Penn Museum chief will depart in 2012
"Silk Road" exhibit snafu had nothing to do with it, he says. Officials praise him as "visionary."
Richard Hodges, director of the University of Pennsylvania Museum, which made headlines in the spring when a much-anticipated show of antiquities and mummies was temporarily blocked from exhibition here by Chinese cultural authorities, will be leaving the museum in June 2012.
In an e-mail sent Friday to museum and university staff members, Amy Gutmann, university president, and Vincent Price, provost, announced the departure and praised Hodges as a "dynamic and visionary director" since he joined the staff in 2007.
"In particular, his efforts to renovate the west wing, digitize the museum's collections, implement a long-term strategic plan, and engage the Penn and Philadelphia communities will help secure the museum's future as one of the leading academic research museums in the world," Gutmann and Price wrote.
Reached in Umbria, where he is living during a stint at Penn's Field School in central Italy, the 58-year-old Hodges said he has had "lots of jobs," and "I usually do one term" before moving on.
"I'm a person who tries to help change and then turn it over," he said.
Was the rocky experience with the Chinese exhibit, "Secrets of the Silk Road," a factor in the decision to leave Penn?
"No, no, no," Hodges said. "The 'Silk Road' was an unbelievable success in the end."
The show, which featured antiquities and two mummies from western China, was trumpeted by the museum in advance of its Feb. 5 opening as a "blockbuster" that would help transform the isolated West Philadelphia institution into a destination and boost museum revenue via special-exhibition ticketing.
But just days before it opened, Chinese officials said Penn was not on the tour itinerary and the artifacts could not be shown in Philadelphia.
Museum and university officials mounted a show without artifacts (or special tickets), then furiously negotiated behind the scenes with the Chinese. Jon M. Huntsman Jr., then ambassador to China and a Penn graduate, spoke with Beijing officials, and Hodges sought to save something from the debacle.
In the end, the Chinese allowed artifacts to be displayed for five weeks, not four months, as Penn originally planned - and the museum drew about 42,000 visitors during that period. (Museum officials initially estimated attendance at between 60,000 and 100,000 for the complete run.)
Despite the difficulties - the Silk Road schedule violated Chinese rules limiting the time antiquities could be outside the country - Gutmann and Price praised Hodges' effort.
"This year's landmark 'Secrets of the Silk Road' exhibit stands as an eloquent testimony to Richard's success," they wrote in their e-mail. "It drew unprecedented new audiences to the museum, transforming their understanding of this vital part of the world."
Hodges said he was now in the running for an unnamed position, but if it did not come through, he would return to the University of East Anglia, where he was director of the Institute of World Archaeology before joining Penn.
"The museum is in a good state," Hodges said Monday, while having a glass of wine under what he called "an absolutely clear sky" in Umbria.
"I'm very concerned - and that's why I've given a year - that it stays in a good state going forward."