Hard work gives art to all ages

By Amy Welch

Managing Editor, Florida State Times

Like bees swarming to protect their hive, a low buzzing sound permeates the Museum of Fine Arts at FSU.

As the noise grows louder, Allys Palladino-Craig, the museum director, sitting in the middle of the museum with seven other women, appears undaunted by the approaching ... children?

About 50 elementary school kids, jabbering, pointing and laughing, appear to head in her direction. Palladino-Craig, 50, framed in shoulder-length salt and pepper hair, peers through her glasses, smiles and softly greets them.

Her voice cannot contend with the children, who are trying to talk over one another. But she keeps talking, explaining that the murals displayed in the museum were done by school children from all over the world: Japan, Korea, India, Kuwait and the United States.

Peace is the message in their art, she says.

They file away from Palladino-Craig as their teacher tries to "ssh" them. The noise slowly fades away.

"When people come into the museum they often say, 'What a great job you have, just sitting here, looking at art all day,'" Palladino-Craig says.

But the truth is that paintings, sculptures, clay and stained glass artifacts and large exhibitions are planned weeks, sometimes years, in advance, she says. Grants are written, catalogs prepared, edited and printed. Art is shipped, insured, unwrapped and placed in the perfect setting. And sometimes things don't work out as Palladino-Craig anticipates.

Most days Palladino-Craig doesn't even have time to eat. There have been times that she has seen her three boys and husband only one hour out of the day.

At noon, Palladino-Craig's meeting is over. She spends the rest of her day talking to elementary school kids and going through slides and videos prepared by artists who want to exhibit at the museum. The phone is ringing.

A collector wants to know if the art piece found in the closet of a deceased relative is worth anything. Palladino-Craig says she doesn't think so.

With a sigh, she explains the problems in enriching the public while educating all-age students.

She recalls one show when Animal Control was called. A student made an installation piece, a small room painted grey, decorated with a grey bed and chair. The student told a faculty member a ripped, brown teddy-bear, intended to represent violence, would be on the floor. At the last minute the girl replaced the teddy bear with a dog carcass she had found in the road. While Palladino-Craig chatted with visitors on opening night, gasps came from the exhibit. As she walked toward it, the gasps grew louder.

The museum was crowded with people trying to see what exactly those men in gas masks were hauling away.

That type of commotion is rare for Palladino-Craig. She prides herself and her staff on being responsible for everything that passes through the museum.

Before the Fine Arts Gallery opened in 1970, smaller galleries on campus displayed rotating exhibitions.

In 1983, a year after Palladino-Craig became the director, the gallery in the Fine Arts Building acquired a permanent collection and became the Museum of Fine Arts. The collection ranges from original paintings found in Germany in World War II to pre-Colombian pottery.

The museum also houses a rare glass collection, 19th-century European paintings, abstracts by Trevor Bell, stained glass and life-size wooden sculptures.

Palladino-Craig has also displayed Ansel Adams photos, Robert Bateman wildlife paintings, Norman Rockwell prints, Duane Hanson modern sculptures, Maxfield Parrish illustrations and James Turrell installations.

She also teaches one class a semester, shows at least five exhibitions a semester and works on a handful of committees.

Palladino-Craig's job requires more ingenuity than sitting behind her desk and greeting the public. But she and her staff want the public to feel at ease.

"The museum is an illusion," said Viki D. Thompson Wylder, the museum operations specialist. "It looks so calm, but things are happening all the time. It's to the credit of the museum that it is that way."

Palladino-Craig prepared herself well for her museum job. She earned her bachelor's degree in English from FSU in 1967, took classes in English and studio art at the University of Toronto and the University of Virginia and earned her master of fine arts degree in painting and graphics from FSU in 1978.

In 1996 she earned a doctorate in humanities at FSU.

And as an artist, Palladino-Craig remembers trying to display her art at museums. So every semester the museum holds a graduating artists show, for students, and a faculty art show so professors can curate and display their own art.

"We're near the people who have exciting projects," Palladino-Craig says. "They bring us the art, and we make it famous."

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