The San Jose Museum of Art didn’t have to look far for a new executive director to replace the departed Susan Krane: The board tapped Susan Sayre Batton, who had been serving as interim director for two months, for the job.
Museum Board President Hildy Shandell introduced Batton as the new Oshman Executive Director at a members’ reception earlier this month. “The board realized that right here we had our diamond, the exact right person to lead this organization over the next — many, many, many — years,” Shandell said.
Batton — who goes by Sayre, not Susan — has an outgoing personality that showed from the moment she took the podium after the announcement. Telling the crowd she wanted to thank everyone who had been supportive by name, she flung out a roll of receipt tape that unfurled on the museum floor.
It was a memorable first appearance and showed why hiring her was a smart move on the museum’s part: She already has a good handle on the museum, its patrons and the community around it.
Batton came to the Museum of Art in October 2015 from the East Coast to be its deputy director for curatorial affairs. In that role, she was instrumental in developing collaborative relationships with other museums for exhibitions and acquisitions. She also made a strong move last year in hiring San Jose native Lauren Schell Dickens from the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., to be the museum’s curator.
“I was really drawn to the San Jose Museum of Art’s focus on community engagement,” Batton said. “When you think about taking a job, the community matters. I just think we can build upon the strengths here and do bigger and better community engagement.”
A GOOD CLIP: Cheers to the 100-plus men, women and kids who volunteered to have their hair cut or their heads shaved for the “Tech Conquers Childhood Cancer” fundraiser at SAP Silicon Valley’s Palo Alto offices last Wednesday. The event brought in more than $200,000 for the St. Baldrick’s Foundation to support childhood cancer research.
While SAP execs Jonathan Becher and Rob Glickman handled emcee duties, 49ers offensive tackle Joe Staley was there shaving heads and signing autographs, as well as donating $5,000 to the cause. And while this was the third year that SAP has hosted the event, it was a valley-wide affair, drawing folks from VMWare, Pure Storage, the Palo Alto Fire Department and even 35 students, ranging in age from 6 to 14.
MUSIC AT MISSION: The Main Building at Mission College in Santa Clara is getting a musical sendoff on Sunday that will showcase the Mission College Symphony, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary.
Mission College is moving into its new student engagement center next year, and that probably means Sunday’s free celebration will be the last big event there. The Santa Clara Vanguard, which performed at Mission College’s opening in 1979, will kick things off at 1 p.m., followed by the San Jose Jazz High School All-Stars and dance performances by the Mission Dance Company and Los Lupeños Juvenil. The Mission College Symphony and Chorus will perform at 3 p.m., with a program that includes “Forever in Our Hearts,” a specially commissioned piece by Bay Area composer Nancy Bloomer Deussen.
