Johanna Burton Outlines Her Plans for ICA Philadelphia’s Next Chapter

Last month, the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia announced that Johanna Burton would serve as its next director. In something of a coastal swap, Burton comes from the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles and replaces Zoë Ryan, who left in January to become the next director of the Hammer Museum. Observer recently caught up with Burton to hear more about her vision for the role and what lies ahead.

Congratulations on the new position! Why did you want this job? What makes you excited about the prospect?

The ICA is a place I’ve always looked to as a model institution. From the start, it has been a home and a platform for artists to truly experiment, and for audiences to encounter new art and new ideas through mutual engagement. It’s no overstatement to say that since I first learned about the ICA, I have hoped to join it. I’m beyond honored and so excited to partner with the staff of the museum and the university at this pivotal moment and to imagine the next era of the ICA.

You’re coming from the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, where you’ve served as executive director since 2021. What are some of your proudest accomplishments there?

I have always been dedicated to institution building and to the idea that museums are ecosystems made up of individuals. I hope my past experience, including my most recent at MOCA, will shape my time at ICA by thoughtfully informing how the internal and external aspects of institutional health relate. During my time in Los Angeles, I’d like to think that the institution was seen as a place where art was always the central organizing principle—we mounted shows, programs and performances by incredible artists (Olafur Eliasson, Tala Madani, Paul Pfeiffer and Nadya Tolokonnikova, to name just a few) that couldn’t have happened anywhere else in the same way. The programmatic values and mission of an organization should match its operational workings. As I envision the future of the ICA, its staff, audience and partners are crucial interlocutors in imagining who we are and can be.

What’s your perception of the ICA in this moment? What does it do better than other institutions?

I am joining the ICA very grateful for all the people who first built and then sustained the museum since its inception. I want to find ways to hold onto the DNA of the museum, with its fierce dedication to experimentation, intellectual discovery and belief in artists’ role in society, while reimagining what civic art spaces can and should be in the future. In the first couple of years, I hope to advance a number of existing initiatives and to roll out new ways to focus on authentic inclusivity and artist-driven research, overall broadening ICA’s reach wider than ever before.

What are some of your favorite shows that the ICA has done in the past?

That’s hard, there are so many! Some that come to mind immediately include first survey shows by Karen Kilimnik (2007), Charline Von Heyl (2012), Jason Rhoades (2013) and Barbara Kasten (2015); exhibitions by artists including Rodney McMillan (“The Black Show,” 2015), Cauleen Smith (“Give It or Leave It,” 2018), Ree Morton (“The Plant That Heals May Also Poison,” 2018) and Michelle Lopez (“Ballast & Barricades,” 2020); and incredible thematic shows, such as “Dance with Camera” (curated by Janelle Porter in 2010) and “Speech Acts” (curated by Meg Onli in 2017). My current favorite show is on view now, a deeply moving presentation of the work of Mavis Pusey, co-organized with the Studio Museum and curated by Haley Ringle with Kiki Teshome. But for this show and the dedication of the curators, this incredible artist would be all but lost to history.

What are some of the big differences between running an art institution in Los Angeles and running one in Philadelphia?

I’m always interested in the conversation between the local and the global, and how this relationship is articulated specifically in the context of place. Artists are usually in dialogue with their immediate community, while at the same time, they are engaging folks and ideas from all over. The ICA is known for investing in its community so that it operates both very intimately and as a site for ambitious and far-reaching dialogues. It threads a beautiful needle by being relevant, specific and generative by strongly reasserting contemporary art’s key place in culture. Obviously, both L.A. and Philadelphia have robust local artistic communities, and I’m excited to become deeply immersed in Philly’s. I am thrilled to be joining Penn and returning to a larger academic context. I was trained as an art historian and still consider most of what I do—and what I work with artists toward—as a form of research. I love that the ICA is a small, nimble institution housed within a much larger, multifaceted arena devoted to the furtherance of ideas. I can’t wait to think with partners across campus and the city and to explore the new vocabularies made possible by reaching across disciplines and discourses.

The current art market recession has museums sweating alongside galleries. What can institutions do to maintain support in these troubled times?

While no institution is fully removed from the art market, one would hope to have a purview that exceeds and even proposes alternatives to it. To that end, I’m deeply proud of how I have always prioritized the intersection of artists and their publics, often through the lens of “education” in its widest sense. I have taught and written widely; run a graduate program in curatorial studies; overseen an education and public engagement department; and led museums. In all cases, what is key is creating and holding space for artists to work in expansive and vital ways, and in concert with an evolving public sphere (more crucial today than ever before). I’ve been so fortunate to have partnered closely with artists on residencies, books, exhibitions, performances and many things that are hard to even define. I see the ICA as the kind of incubator and laboratory that not only encourages breaking new ground but also recognizes the fragility and humanity of such ventures. I am excited to help guide the ICA forward as a space that allows such bravery and vulnerability, and I am confident there will be ample support—and hunger!—for those efforts to be realized.

Do you have a favorite spot for cheesesteaks yet?

My family and I are in heavy research mode on this topic! We haven’t yet relocated but know this is a key question and would love any and all suggestions!

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