Philadelphia Contemporary Hires Artistic Director From Creative Time

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The fledging art institution Philadelphia Contemporary may not yet have a home, but it now has an artistic director: Nato Thompson, currently the artistic director Creative Time. Mr. Thompson, who has been with Creative Time for a decade, will assume his new position in November, and aim to guide the institution as it moves from pop-up projects into a permanent building in Philadelphia.

Philadelphia Contemporary was founded last year by Harry Philbrick, who was previously the director of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. It has hosted various events and installations around the city, including poetry readings, midnight vigils, sculptures and an interactive art project with Emma Sulkowicz.

“We’re working on what the mission is,” Mr. Thompson said in a phone interview. “Certainly we know it will be a noncollecting institution. It will be multidisciplinary and civically-driven.” He said he does not yet have any projects planned, or even a proposed budget to work with. The organization aims to move into a space in 2021 or 2022, and produce site-specific works around the city until then.

Mr. Thompson hopes to showcase both local and international art, and contribute to a growing Philadelphia art scene to complement pillars like the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. “This is a city where it’s very important to support the local arts community,” Mr. Thompson said. “It’s got a great underground arts scene. But that said, I don’t want to become provincial.”

Mr. Thompson won’t have to move far: He already lives in Philadelphia, and had been commuting to Creative Time in Manhattan. While there, he oversaw projects like Kara Walker’s “A Subtlety” in 2014. “I was eager to make a change,” Mr. Thompson said. “I’ve been doing public art for quite some time: it’s really, really intense work.”

For Creative Time, this represents yet another turnover in leadership. Its longtime executive director, Anne Pasternak, moved on to the Brooklyn Museum in 2015; her successor, Katie Hollander, stepped down this year. The organization will now search for an executive director and an artistic director at the same time.

Amanda Weil, a Creative Time board member who served as board chairwoman for nine years, said Mr. Thompson’s departure was part of a “natural progression of the organization,” and that the health of the organization is strong. “This is yet another example of the degree to which our Creative Time people move on to other institutions and become thought leaders,” she said.

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