An Interview with Timothy Stockton, Visitor Services Coordinator

Connie H. Choi: Hi, Timothy.

Timothy Stockton: Hello, Connie.

CC: We’ve spent a lot of time chatting over the years at your desk and I’ve learned quite a bit about you.

TS: Yes.

CC: I believe you’ve worked at the Museum for sixteen years.

TS: That’s correct.

CC: What about the Museum interested you, and how did you get started here?

TS: I was walking down 125th Street and the Museum had just moved from its original location on Fifth Avenue.

CC: This is the early 1980s.

TS: It was 1982 to be exact. I saw it across the street, so I went in and I said, wow, this is fabulous. I love the artwork here.

CC: What made you want to start working here?

TS: I went to a volunteer session, and they chose me as one of their volunteers. I volunteered for twelve years, and thereafter I started to work full-time.

CC: That’s twenty-eight years: half the institution’s lifetime! When we were open in our former building, you were the first person our visitors saw.

TS: Absolutely.

CC: Can you tell me what makes a good first impression?

TS: First you have to look people in their eyes. I always love to smile, and that’s what I use to entice people to come in.

CC: What has been your most memorable moment at the Museum?

TS: When Jordan [Casteel] called me up to her studio and she unveiled the painting she made of me. I was overwhelmed by it, and she didn’t think I liked it. I told her I loved it, but I had never seen a painting of myself. That will stay in my memory forever.

CC: Can you give a bit more background on who Jordan is, how you got to know her, and why she made a painting of you?

TS: She was an artist in residence from 2015 to 2016. When she came into the Museum, we just clicked. When her mother came to visit, she told me, Jordan won’t tell you who her grandfather is. Her grandfather is a civil rights leader. His name was Whitney Young. I said, Wow. My mother went to Whitney Young Academy in Kentucky.

CC: Wow.

TS: Since then, I’ve become a part of their family.

CC: Why did she invite you to sit for one of her paintings?

TS: Why did she invite me? You have to ask her that question. It was the last painting that she made during the Artist-in-Residence program before she had to move out. She said that she saved the best for last. And that was me.

CC: In the painting, you’re sitting in a “Black is beautiful” T-shirt, is that correct?

TS: Right, exactly.

CC: In front of the entrance to the Studio Museum. We used to have our mission statement on the side of the building so you can see the mission of the Studio Museum right behind you. I love that painting because she chose you to encapsulate her time at the museum—you encapsulate who we are as an institution, as represented in Jordan’s painting.

TS: I’m flattered by that.

CC: You’ve now seen that painting have various lives, right? It’s been in a few different shows.

TS: There hasn’t been a show that Jordan has opened that I haven’t been to. I went across the pond to London for one of her openings.

CC: I think that’s one of the incredible aspects of not just how you have become such an important part of this institution, but also speaks to how Jordan as a human and how she interacts with the subjects of her works, as well as the deep ties that this institution can encourage between our artists in residence and staff.

TS: Undoubtedly.

CC: Is there an exhibition from your time that holds a special meaning for you?

TS: Barkley Hendricks: Birth of the Cool. I got to meet Hendricks. He signed my Studio magazine and I became friends with him when he came to the Museum. Yeah, I loved that show.

CC: What about it specifically?

TS: The paintings. I could relate to them. They were from my time. I wore some of the outfits that the guys had on in the paintings.

CC: How about a favorite work you’ve seen at the Studio Museum? Or maybe favorite is too hard.

TS: Yeah. I don’t like to choose favorites.

CC: Is there a particular work that you had an immediate reaction to?

TS: The Njideka Akunyili Crosby.

CC: Another former artist in residence.

TS: Another friend.

CC: And the work is called Nwantinti. What draws you to it?

TS: I know her and her husband, and seeing them there together, they look very happy. Every time I see that painting, it reminds me of the two of them in their marriage. And they have children now.

CC: Do you remember the first time you saw it?

TS: When they showed in the gallery at the Artist-in-Residence show.

CC: You’ve now named two of our Artist-in-Residence alumni, Jordan Casteel and Njideka Akunyili Crosby. The Artist-in-Residence program is one of our founding initiatives. It’s one of the core programs that was conceived at the founding of this institution and the only one that still runs today. It’s important, central to our mission. You have gotten to know quite a number of these artists in residence over the years, and all of them I’ve talked to have spoken so fondly of you. What have you learned from
these artists? What have you appreciated about interacting with them?

TS: Well, the first thing is that I treat them as people. A lot of people get intimidated by them; they are just regular people like you. I treat everybody the same: the way that I want to be treated. I treat them the same, and I’m not intimidated by them.

CC: As you mentioned earlier, you have been a resident of Harlem for several decades. When did you move here?

TS: 1981.

CC: Do you remember what exhibition was on view when you first encountered the Museum in 1982?

TS: I don’t, I’m not going to lie. I’ve seen so many shows since then. I actually met [Romare] Bearden in the gallery.

CC: What was that like?

TS: Oh, well, now I say I don’t get intimidated by artists, but there was this man in a white suit and a friend introduced me to him and I just shook his hand and said, nice to meet you, Mr. Bearden.

CC: And that was it.

TS: That was it. I froze up.

CC: What did he say back to you?

TS: I said, it’s nice to meet you, Mr. Bearden. He nodded. That’s as close as I got to him.

CC: That’s closer than any of us have gotten. That’s incredible. What are you looking forward to in our new building?

TS: Oh wow. The new building. I’m just looking forward to going in. In July it will be seven years since we moved out of the old building.

CC: Anything else?

TS: Yeah, I want to engage with our members and our visitors. It’s been so long since I have; I feel rusty. I know I still have it, but I just need to get in there and experience it again.

CC: Then, my final question: What three words best describe the Museum for you?

TS: Oh Lord. Three words?

CC: Give or take.

TS: Contemporary Black Art. Yeah, I think that describes the Museum.