Tacoma Art Museum’s longtime curator Rock Hushka is leaving
Longtime Tacoma Art Museum curator and administrator Rock Hushka is leaving the downtown art museum, TAM announced Wednesday.
Hushka’s resignation is effective May 1, TAM said.
Hushka spent 19 years at the museum as associate curator and later as chief curator. He also served as deputy director and is currently director of Northwest Special Projects.
Hushka plans on working in career development for young adults in visual and graphic arts, TAM said.
“Rock’s great expertise in and love for Northwest and contemporary art helped to set TAM on its present course and mission,” TAM executive director David Setford said in the announcement.
During his tenure, TAM raised its regional and national profile, increased its permanent art collection and added two new wings to the museum.
“I am grateful for the extraordinary opportunity to serve Tacoma Art Museum and the artists of this region for nearly twenty years,” Hushka said in the announcement.
Hushka curated more than 75 exhibitions. Perhaps the highest profile and most controversial was the nationally touring “Art AIDS America” (2015). The exhibition included 125 works by major American artists like Annie Leibovitz and Jasper Johns which spanned from 1981 to 2015.
The show drew protests over its lack of racial diversity, primarily of African-American men, who were disproportionately affected by the AIDS crisis.
In 2016, Hushka co-curated, “30 Americans,” a traveling exhibit featuring African-American artists. The show received rave reviews.
Working with former TAM executive director Stephanie Stebich, Hushka more than doubled the museum’s permanent collection to more than 5,100 works.
In 2014, TAM opened the Haub Family Galleries wing. The $20 million addition houses the collection of Erivan and Helga Haub, German-American billionaires with a passion for American Western art. Erivan Haub died in 2018.
In 2019, the $10 million Benaroya Wing was added to TAM to showcase the promised collection of Seattle philanthropists and art patrons Rebecca and Jack Benaroya as well as works from TAM’s permanent collection. Jack Benaroya died in 2012.
Hushka worked to secure donations of significant works of Northwest Art. Artists include glass artist Paul Marioni as well as photographers Michael Kenna and Mary Randlett.
Hushka could not be reached for comment.
