August 2023 – ALISON ROONEY Communications

Editing Frank Gehry

and Honoring Anne d’Harnoncourt

This winter I had the pleasure of shaping in print a conversation between master architect Frank Gehry and Philadelphia Museum of Art Director Sasha Suda. The interview, conducted shortly after Suda arrived from her previous post at the helm of the National Gallery of Canada, focused on Gehry’s transformation of the museum‘s iconic temple—from the inside, and the bottom up.

That interview is the centerpiece of a recent book project I edited and managed that celebrates the culmination of the Art Museum’s capital campaign “It Starts Here.” Unabridged, the conversation was deep and wide-ranging, and editing it meant trashing many delightful details* and outstanding anecdotes that made for a deeply rich and even personal exchange between these two cultural titans—and true Canadian treasures.**

I thought a lot about beloved PMA director Anne d’Harnoncourt (1943–2008)*** and how to make her proud of the book we were making, of the words we were parsing. Inviting Gehry to work his magic on the bowels of the building was—of course—her idea.

The book also features an illustrated timeline and an essay on the history of the building lovingly contributed by illustrious architectural historian and Penn professor David Brownlee. It’s an editor’s dream to have a scholar of David’s pedigree available as I fact-checked the many minutia that Gehry lovingly recounted to Suda about the history of the museum, its original architects, their competing visions, and the many teams charged with its design and evolution over the decades.

When I took my daughter to Fairmount last weekend, I was proud to say as we passed by the Rocky Steps, “That’s where I worked when I first came to Philadelphia.” I’m honored to have played a small role in how the Art Museum is redefining and reinventing itself now, some three decades years later. A lifetime later, but a blink in Art Museum time.

*The image that accompanied AdH’s obituary in the* Inquirer, capturing one of what I can only imagine was one of hundreds of conversations she had with President Bob Montgomery Scott at the terrace at the top of the museum steps. If only she’d lived to see the glory that Gehry uncovered in the spaces just below where she spent those 10,000 hours.

* At one point Kathleen Krattenmaker, the Museum’s Head of Publishing, and I both admitted to having a lump in our throat when we saw in the transcript Gehry refer to the former director as “Annie.” Editorial minds prevailed, and we agreed to omit that little gem—proving you really are “Murdering all your darlings” when you edit. (I first heard that expression from Prof. David Price, my thesis advisor and first good, cutthroat editor.)

** Fun facts: At 38, Suda was the youngest director of the National Gallery in Ontario, where she was a proud member of the union. She has a dog named Phil Collins.

*** D’Harnoncourt set an exceptionally high bar in her tenure, not just in terms of her leadership and vision but also integrity and (obviously) taste. She was always the best editor in any room and managed to improve every draft I ever sent her in the 7 years I was worked there—boldly marking comments with her distinctive flourish with a royal blue fountain pen or blood red felt-tip. (Her mark-ups are yet another reason I’m grateful to have lived and worked in an analog age.) Little did I realize how good I had it working my first real job in her orbit from age 21 to 28. I’ve not quite encountered anyone of her caliber since.