do put on an amazing array of experiences and showcase an amazing array of arts and educational opportunities for any visitor who comes to the museum,” he said.

“I’m so grateful for Florida Southern for giving me this opportunity by moving down here to be able to, you know, take all the things I’ve loved my whole life and then put them together hopefully for greater enjoyment for the community. It’s amazing to be able to do this,” he added.

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Polk Museum of Art director Alexander Rich’s role is his dream job