As she leans across the canvas to point out the painter's initials discreetly stamped in the left corner, Kimerly Rorschach blends right into the oil. Her crimson blouse exactly matches the color of Achilles' cape, the billowing silk acting as the exquisitely rendered center of the neoclassical French painting.
The Nasher Museum of Art director is standing right there on the marble parquet floor. In some nameless Aegean temple, she's watching Achilles puncture
Iphigenia's creamy, alabaster skin with a spear. She's eyeing the Greek warrior's tensed calves; she's enduring Agamemnon's surly gaze. Rorschach's brushed-back coif, its neatness befitting a museum director, probably doesn't budge in the Mediterranean breeze.
But back in the real world-here, in the third pavilion of the Nasher-Rorschach rights her petite frame, tugs downward on her dark blazer and smiles.
"Would you like to see another?" she asks, and before you can nod, she's spanned half the distance to a Mannerist altarpiece. Such is the zeal and enthusiasm for art peculiar to Rorschach, already secured in Duke history as the Nasher's inaugural director. But such status doesn't mean she's resting on her laurels. The musuem's opening catalyzed what has been an impressive and unprecedented string of accomplishments.
At a university still blindly groping for its arts scene, such accomplishments are Herculean. "Oh, the opening was a once-in-a-lifetime experience," she says, and her voice picks up speed. "The response from students and the Durham community were so exciting-there was much, much more enthusiasm than I expected."
The success of the opening, as it turns out, was the first of many. Mixed-media installation artist Petah Coyne's "Untitled #1111," the museum's first acquisition, made the New York Times-not insignificant for a university museum. Then came Grant Hill and his exquisite personal collection, which landed the Nasher on ESPN.
Connections and an eye for the unique have helped the museum find its feet both in the Durham community and in the nation.
"It's true that Durham is smaller-it has fewer resources, fewer collectors. But it means we can make a bigger difference here," Rorschach says. "Our opening makes the Triangle a real destination, and it becomes a question of critical mass: 'Should I go visit this new museum? Yes, I should.'"
Looking to the future, the Nasher will keep with the philosophy of its namesakes, focusing on contemporary art with a soft spot for sculpture.
"Contemporary art is a global phenomenon, so you naturally need to think globally," she says, before launching into hypotheticals. Imagine-Duke connections to academics in Delhi could bring us the leaders of India's avant garde; friends in London might land us critically acclaimed exhibitions. It's as easy as thinking big.
And it's thinking that big that brought 35,000 visitors to the Nasher in its first months.
"Of course, nothing can be perfect," Rorschach says.
If the true charm of art lies in its imperfections, her words hold only promise.
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