Susan Gail Johnson
Discussing Jackie Robinson with Pat Battle of NBC 4 New York.
More than fifteen years ago, I joined the team at the Museum of the City of New York, and we transformed it from a museum backwater—it had been called New York’s “attic” and was known mostly for dollhouses and Duncan Phyfe chairs—into a cultural beacon that New York Magazine declared in 2016 to be “an essential institution.”
The museum created an ambitious exhibition program to draw New Yorkers back to its location at 103rd Street, again and again. During my career at MCNY, I managed more than 30 of these exhibitions; most of them were museum-curated, but some were traveling exhibitions, and some involved guest curators. I worked on projects covering topics and mediums as varied as urban planning (Robert Moses and the Modern City: Remaking the Metropolis, 2007), natural history (Mannahatta/Manhattan: a Natural History of New York City, 2009), design (Paris/New York: Design Fashion Culture, 1925-1940, 2008), contemporary video art (Stories the City Tells Itself: The Video Art and Photography of Neil Goldberg, 2012), photography (Cecil Beaton: The New York Years, 2011), and even sports (The Glory Days: New York Baseball, 1947-1957, 2007). In addition, I managed more than 13 exhibition catalogs, working with various authors, editors, and co-publishers. Each year at the museum my responsibilities grew.
Then, in 2013, the museum embarked on an institution-defining project, New York at Its Core, a permanent exhibition conceived as the culmination of a ten-year, $97-million renovation of the museum’s landmark 1930s building. I served as Project Director of this complicated, vital, and thrilling project. I managed a multi-year schedule, multi-million-dollar budget, and a huge team including three curatorial teams, collections staff, and digital content producers. Crucially, I managed the relationship with three key design consultants—Studio Joseph (exhibition), Local Projects (media and experience), and Pentagram (graphics).
The critically acclaimed and award-winning exhibition opened in 2016 in three galleries on the museum’s first floor. It combines original artifacts and high-tech interactive experiences to reach visitors on an intellectual and emotional level. The exhibition is the first stop for most museum visitors, and it anchors the rest of the museum’s programming including public programs, temporary exhibitions, and education programs.
After that project, I took on a newly created position, Director of Publications, and took over all exhibition- and collections-based publications. Working closely with co-publishers, editors, designers, and authors, I oversaw several important publications from concept through publication including City/Game: Basketball in New York (Rizzoli, 2020), New York: Treasures of the Museum of the City of New York (Abbeville Press, 2020), City of Workers, City of Struggle: How Labor Movements Changed New York (Columbia University Press, 2019), Activist New York: A History of People, Protest, and Politics (NYU Press, 2018), and New York at Its Core: 400 Years of New York City History (Museum of the City of New York, 2017).
Curating has always been a passion of mine, and my exhibitions for the Museum of the City of New York include To Quench the Thirst of New Yorkers: The Croton Aqueduct at 175 and In the Dugout with Jackie Robinson: An Intimate Portrait of a Baseball Legend in collaboration with photography curator Sean Corcoran.
In 2020 I made the leap to consulting. I’ve learned the importance of balancing a mission-driven vision for an institution with the realities of funding, scheduling, and resource management. I know the importance of teamwork, creativity, problem-solving, and attention to detail that all projects of any scope require. I also know how to coordinate competing interests and motivate team members to reach the goal—a museum experience that will engage, educate, and delight first-time and repeat visitors alike.
Accomplishments
We Who Believe in Freedom: Black Feminist DC won the MUSE Gold Award for Experiential & Immersive - Exhibition Experience in 2023.
City of Workers, City of Struggle: How Labor Movements Changed New York won the International Labor History Association Book of the Year Award in 2020.
New York at Its Core was the Overall Winner of the American Alliance of Museums Excellence in Exhibition Award in 2018.
New York at Its Core won the American Alliance of Museums MUSE Honorable Mention for Interpretive Interactive Installations in 2017.
New York at Its Core: 400 Years of New York City History exhibiton catalog sold 2,500 copies and went into a second printing in just two years.
Education
Master of Arts, The John W. Draper Interdisciplinary Program in Humanities and Social Thought, and Advanced Certificate in Museum Studies, New York University
Bachelor of Arts in English, University of Florida
Complete CV available upon request.
Selected Press
“The exhibit draws the line from women born into slavery all the way to Vice President Harris”
“These mothers of Black Feminism had one big thing in common — DC.” by Petula Dvorak, The Washington Post, March 30, 2023
As project manager and exhibition developer for We Who Believe in Freedom Black Feminist DC I helped the National Women’s History Museum realize their first-ever physical exhibition at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library. Dvorak explains exactly why exploring the history of Black Feminism in the nation’s capital is so important.
Read the article
“The National Women’s History Museum is set on making sure we all understand the history and power of Black Feminists.”
“How Black Freedom Is Linked to Black Feminism” by Marybeth Gasman, Forbes, March 21, 2023
Marybeth Gasman explores the themes and issues of the exhibition and the way it, “tells the story of the profound impact of Black Feminists on society, policy, and everyday lives.”
