Barbara Koostra
Director, Montana Museum of Art & Culture
How long have you been at UM?
I’ve been in place for two years as director at the Montana Museum of Art & Culture. I got an MBA here in 1993 and my father taught on campus for 20 years in microbiology, so I feel a great connection to The University of Montana.
What surprised you when you first came here?
How hard everyone works here; an amazing and vibrant group keeps UM going.
Describe any research or special projects you’re working on.
We are in charge of the University’s permanent collection, which is now over 10,000 pieces of art and cultural objects. We are constantly cataloguing these pieces to make them of greater educational value for the University, the local and statewide community. This is important.
What’s your favorite place on campus?
The artistic spaces. There is so much art available for viewing, some of it 24/7 because of the public artwork, and art makes this a more exciting environment to be in. Imagine, when you’re walking through a building, if the walls were completely bare of images.
What’s your favorite piece of artwork on campus?
That would be too tough to say and I enjoy all the arts: visual, music and theater. Artists really inform us with their unique perceptions and perspectives on how we can look at the world. I don’t think we’ve begun to understand the real power of creativity within the arts translated into the greater world.
If you could pick one professor as a dodgeball teammate, who would you pick?
(laughter) Every night I go home and play – how did you know? Well, it takes a whole team to play that game, and there are a number of people whom I admire, whom I can rely on and who have the spirit to play as a team.
What’s the biggest accomplishment in your life?
In a previous life I was a performing musician and I soloed at Lincoln Center. The other thing would be the joy of being married to a great husband. The third thing would be doing my best to promote the arts.
Do you have a hero?
My heroes are people who recognize a talent in themselves; added hard, hard work; got lucky, maybe, and then were just unafraid. I love strong, accomplished women and men. Just people who grab life and run with it, and I admire people who are of service to others.
So if you were hosting a dinner party, which five people, past or present, would you invite?
In terms of politics it would be Abraham Lincoln or Bill Clinton. Picasso would be interesting. Plato. Because of her humanitarian efforts I have a huge respect for Oprah Winfrey. I would want the thinkers and doers. There was a violinist who died really young -- not many people know about him -- Michael Rabin. He was wonderful.
What’s the best idea you’ve been exposed to lately?
It’s an old idea: the golden rule. If that were truly, truly uppermost in our minds, would there be war?
What would people be surprised to learn about you?
How obsessed I am with dogs. They are some of the greatest teachers you can imagine. They’re all professors waiting to teach us: how to be happy, how to be excited, how to take every day as it comes.
What’s the best way to spend a free afternoon in Missoula?
Spending time with a good friend in a quiet place with a lovely glass of wine and good conversation.
What’s your favorite Montana destination?
Wherever Mother Nature is doing her thing.
What’s your favorite local food source?
My garden: organic, quality-controlled, right there, no store necessary.
-- Interview and photography by Winona Sorensen