Craft Contemporary names Rody N. López as new executive director

Change is afoot at L.A.’s Craft Contemporary.

Longtime Executive Director Suzanne Isken is retiring this month, and the museum has named Rody N. López as her successor. He comes to the museum from the world of nonprofits and healthcare, having served most recently as director of development and communications for L.A.-based QueensCare, a faith-based organization offering healthcare to underserved communities, as well as QueensCare Health Centers, with five locations in Los Angeles County.

“I’m just thrilled. I’m from Guatemala,” López said in an interview. “It’s a country where craft, textiles, ceramics drive culture, so this is a dream come true.”

Isken came to the Craft Contemporary — then called the Craft & Folk Art Museum — in 2011, succeeding Maryna Hrushetska, who’d been at the museum for nearly six years. Isken played an instrumental role in not only building but also reimagining the Miracle Mile institution. During her tenure, she doubled the budget — from about $600,000 when she started to $1.2 million currently — and tripled annual attendance. It now draws more than 30,600 visitors annually.

Isken, who’s turning 70 in November, also broadened the museum’s mission to include showcasing contemporary art while also promoting cultural understanding. She curated several memorable exhibitions there, including “Man-Made: Contemporary Male Quilters,” “Material as Metaphor” and “Strings of Desire.”

In a major moment in 2019, Isken changed the museum’s name to more accurately reflect what the institution had been focusing on: the intersection of contemporary art, craft and design, as opposed to historical exhibitions or dedicated folk art shows. The Craft & Folk Art Museum lost an ampersand but gained a new identity.

Suzanne Isken, the Craft Contemporary’s longtime executive director, is retiring this month.

(Craft Contemporary)

“For me, this was the best job in the world,” Isken said in an interview. “I wanted to create equity and access in a smaller museum setting, and I set out over this time to do that to the best of my ability. I’ve had an incredible team. The staff is creative, passionate, hard working, and I am really blessed to have had this amazing experience.”

López, 37, considers himself “a loyal steward of the nonprofit realm.” Before QueensCare, López worked in the development department at the social services organization Para Los Niños.

López also has deep ties to the art world. He served as associate director of exhibitions at the Long Beach Museum of Art from 2014 to 2016. While there, he co-curated 2015’s “Vitality and Verve: Transforming the Urban Landscape,” showcasing 20 site-specific murals and installations by local and international contemporary artists.

Previous to that, López served as an associate curator at the American Museum of Ceramic Art in Pomona from 2009-14. He worked on the museum’s 2011 “Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945-1980” offering, “Common Ground: Ceramics in Southern California 1945-1975.”

López has a bachelor’s degree in art from Pomona College and an MFA in exhibition design from California State Fullerton. He wrote “Living With Clay: California Ceramics Collections,” a companion publication to Cal State Fullerton’s 2018 exhibition of the same name.

The Craft Contemporary is a museum López is intimately familiar with, a place where he says he’s seen many exhibitions over the years.

“The institution is a gem,” he says. “It’s an institution that deserves more attention. People definitely need to see it. I’m looking forward to partnering with LACMA [the Los Angeles County Museum of Art] and other institutions nearby so we can help each other and create partnerships that will benefit everyone.”

López takes his post at the Craft Contemporary on Sept. 25.