Matt Foss, director
For years, a mint green, mid-century modern couch has occupied the director’s office at the Woodson Art Museum. I sat on it numerous times when I would come in to meet with my predecessor, Kathy Foley. Now, it is used by my coworkers when they venture down to discuss exciting things we have in the works.
Besides being a great looking couch, it is part of Museum lore. Volunteer docents once sat on it during their shifts, waiting to greet visitors who came to the Museum’s 12th Street entrance. That memory remains etched in the minds of many who were either visitors or volunteers in the Museum’s early years.
One such person is Barbara “Boo” Force. Part of the Museum’s inaugural docent class (and still a dedicated docent and greeter today), Boo and I were talking about the couch just over a week ago. We were discussing how best for volunteer greeters to do their work during the reimagining of the Museum’s lower gardens, which necessitated the closing of the Museum’s main entrance.
I offhandedly teased the idea of the couch potentially relocating for volunteers to sit on during the duration of the relandscaping project to greet visitors when they enter the Museum’s original 12th Street entrance. Boo’s eyes lit up like she had just won the lottery. Even though the couch is not the most comfortable, and low to the ground, I knew what needed to be done after I saw her reaction.
Although my office will be a little sparse for a while (the couch really ties the room together), we decided to relocate it to the Decorative Arts gallery for greeters to sit on and greet visitors, much like what would have been done when the Museum opened nearly fifty years ago.
We hope this will be one of many subtle nods to the Museum’s history that our visitors can expect over the next year and a half.
