As a kid, I spent many hours at the Crocker Art Museum. Between school trips and weekend jaunts with my artist parents, I wandered the halls finding favorite paintings and artifacts.
One constant was the presence of Lial Jones, the Crocker’s Mort and Marcy Friedman director and CEO. Deeply kind despite an imposing presence, Jones would greet us with a smile. I was star-struck, knowing she ran the place.
Now Jones is retiring. In January, she leaves a 25-year Crocker legacy that could fill volumes.
Under Jones, the collection grew by 23,000 objects, attendance and membership doubled, and programming expanded. She oversaw the tripling of the Crocker’s physical footprint with the addition of the Teel Family Pavilion.
“That was just a building,” Jones says. “Museums are about the mission and the Crocker’s mission is to create greater awareness and appreciation of visual art. Buildings are simply tools to achieve the mission. What you do with it is what’s important.”
She continues, “From the very first day I started here, I said what will matter is whether the Crocker matters to Sacramentans. The way we bring them in so they can have their lives changed, find works of art that bring them meaning, see something they’ve never seen before and use that to make their experience of life richer.”
Jones grew up fascinated with decorative arts and objects thanks to her grandfather and mother, who sold antiques while working as a fashion merchandiser.
Early exposure to antiques, auctions and collecting led Jones to volunteer at a historic house museum in high school and land her first paid museum job at 18. She’s been in the field for 50 years.
She absorbed museum studies and American history in New York and Delaware, and worked for the Delaware Art Museum for 20 years before moving to the Crocker.
“I already understood that if you’re talking about furniture, most folks have a pretty good idea about it—they deal with it on a daily basis—but art is a little more obtuse to many,” Jones says. “I found it really fulfilling to help people understand and appreciate fine art, more than discussing the merits of a chair.”
Jones was interested in connoisseurship, or understanding a piece of art and what makes it good, which includes knowing “its history, the milieu in which it was created, information about the artist—it all goes into it.”
She tried to pass those interests along to anyone who visited the galleries.
“A museum helps people approach works of art and how they make meaning,” she says. “I always tell people my job is to help people understand how art makes meaning versus what a specific painting means. It’s a subtle distinction. If you learn how an artist makes meaning, you can translate that to other works of art. You’ve got to look to see. Most of us just look.”
Jones plans to take time off, focus on personal projects and figure out her next chapter.
“I’m most excited about somebody else coming in and taking the museum to next level,” the East Sac resident says. “I envy the next person. It’s very exciting to have the potential to do fabulous things here and I’m sad I’m not going to do them, but I’m tired!”
Whatever the future holds, Jones’ love of museums will endure.
“I love the power of museums,” she says. “I see them as institutions that have the ability to make the community better, individual lives better, for people to be transformed if they allow themselves to be.”
For information, visit crockerart.org.
Jessica Laskey can be reached at jessrlaskey@gmail.com. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram: @insidesacramento.
