Albuquerque Museum’s Andrew Connors Finds New Gig Working Under President Biden
Devin D. O’Leary | The Paper
Albuquerque Museum Director Andrew Connors has got himself a new side hustle. The museum head has been appointed by President Joe Biden to serve as a member of the Cultural Property Advisory Committee. Connors joins 10 other presidentially appointed members tasked with reviewing requests for import restrictions submitted to the United States by foreign governments. The committee also considers proposals to extend existing agreements and emergency actions, carries out ongoing review of current import restrictions and provides reports of findings and recommendations to the Department of State.
“I first received an email in December 2020 that my name had been recommended for consideration by the President Elect Biden transition committee,” recalls Connors. “They asked in that email if I would be willing to consider a position working with his administration. Every few months I received another e-mail informing me that I was still under consideration to play some role with the administration.”
In May of last year, Connors was finally notified that he was being looked at for a role on the Cultural Properties Advisory Committee. The notification included a handy link to the State Department website, informing him what the committee actually does. The Convention on Cultural Property Implementation Act, which became federal law in 1983, established the 11-member committee to ensure that the U.S. government receives advice from “diverse public interests” in cultural property matters. The goal of the act and the committee is to “prohibit and prevent the illicit import, export and transfer of ownership of cultural property.” That “cultural property” can broadly be defined as indigenous art, archeological treasures and other items of historical import to a particular nation. The committee includes two members who represent the interests of museums; three members who are expert in archaeology, anthropology, ethnology or related fields; three members who are expert in the international sale of cultural property; and three members who represent the interest of the general public.
“All through this process I was asked to keep it secret that I was under consideration,” says Connors. “In July I was notified that I had been selected and was asked for specific biographical and professional experience.” At that point Connors asked if he could notify his boss to insure that his employer (the Department of Arts & Culture with the City of Albuquerque) would allow him to take on the responsibility. In November of last year, nearly two years after Connors was first contacted, the State Department officially announced the list of the newly appointed and reappointed members of the committee. Connors was on it, as one of the two members representing the cultural interests of museums.
The appointment is, if anything, a testament to Connors’s experience. In 2018 he was named director of the Albuquerque Museum. Before that he served as the museum’s curator of art, a position he began in 2009. Connors’s previous roles include chair of the Visual Arts Department at Albuquerque Academy (2006 to 2009), senior curator at the National Hispanic Cultural Center in Albuquerque (1999 to 2006) and associate curator at the Smithsonian American Art Museum (1984 to 1999). It was at the Smithsonian that he developed collections and exhibitions on Hispanic, Latino, Native American and Folk Art. His experience with cultural objects from throughout the Americas is evident.
