10 questions with Lisa Cooperman

Education director of The Hagin Museum
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Lisa Cooperman at her central Stockton home.CRAIG SANDERS/The Record

Lisa Cooperman is a curator of enthusiasm, excitement and energy.

None of that century-old stuffiness, stodginess and elitism for The Haggin Museum's education director.

"Contemporary museums are so much more interactive," said Cooperman, who's helped enliven that reality during her seven years as curator of education at the Stockton institution. "An exhibit doesn't just lay there.

"People have to be able to consume it. That's part of the enjoyment. Getting pleasure from the experience. ... Creating an environment where they feel comfortable. Coming up with some crazy stuff. It's so exciting."

For Cooperman, 51, that's meant helping generate ideas, ranging from Thursday concerts in The Haggin Room to herding children dressed as ducks during DeltaFusion and - her favorite - "just chilling" in "the pit," a crash pad she had "total free rein to create" for a rock 'n' roll exhibit. Being a musician is her wish-list career choice.

"To most people, a museum is really intimidating," said Cooperman, also a "visual artist" and adjunct professor at University of the Pacific. "It was supposed to be. This grand edifice of knowledge is how they prompted people to come out, have a little sip and go away enriched."

Not any more, though some wine-sipping still occurs.

"The Haggin is this amazing little jewel," said Cooperman, who can walk to work from home. "It does so many wonderful things. There are so many wonderful things we could do."

Originally from Madison, Wis., where parents Lawrence (a radiologist) and Sandra (an editor) met, Cooperman lived in New Haven, Conn., before they moved to Redwood City. Her brother Matthew, now at Colorado State University, has published six books of poetry.

Cooperman, whose humanistic-naturalistic views derive from her parents, took part in a voluntary integration program at East Palo Alto's Ravenswood High School.

She graduated from Menlo-Atherton High and was one of only two California women attending Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine: "I was terribly naive. Walking to class barefoot. Quoting Robert Frost. A professor looked at me and said, 'You'll get over it.' East Coast intellectual cynicism."

She continued her teenage interest in theater, graduated magna cum laude as Bowdoin's commencement speaker, spent a year studying drama in London and three more trying to succeed in New York ("I got really depressed").

After returning to California, she worked for the Disney Channel and a "troubled-teen" center before discovering an avocation during an outing to a "junk beach" near Long Beach. She made jewelry from stuff she found.

While seeking further experience and skill, she discovered metal-smithing at Montana State University.

After testing the New York art scene, marriage brought her from New York, to Stockton, when - "stuck at home" raising son Innes, now 15 - she began converting "grocery stuff" into sculpture.

Invited to teach at Pacific, she "just started entering shows" and now has a "broad exhibition record," including New York, Tokyo and Budapest, Hungary.

Cooperman took the time to answer 10 questions:

Question: What three emotions would you eliminate?

Answer: Even negative emotions serve some purpose. How would we mobilize against injustice if we didn't feel anger? Fear can be life-saving and -changing. I don't see a lot of use for shame or contempt.

Q: What's the first museum exhibit you saw?

A: The exterior of the Oakland Museum on a fourth-grade field trip. I was intrigued by the deep, green of concrete pools studded with bright orange koi. I don't remember what we saw inside.

Q: What's your concept of an ideal day?

A: It would involve mountains, walking with my beloveds, fruit and nuts, a lake, a nap, reading, drawing, laughing, and good food cooked on a fire, wine and chocolate.

Q: If you could have dinner with three historical figures, who would they be?

A: I hate this question. My anxiety about serving the right meal would overshadow my conversational ability. However, Doris Lessing, Nelson Mandela and Peter O'Toole would provide a lively evening of arts, culture and what it means to be human.

Q: What's your example of sculptural perfection?

A: Anything by Martin Puryear. He's a consummate craftsman, but the craftsmanship is in service to ideas for which there are no words. I find all his work both familiar and deeply mysterious.

Q: What does yellow represent?

A: Depends on which one - ocher, lucre, lemon bar, slickers, pineapple, butter, turmeric, saffron?

Q: What are your three desert-island books?

A: "A Suitable Boy" (Vikram Seth), "The Shipping News" (Annie Proulx), "God of Small Things" (Arundhati Roy).

Q: Do you learn something every day?

A: Mostly, I learn how much I don't know.

Q: If you could "be" an animal, what would it be?

A: Bobcat. Really good at what they do. Elusive. Awesome ears.


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