As Liz Jackson prepared to lead the Briscoe Western Art Museum as its new president and CEO, she thought of her grandmother Margaret Kutner, who was a professional artist.
“I was fortunate enough that she took me all over the world to different art museums,” Jackson said. In Paris, London and New York, “we literally were in museums every day, all day long,” drawing works of the masters. Jackson also studied art all through school, she said.
Those experiences, combined with a business and nonprofit development acumen honed by 15 years at the helm of the Museum of the Big Bend in Alpine, have made Jackson ideally suited to take over from Michael Duchemin, who had led the Briscoe Museum since 2017, said John T. Montford, chair of the Briscoe’s board of directors.
Montford described Jackson as “an excellent fundraiser” and praised her depth of knowledge in Western art.
Duchemin and Jackson were hired together in 2017 as president/CEO and vice president, respectively, as part of a long-range vision and succession planning for the museum, Montford said.
Since leading development efforts at the Briscoe, Jackson has overseen a growth of 220% in overall earned and contributing revenue, according to a press release sent to media announcing the promotion.
Duchemin will maintain a relationship with the museum as an independent consultant. Jackson said she will inherit a full four-year exhibition schedule planned by Duchemin, “and now it will be up to me to continue on that good work.”
Jackson also plans to expand the museum’s educational programming. “To stay relevant as a museum, you’ve got to build up the next generation of museum-goers,” she said.
Given San Antonio’s diversity, Jackson said it’s important to focus on elements of regional history including the foundational role of vaqueros in establishing cowboy culture, and highlighting that one-quarter of working cowboys were African American when Texas was a frontier state.
“Showcasing that diversity is paramount to us moving forward, and we do that through expanding all of our opportunities for children to see themselves in this diverse environment, to recognize that everyone has been part of the West,” Jackson said.
“We’re going to dive in deeper with growing our reach with underserved communities,” she said.
As the Briscoe looks towards its 10th anniversary in October, Montford said he’s confident the museum will be in good hands. “Liz is a hard person to say no to. She’s very ambitious and hands on,” he said.
Museum founders “Governor [Dolph] Briscoe and Janey [Slaughter Briscoe] would be very proud of where we’ve taken this museum,” Montford said. “I hope that San Antonio feels good about what we’ve created down there.”
