By: Alexis Jimenez Maldonado
This conversation happened on October 20, 2022, via Zoom. The transcript of the interview has been edited for clarity.
Andrew Westover is an educator, ethicist, and the Eleanor McDonald Storza Director of Education at the High Museum of Art, Atlanta. Their previous positions include posts at the New Museum of Contemporary Art, J. Paul Getty Museum, National Museum of Wildlife Art, Smithsonian Institution’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, and Phoenix Art Museum. Westover began their career as a classroom educator and, prior to museums, worked for schools, districts, and universities across the U.S. and abroad. Westover holds an MEd from Arizona State University, MA in Religion from Claremont School of Theology, and EdM and PhD in education and ethics from Harvard University.
Alexis Jimenez Maldonado: You joined the Center’s community as an Ethics Pedagogy Fellow in 2018. What drew you towards pursuing a fellowship with the Center?
Andrew Westover: I applied for a fellowship at the Center at the recommendation of my incredibly supportive advisor, Kate Elgin. She described it as an opportunity worth considering, and I was excited for the chance to engage ethical questions, as they relate to teaching and learning, with a new cohort. I also applied for a fellowship at the Center because I was excited for the opportunity to engage ethical questions specifically as they relate to teaching and learning. There are not enough spaces dedicated to funding research that is both rigorously theoretical and intensely practical. I remain grateful for the Center's support of this intersection because I think it's a necessary model of inquiry, especially within universities.
Alexis: Can you talk about your fellowship experience and your time at the Center?
Andrew: I worked with an incredible group of peers and colleagues at the Center, and it was a great growing experience for me. I came in as part of a cohort and all the members of that cohort are excellent: Ashley Lee, Brian Palmiter, and Ronni Sadovsky. Ronni and I collaborated on several projects, and those ended up informing a lot of my thinking about ethics and pedagogical spaces. For example, she and I worked alongside Tommie Shelby to consider how one of his courses might engage ethical questions more critically, and that work later had direct implications for my dissertation. Also, Jess Miner was a very helpful mentor. I'm grateful for Jess’s criticality and approach toward the topics we engaged, a living example of instantiating such work within an institution.
Alexis: During your time at Harvard, you were a Ph.D. student focusing on education and ethics. Your work investigated the intersections between moral philosophy, civic and arts education, and dialogue across difference. Can you talk a bit about this?
Andrew: When I first joined the Center, I was still trying to determine a dissertation topic, and the fellowship year provided time for me to solidify my focus. Ultimately, my dissertation homed in on investigating teacher/student conflict and the possibilities of forgiveness. I engaged practical ethics and queer theory as core domains of inquiry, putting into conversation two literatures that don't often really engage with one another. And, if they do, it isn't always on the best terms. It was a fruitful space of inquiry, and I'm not sure where else I would have had the opportunity to engage it directly.
My work at the Center also provided a more expansive understanding of how practical ethics can engage with lived experience. There's a slippery array between what it means to understand something, what it means to believe something, and what it means to live something. I was deeply interested in, and remain deeply interested in, negotiating those distinctions. The opportunity to ask these questions in a space that valued them was important.
Alexis: How did your fellowship influence your graduate work?
Andrew: The Center provided intellectual space, and it also provided financial support. This support simultaneously grounded me and helped me move my research forward. That tangible gift was one of the most direct influences this fellowship had on my graduate work.
Alexis: You are newly the director of education at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Georgia. Congratulations! How has the transition been? Can you tell me about the work that you are doing at the High Museum?
Andrew: Thank you! I am glad to be here. You know, transitions always involve all sorts of things. In this instance, I'd been living in New York City for several years. And so, this was a transition both between institutions and regions. I grew up in the South, in East Tennessee. My undergrad was in Alabama, so the South is familiar to me. But then I spent over a decade elsewhere, living in Los Angeles, Boston, of course, and then New York. In some ways, it's a transition back to a space that I know, in that the South is not unfamiliar. And it's also different: I've never lived in Georgia.
