The question I’m concerned with is how do you build an enduring and great institution?” said Anne Pasternak ’86, of her role as president and artistic director of Creative Time. “What do we want to do for people . . . and how do we get there?”
One could say that Creative Time is well on its way. For 33 years, the nonprofi t public art organization has presented some of the most moving, exciting, daring art to appear in New York City—or anywhere. “Creative Time gives artists’ ideas priority—I love seeing the world through their lens,” said Pasternak. “We seek to give artists the chance to do engaging, challenging art, things that are different from what museums or galleries will allow. Art has the power to transform individual lives . . . We try to enable artists to create transformative experiences.”
Among the dozens of transformative experiences Creative Time has brought about are Sleepwalkers, Doug Atkin’s projections on the exteriors of MoMA last winter; Light Cycles, Cai Guo-Qiang’s unique fi reworks show over Central Park; and Takashi Murakami’s Wink in Grand Central Terminal.
“Tribute in Light is the project I’m most proud of,” said Pasternak, who has headed up Creative Time since 1994. “It was the hardest project I ever worked on.” Tribute in Light, of course, was the twin towers of light that illuminated the space where the World Trade Center had stood before 9/11. Creative Time didn’t publicize its role in the staging of Tribute, yet the organization has received more than 16,000 letters thanking it. “We still hear from people every week,” Pasternak said. “For some it was uplifting; for others, particularly the families of the victims, it was painful, but meaningful. It was a different idea of what a monument could be.” This fall Creative Time staged the first major American exhibit of British artist Mike Nelson, two-time Turner Prize finalist, in the massive, historic Essex Street Market in downtown Manhattan. Next spring, musician David Byrne turns another vacant city building into a musical instrument. Scouting city locations for art projects and fund-raising are big parts of Pasternak’s job, and she says UMass Amherst was infl uential in preparing her for this work.
“I grew up in a middle-class, conservative, Jewish suburb in Connecticut. When I got to UMass, I felt let off the boat into another country. It was a place where you could party hard, and I did, but also work hard and get a great education, and I did that, too. I worked as an intern with Michael Coblyn, [at Herter Gallery] and with Helaine Posner at the University Gallery. At UMass, you had both the freedom and the responsibility to make it there; it was a fi rst step into the world. In New York, you’re surrounded by people who have great wealth, prestige, and access—it prepared me to be here.”
