A month ago, The Andy Warhol Museum announced that Mario R. Rossero would become the new director of the Pittsburgh institution. Rossero comes to the museum from the National Art Education Association (NAEA) but actually launched his career at The Warhol, working there as a teaching artist in 1997. Since then, he has held prominent positions in the arts and education, including senior vice president of education at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.
Observer asked him about what he hopes to accomplish in his new position and the future of arts education in these uncertain times.
I know this new job represents something of a homecoming for you. What are some of your earliest memories of The Warhol Museum?
I have many fond memories from my early days at The Warhol, especially learning a variety of Warhol’s techniques, like his approach to blotted-line drawings and his silkscreening process. Working exhibition opening events, taking “selfies” in the photobooth and leading tours also stand out to me.
Since that time, you’ve worked in education, with special emphasis on the arts. What is the value of arts education in the 21st Century?
Arts education reflects people, ideas, culture and values across time and history. An education rich in the arts ensures that young people have the skills and knowledge to effectively express ideas, have respectful debate and critique and the ability to explore and use a variety of tools and materials. As we take stock of the current moment and look to the future, we can lean on the arts to provide a pathway for a greater understanding of our similarities and differences, the ability to bring individuals and communities together, strengthen our agency, build creative problem-solving skills and explore multiple solutions and strategies in daily life and the workplace.
What are some of your short-term goals for the institution? Where would you like to see it go in the long term?
For the immediate future, I look forward to engaging staff, leadership and the larger community in a series of “listening tours” to identify and really home in on our key priorities for short-, mid- and long-term goals. Overall, the museum has a strong and relevant mission and set of values. From my perspective, the immediate task is to recenter all of our work and team around the touchstone of Andy’s life, work and legacy to really ensure that we’re always referencing and building from him as our north star. In addition, we’ll be reviewing our strengths and opportunities for growth around the collection and exhibitions in order to identify priorities for a multi-year interpretive plan.
What do you think Andy Warhol has to teach children?
Warhol teaches us that as a visual artist, you do not always have to work alone or choose only one medium. He shows us that an artist can collaborate across art forms with a variety of artists and experiment in a variety of media to effectively create work and communicate meaning. Additionally, some of his techniques, like the blotted line drawings or his layered collage approach in his underpaintings for silkscreening (the Mick Jagger portraits, for example), offer a unique insight into his work.
There’s no question that the films and paintings of Warhol were revolutionary at the time they were made. Why do you think Warhol remains so popular today?
Warhol was always ahead of his time and had an almost precognitive ability to predict future trends. If Warhol were alive and working today, I imagine he would have loved social media; this era of selfies, celebrity and immediate publishing would certainly have appealed to him.
SEE ALSO: Andrew Edlin Explains How the Outsider Art Fair Helped Establish a Market for the Genre
I always say there’s not only one Andy Warhol; rather, there is a specific Andy Warhol for each person. Given the breadth of his work, each individual can find their own connection to him, whether as a local Pittsburgher, a graphic designer and illustrator, a revolutionary artist… or as a loving son, a collaborator and a quirky personality. When I gave tours to families, they often found a connection to the brands used in his early Pop works or to items found in his Time Capsules that showcased a specific era or moment in time.
When you were executive director of the National Art Education Association, you helped secure an $8.5 million grant from the United States Department of Education to bolster art education with an emphasis on diversity, equity and inclusion. What’s the future of DEI?
That grant program was designed to bolster the skills and abilities of arts educators nationally to reach every student and provide effective arts instruction that was infused with strategies in equity, diversity and inclusion and social-emotional learning. Every student deserves access to an arts education, yet we find an uneven playing field across the country. Arts educators often serve the entire student body, and they create brave spaces for young people to be seen and heard accurately. The future of equity, diversity and inclusion will require educators to do what they’ve always strived to do—to pay attention to the full story and identity of each student to ensure they are not excluded from learning opportunities but rather fully included and provided every support for them to be fully successful; this includes students seeing themselves reflected in the curriculum and that instructional strategies are differentiated to each learner’s needs.
In terms of DEI and the museum… we’ll continue the good work that the team has underway, which includes continually engaging in a journey of self-reflection, learning and growth to ensure that the museum is welcoming, inclusive and respectful in our actions, exhibits and culture. From my experience, an individual begins this work by having an honest look at their own identity, then works to connect, understand and build trust with others before cycling through again—hopefully growing more accepting and understanding each time. And I am quite proud to continue our history of serving the diverse youth of Pittsburgh through learning and outreach programs, especially the Youth Arts Council, Youth Invasion and the LGBTQ+ Prom.
Do you have a personal favorite work from the collection of The Warhol Museum?
I have a few favorites. I am very fond of his collaboration with his mother, Julia, and her beautiful script that you can find in his early work. I also love his later collaborations with Jean-Michel Basquiat and Francesco Clemente—the layered images and icons and the playfulness among the three distinct styles are so fun and engaging for me.
