Outgoing MCA Chicago Director Madeleine Grynsztejn Offers the Consummate Insider’s Guide to the Windy City

At year’s end, Madeleine Grynsztejn will leave her post after 18 years as director of the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, which bills itself as one of the world’s largest museums devoted to the art of today. The museum, which launched in 1967 with a Fluxus happening by John Cage, Dick Higgins, and Allison Knowles, soon expanded its mission to collecting, and its holdings have now grown to include over 2,000 pieces. One early claim to fame: It was the first US building to be wrapped by legendary artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude, in 1969.

Grynsztejn looks back on a tenure in which she oversaw a doubling of the museum’s operating budget. Major gifts included one from Greek collector Dimitris Daskalopoulos, who gave the MCA about 100 works (most are kept jointly with the Guggenheim Museum in New York), including pieces by Louise Bourgeois, Robert Gober, Wangechi Mutu, Paul Pfeiffer, and many others. Another coup was a $2 million gift from Chicago collectors Marilyn and Larry Fields, along with 79 artworks. 

As the art world descends upon the Windy City for the Expo Chicago fair, Grynsztejn looks back on her history with the institution and ahead to a busy week. 

How would you characterize the art scene in Chicago overall?

The art scene in Chicago overall is incredibly healthy and vibrant. Another way in which I describe the art scene is in the same way that I describe the MCA, which is that we are hyper-local and globally relevant, in that order. So when you think about the artists who practice here, when you think about Michael Rakowitz, for example, he is so resonant with what is happening here, and at the same time, he has extraordinary exhibitions worldwide, including in Athens as we speak. Or Kerry James Marshall’s traveling European retrospective, or Theaster Gates [who has a current exhibition at Gagosian in New York]. It starts here, and then it goes everywhere.

In 2008, you were coming from a post as senior curator at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. How did Chicago look to you from that vantage point, and how has it changed, or remained the same? 

It wasn’t my first rodeo in Chicago. My first time in Chicago was 1992 to 1996 at the Art Institute of Chicago as their first curator of contemporary art. When I came back, after doing the Carnegie International and being at SFMOMA, it was a different place. But it wasn’t unfamiliar. It’s still and always will be very artist-forward, because there are 22 universities with excellent art schools, the School of the Art Institute preeminent among them, that draw a community, year after year, of young artists, who create relationships here and stay, primarily because of the opportunities here, which begin, number one, with affordable rent. 

And they can get jobs, because it’s a large city. Many of our employees are practicing artists, and there’s an unbelievably lively network of exhibition venues. There are non-profit spaces like Hyde Park Arts Center, there are incredible commercial galleries, and then there are museums, like the Smart [Museum of Art], and the Renaissance Society, which is in an absolute golden era thanks to [executive director] Myriam Ben Salah. And then there are platforms like the incredible Abby Pucker’s Gertie, that does independent exhibitions.

The third leg of the table is that people acquire your art. There’s an incredible community of collectors. 

Speaking of collecting, the museum began collecting soon after its founding. Looking back over your 18 years, what are some of the most resonant avenues by which MCA has expanded the collection?

That beautiful question leads me to four characteristics of the MCA. 

The collection started with the gift of the Venezuelan-American artist Marisol, and that, for me, has a kind of DNA quality to the collection. We are now entering the 10th year of a self-appointed mandate that this museum be a minimum 50 percent women artists in all of our acquisitions, exhibitions, and collections. That is simply because we are a public trust. We are duty-bound to reflect our communities. 

We have, at the beginning of our history, a big concentration of Surrealist works that were collected by the founders. We are in a happy position to evolve that, because it’s not just a movement, it’s a condition. So, we have a real thread of new surrealism, whether by an artist like Robert Gober or amazing new artists like the Chicagoan Julia Phillips.

The third thread is what we call the performative body. The very first exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago in 1967 was a Happening by Allan Kaprow and Alison Knowles and others. This is such a lucky thing to have at the basis of a collection, particularly now, at a moment in time where I think part of the solution to our problems is to reconnect with the physical body. So acquiring Tino Sehgal and Pierre Huyghe is a no-brainer for us. Having a full-on performance program is a no-brainer for us. 

Another thread is the Ascendant Artist Series, which will be 15 years old next year. In 2012, when we started, we uplifted a then-unknown Rashid Johnson, and then we went on from there to artists like Carolina Caycedo and Michael Rakowitz. All of them had their first mature survey at the MCA, and then we make it our business to acquire out of our exhibition program.

We call the museum “the first of firsts.” We’re in the business of showing you what you don’t yet know you love.

What are you especially looking forward to at the fifteenth edition of Expo Chicago, whether among the 130 gallery booths or in the curated sectors?

I have not previewed any of it. I love to be surprised. I love to walk in during VIP opening hours with our trustees. We always find something marvelous that either the MCA acquires directly or that a trustee acquires for us. Last year, the marvelous trustee Helen Zell acquired an incredible Yayoi Kusama sculpture from Michael Rosenfeld Gallery that immediately entered our collection. Art fairs are essential to the civic and economic pride of Chicago.

The museum will have its sixtieth anniversary in 2027. You’ve talked about how this was a good moment to hand over the reins to a new director. That person will have their work cut out for them, as museums are under fire, with Donald Trump calling them “the last bastion of woke” and working to cut off all government funding for culture. How do you think museums can hold true to their mission and stated values in the context of this profound challenge?

It is the best backhanded compliment that museums are so under such scrutiny, not only from the left, but from the right. From the left, we are not called out, we are called in during COVID and in the wake of the murder of George Floyd. Museums and other institutions were held accountable in the best way. We were called in to be more inclusive, to be more compassionate, to be more attentive to the back of the house as much as the front of the house. All of those learnings made us a better museum. 

Museums are held up as trustworthy institutions. How do we retain that trust? By knowing your principles and holding onto your principles. 

We are a purpose-driven operation. We have committed ourselves to, for example, paying our team at or above market rate—not non-profit rate, market rate. We strive to be as ethical as the messages of the works of the art on our walls and on our stage, because any delta is a credibility gap.

We are a public trust. We are duty-bound to welcome and reflect as many people as possible. That also pertains to our commitment to become a Spanish-English bilingual museum. I’m talking not just two wall texts where the Spanish one is in smaller font. Every single communication platform is bilingual.

And if I may put in a pitch, one of the things I’m looking forward to right now is the MCA show “Dancing the Revolution: From Dancehall to Reggaetón,” which matches up with everything that we’re talking about. It is also part of a thread of material culture exhibitions that distinguish us—exhibitions that look at art and culture through the lens of material culture, be it music, be it design, and so forth. “Dancing the Revolution” is a continuation of that. 

And you know, these shows take three years to do. We figured that show out way before Bad Bunny’s halftime show!