James Rondeau on expanding the Art Institute – and putting that airplane incident behind him

Running an art museum may be one of the toughest jobs in the arts at the moment.

There are cuts in federal support and philanthropic pullbacks to contend with. Sociopolitical jabs from the left and right. Even existential questions about the relevance and purpose of such institutions in the 21st century.

The Art Institute of Chicago has not been entirely immune to these challenges, including a 7% post-pandemic attendance decline that stems in part from a drop in international traffic to the United States.

But James Rondeau, who this month marks the 10th anniversary of his appointment as president and director, is pushing ahead undeterred, with a billion-dollar endowment that’s increased 70% during his tenure and about 1,000 art acquisitions each year. Highlights include a 26-by-18-foot stained glass church window created in 1917 by Tiffany Studios that has become an audience favorite.

The number of local visitors? That’s up too, with much of the growth coming from neighborhoods that the museum historically underserved, Rondeau said. Although regular adult admission is $32, the museum has significantly boosted its free-access program, which drew 300,000 visitors in 2025.

But the ambitious former contemporary curator also starts this year trying to course correct from an April 2025 stumble, when he reportedly stripped off his clothes after drinking alcohol and taking prescription medication on a flight from Chicago to Germany. Rondeau subsequently took a 1½-month volunteer leave from his position.

In a video call from his office in January, he described the incident as a “very low moment both personally and professionally” and expressed thanks for the museum board’s continued belief in him by allowing him to return to his position.

“As cliché as it is,” Rondeau said, “every challenge is an opportunity, and that presented a number of opportunities for me to move forward with a healthy work-life balance and an attentive understanding to wellness. I believe it’s firmly in the rearview mirror, but it’s important to acknowledge.”

As he enters his second decade at the helm, one clear focus is expansion. Though the Art Institute is the second largest art museum in North America, it needs more space, according to Rondeau. He points out that only about 15% of the museum’s modern and contemporary collection is on view, and its renowned collection of 20th-century surrealism is “only barely represented.”

He believes an addition would help the museum maintain its competitive edge. “When you visit this museum, you’re at one of the great museums of the world," he said. "And if we spent a decade letting our peers refine their facilities and visitor experience and improve access to their collections and we didn’t do that, we would fall behind.”

Concrete aspirations

Born in Holyoke, Massachusetts, Rondeau grew up in nearby South Hadley, an academic milieu where he had easy access to five “amazing art museums,” sparking his interest in the field. During his early college studies in American art history, he made his first visit to the Art Institute.

After serving as the associate curator of contemporary art at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, Connecticut, Rondeau took the same position with the Art Institute in 1998. Six years later, he became head of the modern and contemporary art department. His 18 years as a contemporary curator included organizing large survey exhibitions devoted to such heavy hitters as Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein, Charles Ray and Cy Twombly.

But when it came to taking the museum’s top job, Rondeau is quick to acknowledge that a big challenge of his promotion was moving from the focused world of contemporary art to overseeing the entire museum, which has 11 curatorial departments and houses thousands of years of art from nearly every part of the world. “This job is very, very different, from the narrowest construct to the broadest,” he said.

Sarah Kelly Oehler, the Art Institute’s chair and curator of arts of the Americas and vice president of curatorial strategy, praised his style of leadership, which she described as empowering his staff and avoiding micromanaging.

“James was a longtime curator himself, and he really understands what it means to be a curator,” said Oehler, who has worked at the museum since 2002. “He is very willing and supportive in helping us realize our collections and the exhibitions we put on at the museum. From that regard, I think it’s been a terrific 10 years.”

In an in-depth conversation with WBEZ/Sun-Times that covered a wide range of the Art Institute’s activities, a prepared Rondeau pointed to the museum’s strong financial position. More than 40% of the institution’s annual $122 million budget is funded with earnings from its $1.12 billion endowment. That’s notably higher than the industry average of 25% among American art museums, according to the Association of Art Museum Directors.

But the director’s tenure has not been without its controversies. After a bitter struggle, employees of the Art Institute — including custodians, curators, library staff and gift-shop workers — voted to unionize in January 2022.

At the same time, Rondeau acknowledged “lessons learned” and “mistakes made” in 2021 with the museum’s clumsy switch from a longtime coterie of volunteer ushers to paid positions in an attempt to create pay equity. Sun-Times columnist Neil Steinberg described it as having the makings of “one of those evergreen PR disasters still talked about 25 years later.”