Read the article.
“Inside An Almanac of New York City”
New York Live, NBC, November 11, 2022
I talk to NBC’s Joelle Garguilo about An Almanac of New York City for the Year 2023. We visit the Lion King, the Met, and Lincoln Center to talk about big moments in the city’s history and fun things for the year to come.
Watch the video
“A small-but-mighty compendium”
“What’s ahead for NYC in 2023? This new almanac has some predictions,” by Rossilynne Skena Culgan, Time Out New York, November 17, 2022
I talk to Rossilynne about the inspiration behind An Almanac of New York City for the Year 2023 predictions for the coming year, some fun events, and what’s new for this edition.
Read the interview
“Learn how Kennedy used the highest office in the land to shape a national conversation around the arts”
“A New Kennedy Center Exhibition Shows JFK’s Love of the Arts,” by Fritz Hahn, The Washington Post, September 20, 2022
Fritz Hahn reviews Art & Ideals: President John F. Kennedy at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC. Working with curator Ileen Gallagher and Pentagram designer Abbott Miller I wrote an exhibiton script that wove together Kennedy’s love of the arts, the cold war, and the civil rights movement.
Read the review
“A New Book in Town that Will Help Ease Your FOMO”
“The Top Five Things You Must Do in NYC in 2022,” by Shaye Weaver, Time Out New York, September 20, 2021
Shaye Weaver interviews me about An Almanac of New York City for the Year 2022 - part guide book, part planner, and all love letter to NYC. We talked about how the Almanac was proof of NYC’s resilience in the face of the pandemic, and how the city’s soul stays the same, no matter how much else changes. I also offer my top 5 tips on how to survive — I mean enjoy — a weekend out and about in NYC.
Read the interview
“A Small but Powerful Show”
“For Jackie Robinson’s Centennial a Display of Rarely Seen Photographs,” by Sopan Deb, The New York Times, Feb. 5, 2019
In 2019 I collaborated with photography curator Sean Corcoran to curate the exhibition In the Dugout with Jackie Robinson: An Intimate Portrait of a Baseball Legend to celebrate the centennial of Robinson’s birth. Sopan Deb calls it a, “small but powerful show.”
Read the review
“A Perfect Keepsake”
“Time Flies When You’re the Capital of the World” by Sam Roberts, The New York Times, Jan. 4, 2018
Sam Roberts reviews the catalog New York at Its Core: 400 Years of New York City History , which I managed and edited. He calls it, “both a perfect keepsake and a timely primer that introduces adults and younger readers to the full spectrum of the city’s metamorphosis from a vulnerable Dutch trading outpost to a world capital poised to celebrate its 400th birthday.”
Read the review
“Retraced and Reinterpreted”
“How a Massive Public Works Project Saved a Parched New York” by Sam Roberts, The New York Times, Dec. 4, 2017
In 2017 I curated To Quench the Thirst of New Yorkers: The Croton Aqueduct at 175 for the Museum of the City of New York. I commissioned photographer Nathan Kensigner to retrace the steps of aqueduct engineer and artist Fayette B. Tower. Sam Roberts reflects on the story of the aqueduct and the new photographs that “retraced and reinterpreted” Tower’s original drawings.
Read the review
“An Astoundingly Thorough and Moving Permanent Exhibition”
“New York at its Core, Museum of the City of New York” by Ariella Budick, Financial Times, Jan. 1, 2017
I served as Project Director for New York at Its Core, MCNY’s permanent exhibition on New York City history. Ariella Budick writes, “The project of telling this confounding story could have gone wrong in so many ways; it might have yielded a desiccated display of memorabilia, or a spray of boosterish razzmatazz. Instead, New York at Its Core is an astoundingly thorough, detailed and moving homage to a city that inspires life-long love and deep-seated resentment, often in the same person.”
Read the review
“A Lavishly Illustrated Volume”
“Boy Detective, Gilded New York and Best-Dressed Man,” by Sam Roberts, The New York Times, November 15, 2013
Quoting my catalog essay for the book Gilded New York , which he called “a lavishly illustrated volume,” Sam Roberts sums up a major theme of the work: “The 1897 elegant Bradley-Martin Ball marked the height of over-the-top extravagance, all but drove the hosts out of the country and posed a question raised by Susan Gail Johnson in an accompanying essay, ‘Could the wealthy justify extravagant expense on entertainments by claiming that they were putting their money into circulation? Or were they flaunting their wealth in the face of those less fortunate?’ Put simply, did lavish displays of wealth foster socialism?”
Read the review
What People Are Saying
“You were unfailingly pleasant, and equally unfailingly knowledgeable.”
— Elizabeth J.
“As in years past, your presentation and our visit to the Museum of the City of New York was the favorite of the class!”
— Margaret K.
“You are just so amazing to work with and an endlessly generous teacher.”
— Grace B.
“You are the kind of colleague I am always happy to see walk into a meeting or the galleries… a total professional who can keep it cool when required.”
— Sam M.
