A Lifetime of Appreciation

Steve Gleissner, chief curator of the Wichita Art Museum, has made a career out of admiring art created by others.

Stephen Gleissner was a regular at all of the parks and recreation summer art programs as a child. He attended as many of the classes in local schools and neighborhood parks as possible. But although he enjoyed each and every one of them, the experiences made one thing abundantly clear: Gleissner was not cut out to be an artist.

“It was immediately apparent that art was not my calling,” Gleissner admits. “So I started looking for things that you could do with art that didn’t involve making art.”

That search has turned into a career. Gleissner is now the chief curator at the Wichita Museum of Art, where he oversees the museum’s permanent holdings, suggests additions to its collections and seeks out exhibitions to bring to the facility. In the process, he’s able to surround himself with that which he most loves: art.

There’s the collection of Steuben glass he’s had the honor of building, thanks to the considerable F. Price Cossman trust, which was given to the museum around the time Gleissner joined the staff in the fall of 2001. There’s the current exhibition of abstract works by Kansas artist Sue Jean Covacevich, which runs through January 14. There’s the new pieces he continues to acquire for the museum’s collections and exhibition—including a dozen costumes plucked from Greta Garbo’s closet in New York City for a special exhibit in Wichita that runs through January 21.

“I’ve long had an appreciation for beauty,” Gleissner says. “That’s really what brought me into art history to start with, the fact that I really like beauty. And it’s true that you don’t have to create it to appreciate it.”

Gleissner’s appreciation was nurtured by his parents, who took their son with them to museums around the country. “Our annual family vacation was always to an art museum,” he remembers. “And I probably went to the Nelson-Atkins Museum in Kansas City at least four times each year.”

Those visits made such an impression on Gleissner that by the time he was in high school, he’d decided he wanted to work in museums. That led to a semester-long internship with three Wichita museums during his senior year: the art museum, the Center for the Arts and the Wichita–Sedgwick County Historical Museum. When that internship ended, he was offered a job as a curatorial assistant with the historical museum, which he continued while studying art history at Wichita State University.

Gleissner left Wichita long enough to earn a Ph.D. in British art from Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., and spend four years researching in England. But then he came back to Kansas. “I needed to write the last chapter of my dissertation, and I was out of grant money,” he admits. “So I came home.”

He just happened to be in Wichita and in the market for a job when the curatorial position at the art museum opened up. “I hadn’t really thought about it until it became open,” Gleissner admits. “But then it did, and I thought, well, why not just apply? And lo and behold, I got the job.”

Since then, his impact on the art museum has been palpable. He’s been instrumental in building the Steuben collection, including works designed by Wichitan Bruce Moore. “They’re some of the best that the company ever produced,” Gleissner says. “And it’s wonderful for Wichita that his work for Steuben can slowly be brought to this museum.”
Gleissner’s eye for art also has influenced the pieces coming into the museum’s collections. Although he recognizes the value of acquiring “important” pieces, he also tries to use what he knows to make smart selections. “Just because something isn’t appreciated now doesn’t mean that it’s not going to be historically or aesthetically important,” he says. “That’s one way you can really maximize your acquisition funds—buy in areas that are underappreciated in the market.”

Not surprising, his own appreciation for art has grown during his tenure with the museum. Although he’s always focused on British pieces, he says that working with American art has broadened his knowledge and taste. “I’ve definitely developed an appreciation for American modernist painting, which wasn’t very highly developed before I started here.”

He’s also developed an understanding for the way others appreciate the art in the museum. He tries to take time to step out of his office and explore the museum as a patron would whenever possible. “I love going through the galleries,” he says. “I love watching people go through the collections. That can be a real boost for me, if I start getting bogged down. When I see people interacting with the art, it refocuses me on what I’m doing.”