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Photo courtesy of John Spiak
Cal State Fullerton’s Grand Central Art Center in Santa Ana named John D. Spiak, a California native and 16-year veteran at Arizona State University’s Art Museum, its new director and chief curator. Spiak, who will take over in September, took time away from packing up his office in Arizona to speak with me about his venture back to California and what he has in store for CSUF and the Grand Central.
Q: How did you get started with art?
A: I stumbled across an art gallery that had an opening for a position, and I was valet parking at the time, you know, one of those great college careers, and I saw this “help wanted†sign and I walked into the gallery and said I was interested in applying and from that point on, I was addicted to contemporary art.
Q: What made you decide to come over to CSUF?
A: I have known about the Grand Central Art Center even prior to its opening. Mike McGee and Don Cribb knew people that knew them and when they were starting to talk about opening the Grand Central, Mike had me over and toured me through the space and talked about his vision he had for Grand Central and it blew me away. It was everything I always wanted to be involved with. With the MFA students above, the interaction with students – that engagement – contemporary art focus, Black Box Theatre Space, it has everything that interests me, but also its location … in the heart of Santa Ana. My grandparents lived about a minute from that space when I grew up, so we spent a lot of time in downtown with the shops, going to the bank, doing daily activities in that area. It’s that diversity of culture that really excites me.
With the actions that are going on on Fourth Street, the new businesses, the young people moving in closer to the Grand Central Art Center, how do you merge those two audiences and how do you engage those audiences in a respectful and mutually beneficial way?
Q: How long ago was it when you got a tour of Grand Central?
A: That was back in ‘98, and actually the second exhibition that took place in Grand Central was an exhibition I originated and it was called “Sig Alert.†It was looking at immerging artists of the Los Angeles community of the ‘90s who found alternative arts of the art world. It premiered here at ASU and toured to Grand Central in 1999 and was literally the second exhibition there.
Q: What excites you about Grand Central Art Center?
A: I love the fact that students live there. I feel like the possibilities for engagement are so rich. They have an amazing staff that has really pushed that space and continually pushed that space. The space is going to be named in Orange County Weekly as the best museum of 2011 by critics’ choice; that excites me. Black Box Theatre Space excites me. Really, being in that downtown neighborhood really excites me. All the positive occurrences that continue happen in downtown.
Q: How do you decide what you put inside the galleries?
A: I know the history of the space really well. I want to do a lot of listening to staff, to students, to faculty and community, and develop the program in a way that is going to make the most sense and the most benefit to all involved.
Q: What do you anticipate for your future working with this gallery?
A: I see it continuing to move forward in positive directions; I see more international recognition and actually more national and local recognition of the space. That’s one of my goals. My other goal, like all institutions at this time, would be fundraising, and I want to see a lot more collaboration with the main campus. I really want to see us engage with the main campus; that distance is a little bit of a barrier, but I think there are positive ways of doing that. I also want to take the museum space or the exhibition space outside of the physical walls and into the surrounding communities of downtown Santa Ana.