Peter Nguyen new director at Crisp Museum

Peter Cuong Nguyen moved to Cape Girardeau to be a part of something.

Nguyen became the new director of the Crisp Museum in March. As part of his interview process, he toured Cape Girardeau and visited the museum in November of 2008. He said that trip showed him a "key element" that made him want to come here.

"I saw a thriving arts community," he said.

Nguyen, pronounced "Win," calls himself a "late bloomer." He didn't discover art as a career option until his junior year in college at Saint Joseph's University in Philadelphia.

"I've always enjoyed art, felt very comfortable, very relaxed when I'm doing art and talking about art," he said. But after high school, "I didn't think about art. No one actually said, 'You can do art.'"

He wanted to be a cook, became a food marketing major, then switched to criminal justice. But after that art class, "that's when I decided this was it," he said.

He built a portfolio, transferred to Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia, and he graduated with a dual bachelor's degree in printmaking and painting. He went on to earn his Master's in Fine Art from Ohio University. He has painted on the side, but earned a living after college working in galleries and art museums.

"I'm coming from two perspectives," he said. He looks at the art as an artist and the business of a museum as a seasoned curator.

Nguyen worked in Fort Wayne, Ind.; San Antonio, Texas; Santa Fe, N.M.; and Green Castle, Ind., before taking the museum director position at the River Campus.

"So I've been around," he said.

Nguyen said his time in larger cities gives him an idea of where Cape Girardeau can go. He said San Antonio art openings attract seas of people that crowd into the art warehouse so tightly it's hard to walk across the flow.

"I can envision something like that," he said. "There's a good feel of the arts community. Things will always get better."

In his first two months, the self-proclaimed optimist already plans to improve the First Friday Art Walk. He and the ARound Town Galleries are working on a bus route to shuttle people from the River Campus, through downtown and out to Edward Bernard Gallery on West Drive. He hopes to have the route and schedule in place by July.

"There's work to be done, but things will get to where they need to go," he said. "We can all survive together in Cape doing different things and supporting each other."

He has started planning workshops and family days and said he hopes to work with the art department to provide art education classes. Growing the museum's identity sits high on his priority list.

"Not many people know we're here," he said.

Nguyen said he has met several people in the area who gape when he tells them the museum is free. He hopes to change that reaction.