Six Questions with Harry Philbrick

Harry Philbrick speaks at a Newport Art Museum event. Photograph Carley Brockwell

You started as executive director of the Newport Art Museum last September. Can you tell us about your background and what brought you to Newport?

I grew up in Providence, and my family has been in Rhode Island since forever. My mom was a Hazard, so one of the nine founders of Newport. My dad was a professor at Brown. My grandmother, my dad’s mom, had gone to the Wheeler School, and Ms. Wheeler took students to Europe to Paris and Giverny in the summer. My grandmother went and ended up going a number of summers. After she graduated, she was still going back. She became friends with [artist] Jimmy Butler and spent Christmas with them and met Monet a number of times and was an artist. And then she got married, she had kids, and that kind of slipped away. When I came along and I was interested in art, she would take me to the RISD museum all the time. I went to Brown for a year and then I dropped out because I wanted to be an artist. My grandmother was the one person who said, ‘You’ve got to do this. If you don’t do it, you’ll regret it for the rest of your life. You might not end up being an artist, but you’ve got to pursue it.’ So I did.

What kind of art did you pursue?

I was a painter — abstract — and eventually started making sculpture. And then I got into doing museum education over in London at the Hayward Gallery to make some money and really enjoyed that. And when we moved back to the States, I was doing education at the Museum of Modern Art and at The Aldrich [Contemporary Art] Museum. [At] the Aldrich Museum, I became director of education, and then I curated a show, and then I eventually became director. And it was when I curated that first show when I realized that I was better at bringing people together and making things happen than I was at bringing paint together and making pictures happen.

What brings you back to Rhode Island at this point in your career?

From there, I went to Philadelphia to be the director of the Museum of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. While we were living in Philadelphia, we ended up buying our house in Jamestown in 2019. We knew we were going to move to Rhode Island at some point, and we ended up doing it in 2024. When the opportunity here at the museum came up, it just seemed so perfect to me. It connects the two things I really care about, which is contemporary art — we were founded by then-contemporary artists — and historical America.

How would you describe the Newport Art Museum to someone who hasn’t been before?

I think the fact that we were founded by artists to be a school and a museum is the key salient point. Our education program is equally important as our exhibitions. We have a really rich and interesting history that is specific to Newport. First of all, we’re in this house, this Richard Morris Hunt mansion from 1864, and he obviously went on to design some of the major cottages along the shore here. And then our second building, the Cushing Gallery, was built to honor Howard Gardiner Cushing, who was a Newport artist. Many museums, if you went in the museum, you wouldn’t know what city you are in, but there are singular museums where you really know that you’re in a place. And I feel like this is a museum where you know you’re in a place.

Are there any Rhode Island-based artists that you’re looking forward to exhibiting?

There’s an artist named Bob Dilworth who did a major show with us a few years ago. Bob lives and works up in Providence and taught for years at URI and is really a revered figure. We have a group exhibition called Unfurled, and Bob is one of the artists in that exhibition. Unfurled is really a preview for a project we’re doing next summer, which is called the Art Cup. We’re partnering with Sail Newport. We’re going to invite probably around a dozen artists to design sails for the Shields Fleet. We’re partnering to organize this regatta which will happen off Fort Adams, the date to be determined next summer. The Unfurled exhibition shows the work of seven of the artists who will be participating. Kelsy Patnaude is an artist that I should mention also. She is one of the artists who is in the Unfurled exhibition who will be doing one of the sails and will also be captaining one of the boats.

Do you still do any of your own art?

No, I don’t. The house that we bought in Jamestown has a really beautiful and large flower garden, so I’m gardening now. Which is a polite way of saying I pull out a lot of weeds.