“The way we communicated didn’t actually make people valued or respected for their contributions to the museum," ,” Rondeau said. "We were trying to do exactly the opposite and ended up making many people disaffected.”

The director hopes the lessons learned from such moments guide future decision-making.

One of his earliest and most forward-looking moves as director was hiring the Spanish firm Barozzi Veiga in 2017 to create an architectural master plan for the museum and help rethink how it presents its collections.

The first manifestation of the firm’s work was a makeover of the museum’s Michigan Avenue lobby, which Rondeau said is now “much more open, much more welcoming and much brighter.” More recently, the firm oversaw the redesign of the museum’s 17th, 18th and 19th-century European design galleries, giving them a minimalist, contemporary look that will serve as a model for other spaces in the museum.

Barozzi Veiga is also front and center in the recently announced transformation of a former principal exhibition space into a projected $50 million art conservation center — something Rondeau called “one of the great, state-of-the-art [such] facilities in the United States.” It is set to open in fall 2027.

Under discussion is another addition to the museum. The newest part of the museum is the 17-year-old Modern Wing, a 264,000-square-foot structure designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Renzo Piano. “We have very concrete aspirations,” Rondeau said. “We do not have an approved building project.”

Debra Kerr, president and CEO of Chicago’s Intuit Art Museum, questions the need for a further wing. “With some of the vagaries with federal and foundation funding, I think all museums need to view expansion projects with care,” she said. “How much increase in operational costs can we withstand?”

An eye for masterpieces across millennia

When Rondeau was appointed director in 2016, it was easy to wonder, given his background, if the museum was going to take a heavy turn to contemporary art, a field that has become trendy with collectors and donors. But that has not happened.

“I’m being given the privilege to sit in this office in order to support the ancient Mediterranean, to support Indian textiles and Japanese screen painting in the 17th century. That’s the job,” Rondeau said. “It’s not discretionary on my part to say, ‘I’m going to ignore the finances and just love contemporary art.’ That would be a recipe for failure.’”

Under his leadership, the museum has put more emphasis on art of the ancient Americas and Indigenous art. In addition, in 2020, the museum hired its first associate curator of Korean art, Yeonsoo Chee, and later added an assistant curator for textiles and arts of Greece, Rome and Byzantium, the Byzantine art specialist Stephanie Caruso.

Even the director’s own office sports a rotation of works on view from storage that show a cross-section of the museum’s collection. The two main paintings currently displayed are Ellsworth Kelly’s “Train Landscape” (1953) and “The Customs House at Varengeville” (1897) by Claude Monet. Rondeau, not missing a chance to teach, was quick to point out that the latter greatly influenced Kelly.

When asked about important acquisitions during his decade at the helm, Rondeau did mention one modern work: “Still Life Reviving” (1963) by Remedios Varo. That 2024 acquisition came a year after the museum presented a solo exhibition of her work — its first ever show devoted to a female surrealist painter and to a woman artist from Mexico.

But Rondeau was most eager to talk about recent additions in other departments, especially the “generational, transformative” gift in early 2025 of 200 paintings, 50 sculptures and nearly 2,000 drawings from Chicago collectors Jeffrey and Carol Horvitz. These French works from the 16th to 19th centuries provide an ideal complement to the Art Institute’s already world-class collection of 19th-century French art.

Kerr, who also teaches museum management at Northwestern University, complimented many of the museum’s recent exhibitions, especially its ongoing presentation of Calcutta-born artist Raqib Shaw’s 100-foot mural “Paradise Lost” (2009-25). This intricately realized painting takes viewers on an allegorical journey across 21 panels.

“It’s something that’s different from what one normally associates with maybe the Art Institute,” Kerr said. “The last time I was there, I was really enjoying watching the visitors look at the art and how much they engaged with the details.”

She also praised shows devoted to Chicago artists whom she called “hometown favorites,” including those showcasing Joseph E. Yoakum in 2021 and Christina Ramberg in 2024. “I think they are really working to be relevant to the community, and they have to keep that up,” Kerr said of the Art Institute’s leaders. “I think bringing some of that Chicago specialness forward is really good.”

Rondeau knows that an anniversary is just an arbitrary point in time, but he has used it as an important opportunity to look back — and ahead — and take stock of what it means to lead one of this country’s top art museums.

“It’s a forever learning curve, and acknowledging that with clarity, confidence and some humility on the occasion of looking back on 10 years has been really productive,” he said. “I’ve done a lot of reflecting on what leadership means and what I expect of myself and what I expect I can offer the institution.”