Atlanta is fascinating for many reasons, but among them, and one of the draws to coming here, is that it's one of the few truly purple cities in the United States, including folks across the political spectrum with many different beliefs and values. One of the attractions for me to the High Museum is that we are asking what does it mean for an institution to more substantively engage a purple community? How can we be a better civic space? This connects with questions that our country is currently facing. What does it mean to live in a society if we are increasingly unwilling or unable to sit at tables with one another? And I think this institution is actively asking, how can we build a table where people can gather, even and perhaps especially when we have real disagreements? I should underscore that this requires safety, trust, and bravery. It’s work that requires a lot of commitment, from a lot of people. Do we know exactly how to do it? Certainly not. But I firmly believe it's work that can and should happen across our institutions, and it is work that cultural institutions must do, especially now. So I’m glad to be part of an institution actively working to make this happen.
Alexis: Can you share a bit about your prior experiences as an educator?
Andrew: My first job out of undergrad was teaching in a public school. I taught sixth, seventh, and eighth grade in a middle school in Glendale, Arizona. To this day, I think that's the hardest job I have ever had and probably will ever have. Educators in our society rarely get the respect they deserve. I don’t think we fully appreciate the skill that's required for excellent education to happen. My learnings from that time have led me to center a few questions: how do we nurture and support educators, and how do we enable others, whatever their profession, to recognize that teaching and learning is a valuable, transferable set of skills and orientations that can help all of us?
Alexis: Can you talk a little bit more about this fascinating journey that you went through and how you came to be where you are now?
Andrew: I actually began undergrad as a vocal performance major. I thought that classical music was going to be my career, my trajectory. Then, I had a couple of realizations. One, opera as a career is a particularly narrow path. And two, I didn't love practicing, which wasn't helpful as a singer. So I started trying lots of different things, and ultimately realized that teaching and learning was the right space for me.
However, I loved the arts and visual culture. It was a space where I found opportunities for self-expression, and to witness experiences I’d never conceived possible. Encountering incredibly rich cultural heritage opened the possibility for me not only to observe works of art, but to see beyond understandings I had at the time.
I ended up having an opportunity to volunteer, so I started as an intern at the Phoenix Art Museum. They graciously took on someone who did not have an art history background, but did have a background in education, to work with teachers. I loved it and started looking for more opportunities to do that. At the time I was in my early 20s. So, I moved across the country a couple of times following internships, fellowships, and part-time museum jobs, with all my belongings in my car and sharing apartments with lots of people. Things you will not see on my resume are seven years of working retail, serving in restaurants, and all of the other side jobs that made this possible. After a few years of doing this, I was able to get a foot in the door as an entry-level museum educator. Thankfully, this process is changing, and there’s greater attention now to more intentional and better-funded pipelines for emerging museum professionals.
Many excellent museum educators along the way served as mentors and helped me consider becoming a director of education as a possibility. Then the New Museum in New York took a chance on me, and I remain very grateful to them and learned so much in that role. And now it's exciting to be able to carry those learnings here and grow even more at the High Museum of Art.
Alexis: What projects are on the horizon for you?
Andrew: Many projects! One thing we are really focusing on right now in the education department is refining how we understand our stakeholders. What resources, knowledge, and experiences do we have to offer? What needs do we have as a department, and an institution? How can we build more reciprocal, collaborative relationships, either in the moment or in longer-term commitments? That is a major focus.
We’re also working hard to consider what it means for the High to be a knowledge-building institution. I think many universities are similarly thinking about what it means for institutions to be more than only service providers. We produce exhibitions, scholarly writing, and convening opportunities for people to engage with art and ideas they've often not encountered before. How do we ensure this intellectual work lands both with people who know they want it and people who don't know that they want it, but appreciate it when they come in contact? How can we engage with broader conversations, such that the art and ideas we present are more present and valuable for our immediate stakeholders and beyond? Those are some of the projects that I'm really excited to be digging into.
Alexis: How do you unwind when you’re not working, do you have any hobbies?
Andrew: I’m a literal pedestrian. I enjoy walking and am fortunate that right now I live within walking distance of work. I love that walk home. It is really important to me as a time where I can think and have space to freely associate and decompress. It's also time simply to see what's happening in the neighborhood. So, I appreciate that.
Alexis: Do you have a podcast or show that you are currently listening to/watching?
Andrew: I most recently listened to Helen Molesworth’s podcast “Death of an Artist.” I’ll try not to spoil it, but it’s a well-produced exploration of the life, death, and influence of artist Ana Mendieta. I especially appreciate the way Helen introduces ethical questions about navigating the art world and pitches the podcast so that you don’t have to be an art world insider to appreciate the story.
Alexis: Thank you for your time, Andrew!
Andrew: Thank you! And when you’re next in Atlanta, come visit the High; we'd love to welcome you here.