Sandra Kraskin is the curator of Baruch College’s Mishkin Art Gallery. She has been inquiring artists for work, organizing art exhibitions, and publishing show catalogues for fifteen years. Before her experience as the school’s gallery director, Dr. Kraskin received her PhD in Art History and was an art teacher and Art History professor in Minnesota. Because of a mass layoff of teachers in the 1980s, Dr. Kraskin was not able to continue her occupation in Minnesota and moved to New York to seek job opportunities. She taught at Baruch for one year but then became the gallery director. Below is my interview with Dr. Kraskin:

What do you like about being the Director of the Mishkin Gallery?

“What I like about this job is that I’m working with the real objects. When I was a professor in Art History, art was always on slides. Now they’re digital pictures, but anyhow, I could only talk about of an art object through an image of it, which was quite uncomfortable for me. I like working with real objects, and that is what I like about this job. I still do a good deal of teaching because professors bring classes in and I give talks, so it’s a win-win.”

What are some difficulties of your occupation?

“The hard part about my job is that I had to give up my professor schedule that I was quite used to. This is a forty-hour week job – or more like a fifty-hour week job. And I don’t have my summer off anymore, so the schedule is much more intense. But, I do like working with the objects, and I can still continue to do some teaching.”

How long are your work days?

“On Thursdays, I work from 12:00 to 7:00 [pm], and for the rest of the week, 12:00 to 5:00. For fifteen years I stayed until seven, but for the past three years I have someone to help me out – a PhD student – who works from 5:00 to 7:00 for me now.”

How would you describe yourself as an artist?

“I would say that I am an art historian. I started art when I was a child – I always enjoyed doing art projects and was interested in seeing art. After I got my PhD in Art History, I became an elementary education teacher back in Minnesota and I taught painting for a few years. Later I got the full time teaching job in Minneapolis, and I taught art history there.”

What memorable experiences do you recall as the gallery director?

“I’ve had a lot… I would say preparing the shows is the most special part. Every show is different, just like exhibits in other collectors and museums. We had so many different kinds of art from different cultures. For one show, which was called the Wrestling with History, we had abstract expressionists, African women artists, and even one Filipino artist I believe! In another show I remember there were a few Indian space painters who were abstract expression artists of mainstream New York, but they were influenced by Northwest coast art. That was an interesting project too.

Setting the shows up is always exciting because the design and lighting needed for each show are completely different. I also enjoy writing catalogs and essays for the shows. That was another thing that I did for the show other than organizing the gallery itself.

I guess doing the fundraising for the shows was also a great experience because I held art programs at Baruch that were able help the gallery raise money.”

Here is a more general question and it is to primarily ask for your point of view: What do you think Visual Art is about?

“Well, I like to revise art history because I feel that there are always some artists who get left out of the picture. In the gallery, I especially focused on putting in artwork by female artists – I even published essays about a few of them. I published a book in 2009 about a Russian female artist called Rediscovering Slobodkina: Pioneer of American Abstraction. In addition to representing more female artists, I incorporated works from artists of color and a number of reclaiming New York City artists. I wrote a book a few years back about a Russian female artist called Rediscovering Slobodkina: Pioneer of American Abstraction.”

What are your goals as the gallery director?

“I hope to put the gallery on the map. I usually seek out the work of more unique, original, or less well-known artists – artists that not everyone knows about but should know about. I believe that what we put here is high quality art because it is so different. I mean – no one would come here if it’s the same as everywhere else. I think our gallery is a wonderful place because it is and was home to rising artists. A few years back, I saw some artists’ works – they were not so well known then – and I got interested in making a show of their art. After their show here, they got more famous and now they are big artists!”

Do you think art is an important aspect of everyone’s lives?

“I think it’s important for all students, and particularly Baruch students, to learn about art. Sometimes business students here do not understand how important art can be for their future. For example, if you go to your boss’s house for dinner – and of course he would have a few art pieces in his living room or bathroom because he has the money – it would impress him if you knew something about the art! What kind of a boss would like you if you couldn’t think of anything smart to say about a painting or a sculpture? I think that art is part of the business world. You see now that big corporations, especially banks like Chase Bank, have massive art collections. When you walk into a Chase Bank you see a painting here and a painting there. John D. Rockefeller collected a lot of art during his lifetime – he was a big collector of artwork. Why do you think he would do that if art was not important?”

Do you think there is a relationship between art and business?

“Art has become such a big business, and there is a certain emphasis on sales of work. It is quite frequent nowadays for artists to sell their works. Now artwork can be very expensive because people buy things like that as an investment, and they do it not just for art anymore. Auction prices of artwork can by sky high! Art is a good investment, and that is why many people collect them. When the stock market is unreliable, art is a safer investment and it lasts for a longer time.”

Do you believe connecting art to business is good or bad?

“Sometimes how art is looked upon now is very degrading. What happened to Robert Indiana’s “Love” was an example of how people disrespect art and artists’ efforts. Now “Love” is just printed on T-shirts and mugs without Indiana’s permission. This is a copyright issue, and it is not what Indiana had in mind for his work to end up at. Indiana’s work became a source of business, and the initial meaning was completely devalued.”