Hafthor Yngvason is our Western Gallery Director who loves the art of sculpture and previously worked in Massachusetts and Iceland. Until he reached a tenure limit and moved to the PNW. In our interview, he shares his passions for public art, as well as expresses his long-standing appreciation for Western’s sculpture-boasting campus. Hafthor Yngvason has held many esteemed positions on councils and boards for various universities and institutions and we are very fortunate to have him. To read more about Hafthor, check out his biography on Western’s website below.
https://cfpa.wwu.edu/people/yngvash
How did you come to be Western’s Art Gallery Director?
Before coming to Western five years ago, I was the Director of the Reykjavik Art Museum. The Directors of the larger cultural institutions in Iceland — the National Theater, the National Gallery, and the Reykjavik Art Museum —have ten-year term limits and, at the end of my tenure, I started looking for a new adventure. I was particularly interested in working for an academic art museum and there were several positions open in the States. When I found an ad for the Director position at the Western Gallery, I was immediately interested because I had heard so much about the sculpture collection.
One early impression Hafthor got of Western that he was kind enough to share:
I had been the Director of Public Art for the city of Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1999 when Bruce Nauman’s Stadium Piece was installed and my colleagues and I, in the Boston area and across the country, were marveling at the things that were happening at this small university. We were all aware of the major works by major artists that had been installed at Western and we were very jealous. So the prospect of working with this collection was an incredible opportunity.
You worked at the University of Cambridge, as well as in Iceland: How does that compare to Western?
There are many similarities between my job in Cambridge and the job at Western. Both are substantially about art in public places. Although I love curating museum exhibitions, I am fascinated by the idea of people interacting with art in their daily environment. There is a critical democratic aspect to it. The art is there for everyone to enjoy and I truly believe that to be surrounded by art adds a meaning to our ordinary lives.
Can you tell me about some of your previous work?
I was actually engaged in public art in Reykjavik also. Although the Reykjavik Art Museum has two large buildings for exhibitions, it also has a sculpture garden and the museum is responsible for all of the publicly sited art around the city. I added many sculptures to the Reykjavik collection and in Cambridge, I worked with artists on projects that transformed public spaces, including city plazas, a water treatment facility, and the old city dump.
What do you find unique or compelling Western’s Artistic atmospheres?
Now, here we come to a difference between urban art and the Western campus. When you commission public art for a city, you usually don’t think of the city as a museum collection. Each project is unique and you tend to think of the special opportunities and challenges that each specific art project offers. If you commission art for a water treatment facility, for instance, you may select an artist who has worked with water and is capable of working with architects and engineers on an infrastructure project. At Western, on the other hand, we have a collection. So when there is funding for a new piece, the character of the collection is very relevant in the artist selection. The question becomes how can we build on what we have and take the collection forward, make it richer and deeper? The approach is different but the ultimate goal is the same: how can we make people’s public life richer?
Hafthor headshot:
Sculpture image 1:
Sculpture 2:
https://westerngallery.wwu.edu/files/osc_s08_stadiumpiece_0.jpeg
